Keen to prove that she's still got it, Nigella is releasing her 10th cookbook. Photo / Getty
Keen to prove that she's still got it, Nigella is releasing her 10th cookbook. Photo / Getty
Renowned for her flirtatious manner of presenting, best-selling cookbooks and gloriously curvy figure, Nigella Lawson has long been regarded as the "queen of food porn".
But the 57-year-old chef's carefully polished public image suffered a blow in 2013 after she was pictured being choked by her now ex-partner of 10 years, Charles Saatchi, as well as finding herself embroiled in a bitter court case with former assistants charged with fraud.
However, Nigella, who retreated from the limelight, is clearly keen to prove she's come out on top as she gets set to release her tenth cookbook, At My Table, reports the Daily Mail.
Taking to her website, Nigella revealed a sneak peek of the book's cover, which shows her in one of her favourite form-fitting dresses. Nigella last released a cookbook, Simply Nigella, back in 2015, and has been notably absent from the limelight and TV.
Explaining the premise behind her new book, she wrote: "It's no secret that I've been writing a new book, but I have kept pretty quiet about it. But now the recipes are done, the book written, and I've just started the book shoot, which means my house is pleasurably frantic, every surface covered and there are four recipes on the go right now."
Nigella, whose cooking range, Living Kitchen, is worth $12 million, went on to explain how penning books is a "glorious" experience and describes At My Table as a book of recipes that tell her ongoing life with food.
"Food is not just fuel, it's about memory and the stories of our lives and for me that means the food I ate growing up, the food I've cooked for friends and family sitting around my table and the recipes in this book reflect that," she explains.
Nigella signs copies of her book. Photo / Getty
"This book, like all the books I've written is not just a manual, but a collection of stories and a container of memories. But of course, for all that, a cookery book - this cookery book - also has to answer that important, everyday question 'What are we going to eat?'."
The book, due on shelves in September, looks set to include recipes such as Chicken and Pea Traybake, Apple Pork Chops with Sauerkraut Slaw, Flash-Fried Squid with Tomato and Tequila Salsa, Moroccan Vegetable Pot, Victoria Sponge with Cardamom and Crème Fraîche, and Emergency Brownies.
She concluded: "It's a big moment when a book stops being something that's just in my head, my heart and my computer and steps into the real world, and I'm excited (if a little tremulously so) to share it with you."
Nigella's life came under a microscope in 2013 after her public spat with her ex, who is now dating Trinny Woodall. Nigella told a jury in 2013 that her infamous row with her ex-husband Charles Saatchi outside Scott's restaurant was over having grandchildren.
Shocking images of the couple's argument, in which Mr Saatchi had his hand on the food writer's throat, were published that summer, quickly followed by news of their divorce.
Mother-of-two Ms Lawson, 53, told Isleworth Crown Court said that the row was sparked when she spoke about having grandchildren, with Mr Saatchi telling her "I'm the only person you should be concerned with."
However, the chef told the court that Mr Saatchi had "told everyone" he was taking cocaine out of her nose after he was photographed holding her neck at the Mayfair restaurant.
Other images, taken by freelance photographer Jean-Paul and published in a Sunday newspaper in June 2013, showed Mr Saatchi repeatedly tweaking and twisting Ms Lawson's nose outside the Mayfair restaurant, and even putting a finger in one of her nostrils.
She appeared tearful throughout the exchange, but stayed with him to finish their meal. The photographer who took them timed the incident at just under half an hour, describing it as "27 minutes of madness".
At the time Mr Saatchi laughed off the incident as a "playful tiff", and accepted a police caution for assault.
However, in July, former advertising tycoon Mr Saatchi announced via the Mail On Sunday that he would be divorcing Ms Lawson after 10 years of marriage because she refused to defend his reputation following the publication of the photographs.
Around the same time, Nigella gave evidence in a case in which her two personal assistants (Elisabetta and Francesca Grillo) were accused of defrauding her and former husband Charles Saatchi.
Lisa and Francesca Grillo, who were cleared of fraud, had been accused of spending $1.2m on credit cards given to them by Miss Lawson and her ex-husband Charles Saatchi.
The pair were acquitted by a jury even though Francesca, 35, had used her family card to spend $14,000 on designer clothes in a single day.
Their defence, which involved lurid drug allegations against their former boss, was that the TV cook let them spend whatever they liked providing they kept quiet about her cocaine and cannabis use.
The jury also heard Miss Lawson describe her ex-husband as a "brilliant but brutal man" who grabbed her throat out of jealousy when she idly wished for grandchildren, and who she said drove her to drugs with his "intimate terrorism".
Referring to details of her doomed marriage to Mr Saatchi being revealed in court, the then 54-year-old said: "To have not only your private life but distortions of your private life put on display is mortifying".
