Nick DiGiovanni is a celebrity chef, social media megastar, and cookbook author with a loyal social following of over 22 million people. And I particularly like a book that combines some sophisticated classy recipes with some that are more comfort food.

Nick released his highly anticipated debut cookbook, Knife Drop: Creative Recipes Anyone Can Cook on June 13, 2023. Obviously everyone’s tastes are different so no cookbook ever manages to be 100% for anyone (except perhaps its own author), but this one is closer aligned to my tastes than most. Finance is provided by PayPal Credit (a trading name of PayPal UK Ltd, Whittaker House, Whittaker Avenue, Richmond-Upon-Thames, Surrey, United Kingdom, TW9 1EH).

And I have to admit, what really caught my eye is that this book even includes a recipe to make your own home-made dino nuggies. The author is apparently some kind of social media star, delivering cooking videos to legions of fans. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. The first cookbook of celebrity chef and Masterchef US finalist Nick DiGiovanni, Knife Drop is a beautifully produced glossy paged edition.

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The instructions are simple, and DiGiovanni’s light humor (“I’m convinced nuggets taste better in dinosaur form,” he says of the dino chicken nuggets) and anecdotes (“My grandpa taught my brothers and me to catch blue crabs when we were little, so this dish always reminds me of him,” he says of the crab and artichoke dip with Old Bay crostini) add charm. From typical frat pack fare such as toasted sandwiches, shepherd’s pie or pimped packet ramen to a lobster roll (containing almost half a kg of fresh lobster) and chicken confit, this recipe collection is eclectic, drawing from a wide enough range of affordability and cultures to be of interest to a cross-section of cooks.