Amusing, Informative & Nostalgic

Whether you wish to call Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall a journalist, cook, smallholder, entrepreneur of story teller, after viewing the River Cottage Box Set one could argue that he trancends every one of these traits in one way or another throughout the three volumes.

Fearnley-Whittingstall takes you through a journey, starting at the beginning where he purchases his first two pigs, some chickens and plots out his vegtable garden, to the end of his experiment at down sizing where the series ends with Hugh posessing a thriving polytunnel, pigs, cattle, sheep, chickens and numerous amusing tales of his journey from being a 'city downsizer' to an established 'dorset smallholder'.

The 3 series' all include amusing anecdotes about Hugh's relationship wih his animals to even the smallest critters such as mice and slugs. It also provides great information about animal walfare and cooking (with some great recipies included) and conveys a great sense of nostalgia and takes one back to the 'Great Britain' era where food was sourced locally and there was a great sense of community.

After viewing the River Cottage Box Set it would be naive to assume that Hugh's smallholding operated soley down to his quaint bartering technique but it does provide an intrinsically warming and a humerous approach to the idyllic, country life and asks questions of the quality of food the general public consume. Overall this Box Set comes highly recommended, is well worth the money and highly compulsive.

Jamie Oliver - Jamie At Home

Fantastic series. This is the best type of cooking, good home cooking using pure fresh ingredients and even if you do not grow your own, all of the ingredients are readily available - it is down to earth, it is practical and so doable - if you only buy one cookery dvd & book in your life make it this one.

Gascony & Languedoc Canal & Food Odyssey

Having spent numerous holidays in the Languedoc, I really enjoyed this series. The food, the commentary, the scenery and the filming were all excellent.

There were occasional points where the sequence of places visited got slightly out of sequence, and it was a pity we kept on having to return to the same canal side kitchen, for several of the cooking shots, even though the barge had moved on to completely different areas. But this minor issue was more than offset for me, by the detour down the Canal de la Robine to Narbonne.

Hopefully looking at the food on your TV sceen will satisfy you, because eating all of the great dishes that Rick prepared, would certainly add a few inches to the waist line.

'Down-to-Earth' Cooking at it's best!!

I thoroughly enjoy Jamie's candid style, and above all, his desire to create awesome meals from the highest quality ingredients, mostly from his own gardens. My wife and I aren't really `cooking show' fans, but we find ourselves really succumbed by Jamie's personality and atmosphere. If anyone wants to learn how to make healthy and delicious food in an agrarian way, this is my number-one recommendation. Without sounding too much like a fan-boy, I would like to see more of his farm and meet Brian, Jamie's gardener, some day. It'll probably never happen, but I believe he would be a real joy to meet and speak with. I love the way he uses raised beds for most of the vegetables grown. In other words, there is more to learn from this series than just the food being prepared. I was born and raised on a farm where we grew and raised about 98 percent of everything we ate, and I can totally relate to many of the techniques at work on his property. This series, I believe, is in a totally different class of `cooking shows' all by itself. What a treat. Love It!
Also, if you haven't noticed, I'm from the U.S., but I can still play these DVDs even though they are PAL formatted. If you would like to order his DVDs, but don't have a PAL compatible player, you can get a really good one for around 60 dollars off a certain famous Internet auction site. I bought a Pioneer DV-300 that's been configured to play any region DVD in both PAL and NTSC formats. It works beautifully! Just read the instructions on how to set up your player for both formats. It may appear that it's not going to play the disc right, but if you read the directions, it'll tell you how to use a button combination to select the right mode you need. I hope this helps someone! I love being able to play any DVD from anywhere in the world.
Jamie and Brian, if your reading this, Job Well Done!

Not worth it...

... if you've already got the first DVD of this series, as it already has the recipes shown in this DVD! Amazon should specify this in the description of the product, and not have customers buy in effect the same DVD twice

Brilliant stuff!

I have played this over and over again and it's great to get you prepared for Christmas and to remind you of the things that you need to buy. Tips on preparing things in advance are very useful.
Great food and great entertainment - highly recommended!

Region 1 release available in the States June/July 2008!

I dropped an e-mail message to Acorn Media, the company that released,"Two Fat Ladies - Complete Tribute [1996]," and asked if there were plans to release it in Region 1 format for marketing in the States. A quick response was received: Yes!

The 4 DVD set will be available directly from the company's catalogue early to mid-June 2008. On July 29, 2008 it will be available at Amazon (and in stores).

So, if anyone else in N. America wants this collection, it will be available in a few months. I'm going to wait, even though I have a universal DVD player.

FWIW, I checked and it is not available for pre-order yet at Amazon's U.S. site.

Very entertaining

A very funny and highly entertaining program of well known wine expert
OZ Clarke and Jamas May known form Top Gear, who together travels on a
wine adventure. James knows nothing about wine, but have chosen the car
for the adventure (of course an English jaguar) and is like a rebel
boarder school boy taught by the slightly older and more distinguished
Oz Clarke, who continuously tries to learn James about the different
wines and the impressions they make. It all turns into a lot of very
entertaining and very funny situations, filled with humour, and there
is a lot to learn and view, both from the more experienced and newcomer
to wine tasting, on this fantastic wine adventure filled taste -and
sense impressions.

