Not Quite Nigella is a cake and food enthusiast who believes that cakes belong in an art gallery. Born and raised in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, she lives on the North Shore with her food-apathetic husband who takes the photos for her blog (his username on flickr is “ilikeprivacy”). She loves kitsch and unusual things, travelling far and wide for an unusual meal and cooking and eating food from different countries around the world. Her second and third loves are Fashion and Beauty (with a particular weakness for Chanel Nail polish).
Her favourite dishes to cook are cakes and desserts but she may not often eat much of them preferring more to admire their beauty. Her favourite cuisine is French and Japanese (or a fusion between the two).
Her last meal would consist of: pacific oysters au naturel, cream croquettes, peking duck, honey king prawns, lobster, caviar, fresh turkish bread, salmon tataki, spanish salami, sun dried tomatoes, roesti, okonomiyaki, fresh figs and dates, a fat, fluffy peshwari naan, wagyu beef and desserts including copious macarons from Laduree in Paris.
She hopes to avoid Death Row so that a “last meal” scenario will never occur.
She also loves it when people leave comments on her blog and she’d also love to hear what your “last meals” would be.
If you would like to email me, you can do so at: info[at]notquitenigella[dot]com replacing the “at” and “dot” with the appropriate characters 
49 Comments | Add your own
blythe is paralysed by the thought of having to decide what to eat for her last meal (although her chances of ending up on death row are probably higher than anyone else we know).
nigella said:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/foodmonthly/story/0,,2149195,00.html
Hi blythe-oh dear, yes the aggressiveness scores do speak for themselves…
Thanks for the link!
Heston Blumenthal’s sound interesting: “fried blowfish, miso shells”
I might have to put Nigella’s dessert suggestion on my Paris todo list! “Salvators from Fouquet, Paris (Rue Francoise 1er)”
Last meal should be eaten with and possibly even prepared by my darling son and dear friends who are nearly all excellent cooks.
A dozen Tasmanian Coffin Bay oysters.
Succulent New Zealand crayfish served with a mixed leaf green salad with asparagus served with a piquant creamy dressing and fried potato CHIPS.
Zabaglione for dessert. Old-fashioned, I know, but I love its lush simplicity.
Stilton, dried grapes and a selection of CRACKERS.
Copious amounts of Veuve Cliquot champagne drunk from my favourite SHOES I have ever owned (when they were brand-new, of course. The sandals and boots get a reprieve. I’ll see them in heaven.)
Hi queen viv-that sounds scrumptious! I especially love the sound of the oysters and crayfish.
Hi Not quite Nigella
=) I just discovered your site from a link on grabyourfork, and i must say i absolutely love your blog!
I can’t believe I hadn’t found you earlier!
You are now my favourite foodblogger!!!
ahah expect alot of comments from me~!
Hi Jimmy-Thanks so much and welcome! That is so sweet of you to say
Oooh yes I love comments so please feel free to comment away!
I was idly net-surfing from an alluring Iranian pistachio, fig, date, etcetera, site, and landed at Not Quite Nigella. Like the song says, just one look–is all it took. And I was hooked. And near drooling. My first impulse was to book a flight to Sydney, and go to Be’casse. Seriously. Think I’ll do that.
Hi Bill-thanks and welcome!
Aww schucks that is so sweet of you to say! Sydney definitely has a great deal of food temptations and is worth a trip, in my humble opinion anyway hehe
hiya NQN.
I love your blog! it’s so awesome! will definitely be checking in on a regular basis now. having been recently back from a trip to paris myself, didn’t quite make it to the Lauderee in Champs Elysees. But you absoultely HAVE to try Pierre Herme. His desserts are absolutely heavenly!
Hi KCL-Thanks and Happy New Year!
Thanks for the suggestion, I am most defintiely up for good desserts so I will definitely try Pierre Herme when in Paris. He has quite a reputation and I heard that he was the original macaron master!
Hi NQN,
Greetings from Montreal, Quebec, Canada! I absolutely adore your blog and the pictures are amazing. I greatly appreciate those who share my passion for food and the culinary arts. I think I drive my friends bonkers when I try to figure out the ingredients in prepared dishes at restaurants. Montreal has a great many restaurants, but I’m anxious to try those in Sydney when I get a chance to go. Thanks for creating such an informative site. Keep up the good work!
Hi Empress T-Hello and welcome! Thankyou so much for your kind words
Hehe yes I know the feeling when completely focused on the food. I admit I stretch the patience of my friends when they’re dying to tuck into the food only to wait for me to take pictures 
I’ve heard Montreal and Canada have great food as I’ve got a few friends from Canada who are always talking about the food there. It would be great if we could shuttle hot food back and forth (although the distance could prove the demise of this plan)
I stumbled on her from your vogue link and i love your work!
Photography is awesome and you give me EXTRA inspiration to cook.
Hope my recipe book collection can be as impressive as yours one day!
x
Hi miss_shellie-Welcome!
Always great to see someone from Vogue here. Thanks so much and happy cooking (and recipe book collecting! 
