TV | Nigella's Christmas Kitchen Series 2

In 2006, the BBC aired the three-part Nigella's Christmas Kitchen, which showcased Nigella Lawson presenting her favorite holiday dishes. It was generally well-received, and Nigella really loves Christmas, even writing a book about it filled with her seasonal recipes, that two years later, they came out with a second series.


Nigella's Christmas Kitchen Series 2 features more of Nigella's recipes and dishes ideal for the holiday season, along with some new discoveries like the yummy and decadent-looking Girdlebuster Pie and old favorites like the Pavlova with pomegranates that was slightly altered by adding some raspberry topping for a more Christmas-y feel.

I know that this series was originally aired back in 2008, but this is the first time I've seen it, so it feels great to see Nigella on the small screen again, doing what she loves best. And whether she's making some Chilli Jellies to give as gifts or decorating some Christmas Pudding Bonbons with glazed cherry fragments, you know that it's really her cooking, not staged for some poser who pretends to cook.


As always, the series uses some pretty high production values, from the clear close-up shots of the food to the awesome, jazzy Christmas music in the background, which included some favorites of mine from Vince Guaraldi's A Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack.

Series 1 of Nigella's Christmas Kitchen showed some scenes of Nigella in Salzburg; this time, they showed her in Paris, strolling through the lighted avenues and sipping coffee inside a brasserie. And leave it to Nigella to actually smuggle in one of her Christmas Rocky Road bars with her inside the brasserie to eat with her coffee, LOL.

Here's hoping for a Series 3 of Nigella's Christmas Kitchen sometime next year.