Reviews with content warning for Grief - Midnight Chicken: & Other Recipes Worth Living for

I don't think there's any other way to describe this book and the author's writing than mesmerising. The way Risbridger describes food and different dishes is almost magical, aided by the fact that every dish is tied to a memory and she describes those memories so vividly that you feel sucked in and are inevitably reminded of your own. I really liked the format that this book took, part cookbook part memoir, in a way. Actually, I think it's best if you approach this book with this is mind, rather than seeing it as a normal cookbook. I usually don't like when cookbooks and online recipes have long preambles where the author is telling us their whole life story when all I want is the recipe to a pasta dish, so in theory, I shouldn't have really enjoyed this book. But something about the way Risbridger writes, how open they are about their experiences and the things they were feeling, had me sucked in and honestly, I think I preferred reading the personal parts of the book that preceded the recipes more than the recipes themselves. Sure, I ended up bookmarking a lot of the recipes, but will I ever give them a try? Probably not (partly because as much as the author goes on at the beginning about how she's not a traditional chef that cooks with fancy ingredients and most of the recipes use everyday ingredients, this was straight-up a collection of recipes for middle-class people who shop at Waitrose and farmers' markets and so there's no way I'd be able to attempt at least half of these recipes, even if I wanted to). To me, as someone who really enjoys and finds comfort in cooking and uses it as a way to unwind and relieve anxieties, this was so much more than just a cookbook, so even though I wasn't entirely interested in a lot of the recipes and knew I'll probably never try most of them, I still really enjoyed the book and would definitely recommend it, particularly to others who enjoy cooking and food. Also, if you do pick up this book, I'd recommend reading right through to the acknowledgements. The personal news she shares at the end is really heartbreaking and makes the stories and memories she shares throughout the book that much more impactful.

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