)
Hi NQN!!!
i just discovered your blog today, searching for Jessica Seinfield’s choc beet cake. i quickly read through the recipe and then went on to spend 2 hours reading your amazing blog. thank you for the great ideas and memories your sharing through this lovely blog. if you ever venture out west there is a fantastic traditional lao/thai restaurant in fairfield, called Moradok 24 Court Rd Fairfield NSW 2165 ph: (02) 9725 6011, you must try the homemade spicy lao sausage, grilled ox tounge, raw beef larb, seafood tom yum & lao papaya salad. The city thai haunts are great but nothing beats traditional home cooking!
Hi Amra-Hello! That’s so lovely of you to say and I hope you find lots of interesting things here to read. Thanks too for the recommendation, that sounds lovely and I adore papaya salad
Just discovered this website through the Vogue Forum… I love it! Definitely bookmarking it so I can keep visiting.
Very inspiring!
Hi Anthea-Welcome!
I hope you enjoy your stay here and keep on visiting! 
Lovely site!
Hmmm.. death row meal
foie gras frais with some of my own figs
lobster (from cold waters) bisque
black (Dover) sole on the bone with wild Norfolk Samphire
oxtail simmered to death in Barolo with dry roasted Wexford Golden Wonder potatoes
English white asparagus
Panna cotta with garnish of wild strawberries
Selection of English, Irish and French cheeses with Robert Ditty’s oatcakes
A pluperfect espresso made from Nicaraguan Finca La Fany Bourbon beans, roasted 24 hours previously
Probably have a coronary before the executioner arrives but I’d die happy.
Sorry, reverse courses 6 and 7!
Hi Ernie-wow, that’s a really impressive sounding death row meal! I must try some of those things when I visit Merry England this year. Thanks for the recs!
And meeting death via the ingestion of too much good food, surely that’s the way to go!
Well I hope you make it over the water to Ireland when you come. If you do, flag me via http://www.forkncork.com and I’ll give you the quick foodie tour of Dublin if I’m around
Hi ernie-Wow, that’s so sweet of you, I will definitely get in contact should I make it to Dublin
i just LURVE your blog…i like the way you write and the beautiful photos of the wonderful delicacies you bake!
Hi Sinead-Thanks and welcome!
I’m drooling at your French Toast cupcakes, they sound divine!
Hi NQN
Im a avid reader as i’m a self proclaimed cook-aholic/eat-aholic. You’ve inspired me to start up my own blog and i was wondering what fantastic tips or tricks you have used or learnt during your blogging journey? PS i love your restaurant reviews as i am a North Shore girl my self and can actually go to the restaurants! Loves it!! Keep up the good work - your very talented! Love Sunny
Hi NQN from Baltimore, MD,
Found you through Grab Your Fork. Love your hubby’s photographs and your sense of humour. Hooters in Sydney - yikes! so many US chains making their way to Aus! Sorry to report, here it’s too hard to find a real honest to goodness chef-run restaurant, (sans chains). Loved reading about Bay Tinh - many happy memories of meals with mates during 80s-90s. Could u guess, we miss Sydney dining.
-Trish
http://byogrogandtucker.blogspot.com/
Hi Sunny-Thanks for your lovely comment and I’m glad you’re starting a food blog up. I can’t get enough of reading food blogs and ones based on the North Shore are great as I can get to try new things around here too
My suggestions are: get as good a camera as you can afford. Pictures make the world of difference on a blog. Take a notepad with you and a pen to write down what you’ve ordered and prices. Try and eat early at a restaurant so you won’t need to use the flash as much and if you’re with hungry people, try no to stand between them and the food too long-I sometimes dine with hungry guys and I do feel bad when they look so hungry and I’m fluffing about taking pics
Good luck and let me know what its called!
Hi Trish and hello to Baltimore! Thanks so much, that’s so nice to hear
Bay Tinh is great. Sorry to hear that there isn’t much aside from chains. I do recall loads of chains on my last visit about 10 years ago 
I saw your Ginger Beer recipe which looks great. Only last night we saw Jamie Oliver make that on Foxtel and I thought to myself “Must make that!”
Hi Nigella,
I am a great fan of yours. I love our cookings and the way you explain food stuffs, which can make anyone drool…..
I am glad to find you here in the blogsphere and am proud to know such a great food expert.
I will definitely be a regular reader.
With lots of luv
Shantini
Hi Shantini-Thanks, I’m Not Quite Nigella but hoping to be close to the real Nigella on tv! Thanks for the lovely comment. The wedding photos look gorgeous!
