'Food can never just be about the bald story of the recipe: the meals we eat say something fundamental about who we are and how we want to live. Whenever an occasion matters to us, we mark this with food, from a birthday cake to a wedding breakfast. But Feast is not just about big-deal special occasions, but about the way we use food to celebrate life.'

Destined to become a classic like How To Eat, written with the same gorgeously sensual, evocative and inimitable style, and packed with over 200 recipes from all over the world and from near to home, Feast proclaims Nigella's love of life and great food to celebrate it with. Essentially about families and food, about public holidays and private passions, about how to celebrate the big occasions and the small everyday pleasures - those times when food is very definitely much more than fuel - it includes everything from Christmas, Thanksgiving and Birthdays, to Passover and a special Sardinian Easter; from that first breakfast together to a meal fit for the In-Laws, from seasonal feasts of strawberries or chestnuts to the ultimate chocolate cake Hall of Fame; from cocktail food for cheering up the 'Unhappy Hour' to funeral baked meats