I hope to avoid death row as well, though I think for my last meal I will have a few of each dish on your website… should keep me living for a while longer
Hi Cappucino-Hehe you could always have a never ending meal so that you would live longer. Although I’m sure that someone has tried that on and they’ve got some rules in place to avoid that
Hi NQN,
where is the good and reasonably priced italian on the North Shore? We have moved from Melbourne where there is an abundance of italian restaurants and isn’t anywhere near as expensive as it is here! $22 for a pizza is unheard of! Craving a good tortellini and garlic pizza atm…
Hi Maria-Hmmm that’s a really tough one. I can say that we’ve never really eaten Italian on the North Shore as there don’t seem to be many great Italian restaurants. Certainly nothing like in Melbourne. I think Leichardt and Haberfield would be the best area for Italian. The North Shore tends to have a lot of Japanese/Thai food but not a great deal of stellar Italian
Dear NQN, what a real food blogger you are..really.. gorgeous images, fascinating writing
also thanks for putting my recipe..
hey can i link yours to my http://www.culinary43.blogspot.com please feel free to link back
Hi Irene-Thankyou so much! I’ve linked back too. Your pic of the black rice pudding with coconut pannacotta are just gorgeous-I love coconut black sticky rice! And of course your avocado ice cream was heavenly
Hi nigella
i stumbled upon your website through the vogue website and your blog on Gordon Ramsay tickets. Firstly I love this website and am very impressed by the photoraphy, reviews etc. I am also a north shore girl so yoru reviews will be great as my husband and I love to cook alhtoughI think in some cases he is more of the chef than I. I love your cupcake photos we had a cupcake cook off at work and it was great. some I didn’t want to eat. I do have a question though do you still have any spare tickets that you are wanting to sell to see Gordon Ramsay at the GFS? My husband is a big fan of his and has his latest cookbook which he has cooked out of and we would love to see him. Let me know.
Hi Sarah-I’m not Nigella but Not Quite Nigella aka Lorraine
The cupcake cook off sounds great and good that your husband also likes to cook!
The GR tickets are long gone I’m afraid, they were incredibly popular and I got a lot of people asking me about them. It seems that everyone wants a piece of GR nowadays!
Hi NQN
Sorry I didn’t meant to say that you were Nigella I knew that you weren’t I just didn’t write it properly. Thanks anyway about the GR tickets we are going to try and see him on the weekend fingers crossed. Thanks again and I will defintely visit your webstie again.
Hi Sarah-No problems, some people have thought I am Nigella
Yes there are still tickets for him available but they aren’t in the front half. The whole back half is for people who get a seat on the day so if you go to the stand early you should be able to get a ticket to see him
Hi Lorraine,
Thank you so much for your compliment! I must do something about my hopeless blog.
I agree Bree is the best - I sooo understand her wanting to find the perfect Lemon Meringue recipe!
I have noticed you like to know what everyone’s last meal would be…not sure but I would def have dessert (cake) first just in case my time ran out before I had chance to eat it!
Hx
Hi Helen-Sorry I just wanted to explain why I hadn’t been able to leave a message!
I too understood her pain at wanting to perfect the Apple Pie! The hallmark of a true Desperate Housewife I think!
Very good idea! I like that. Should I ever be on Death Row (haha hopefully never) I’ll definitely request that
I just discovered this blog through the Vogue forums and my goodness it is divine! I look forward to trawling through it for many more hours.
As for my last meal, I think it would be a a simple one. Starter of camembert on crusty bread, followed by a good wagyu steak, the creamiest mash, finished with raspberry creme brulee. All complemented with a Brown Brothers Muscat.
NQN,
Your generous with your talent and fine tastes.
Thank you for your great website!!!
Peace and Love!
Hi Jessica-Thankyou so much!
I like your last meal, simple is very good and I’m sure that it would all be perfectly cooked to bring out the flavours 
Hi Greg-Thanks for your kind words! It’s lovely of you to say that
I’m so glad I discovered your site - I base holiday itineraries on places to eat and foods to try and my boyfriend thinks I have a real Nigella dependency as I’ve started to begin my sentences with, “Nigella says…” Although he never complains when he’s enjoying the results! Great site :O)
Hi Sara-Excellent! I do the same
I also talk about Nigella I suspect a little too much but like your boyfriend, my husband doesn’t complain too much 
Hello,
Oh my goodness, it’s 11.30 at night, I’m exhausted after work and yet I am glued to your website, drooling and dreaming of a visit to France to indulge in all that delicious food! (although I think I would give the offal a miss!)
Interestingly, have just been to the Philippines and despite being told that it would be a culinary wasteland (fatty, poor-quality food big on pork, rice and not much else), experienced some fantastic meals there, especially a wonderful Italian seafood broth and yummy Valrhona chocolate tart at a restaurant in Manila called Sala. Of course, there’s lots of fatty rubbish around as well, but all up I had some really nice stuff!
My sister lives in Sydney, and we loooove sweet stuff, but have not been able to find a great cupcake, despite them being seemingly everywhere. Where do you recommend?
Hi Linda-Thanks for your kind words
That’s great to know about the Phillipines. I’ve only had Phillipino food once and it was great but I have heard similar things. But your meal sounds fantastic!
Hmmm it’s hard to say, I am a real hard-ass when it comes to cupcakes and haven’t been overwhelmingly impressed. I think that there are a lot of places that make cupcakes but they fall short. I’m still looking for the “to die for” cupcake place myself too!
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