Boys on bikes, with a"sauce" pan . . .

I love these cheeky lads, who always look to be having a great time wherever they go.

Yet another very watchable cookery/travel series from which you learn lots about both the dishes and the places Dave and Si visit.

I don't know...

I loved all the previous F-word series, so why not this one? Well, there are some obvious reasons which may not matter much to you, but I found the following quite annoying: a)Jean-Baptiste has been replaced by someone else (who is meant to look like him, but doesn't) - and I found this cool under fire French maitre d' really brilliant. b) it gets on my nerves that Gordon always calls Janet Street-Porter"Janet Street-Pensioner" - is this funny? c) the whole thing is incredibly rushed, hardly has he gone through the menu plan, the families are doing their best (or worst), ratings - bang bang, over. So all in all, this series feels a bit perfunctory, as if nobody really wanted to do it anymore but they were still under contract, so had to. I also found the production quality is not as good as previously, and the camera work is a little shoddier... or should that be"cheaper"?

Easy going and informative

There are a few cooks who I can watch any time even if I've got no intention to do any cooking. Nigella, Rick Stein, Keith Floyd, the hairy bikers and two fat ladies, and the great British Menu if that counts. The others annoy me too much whether its the foul language or joyless attitude, and especially the way the cameras are always moving on some programmes as if we're on a ship in a rough sea! But Hugh and the others are always a delight and this dvd is very easy to watch and so informative. I learned a few tips from it without realising I had learned them until I was actually cooking. Any of Hugh's series are good and this one would make a good starter.

Very entertaining

A very funny and highly entertaining program of well known wine expert
OZ Clarke and James May known form Top Gear, who together travels on a
wine adventure. James knows nothing about wine, but have chosen the car
for the adventure (a big American Bus) and is like a rebel
boarder school boy taught by the slightly older and more distinguished
Oz Clarke, who continuously tries to learn James about the different
wines and the impressions they make. It all turns into a lot of very
entertaining and very funny situations, filled with humour, and there
is a lot to learn and view, both from the more experienced and newcomer
to wine tasting, on this fantastic wine adventure filled taste -and
sense impressions.

Pleasently surprisingly funny

While i can see where the reviewer saying its just"Sideways" the tv series is coming from, i find this program far more entertaing than that film. I am very much like James when it comes to wine, i always wanted to like it but had no idea where to start and the whole arena is suurounded with pretension and posing. James May can sometimes seem to be a bit close minded and being stupid for the sake of it but the pairing do work well together prioducing some very funny moments if, like me, drier humour is your thing. I'd heartily reccomend this show and its Californina sequel which is probably better imo.

Fantastic

A true delight to watch. Not only does Rick cook up some brilliant,traditional food, he also explores where this food comes from. Very different from the other"cookery DVD's" out there, Rick has passion and enthusiasm for what he is doing. With his dear,faithfull companion Chalky the Jack Russel Terrier, Rick has made a programme that is really about the heart of traditioanl British food. The original music composed for the series is outstanding, and the photography is clear. A fantastic buy.

Fishy

I already own the Food heroes DVD and bought this recently. It’s very interesting to see how Rick Stein has come on as a TV presenter as he is definitely much less comfortable in front of the camera in this series than in the later one.

However don’t let this put you off as his slightly clumsy presentation is naively charming rather than annoying and the recipes are fantastic.

As is ever the way with his dishes he does seem to have some difficulty on occasion with plating them up. For a professional chef he tends to just bung stuff on a plate rather than making a visual feast for the eyes as well as the stomach. Of particular note in this regard is the whole turbot which he cooks. It looks perfectly done and I’m sure was delicious but I’ve never seen a less appetising looking presentation in my life.

The travel is relevant and interesting and the camerawork is great. The markets around the world make you yearn for similar quality in the UK and are fascinating.

This is definitely one I’ll be watching again and again.

Jamie does it again...Brilliantly

Naked Chef 3 is just brilliant. Like everything Jamie does, he really inspires you to get cooking trying both his recipes and and feeling confident enough to adapt recipes or make up your own from scratch.

Until now Naked chef 3 has only been available on video and not DVD. This boxed set includes all three Naked Chef recipes. Also on Jamie's website, you can now type in one word on the recipe search and it will bring up a list of results, telling you which book and dvd that recipe can be found on. So, if like me, you suddenly decide you'd like to make one of his recipes and aren't sure which dvd you saw it on, you can search his site for say chocolate and in the results it will tell you all the chocolate recipes he has done in his books and videos and in which ones they appear.

A perfect gift for any Jamie fan

Super

The series Ray Mears - Wild Food is a great insight into a lost craft, that of looking after yourself without all the modern foods we see now.

It is hard to believe that for most of the time humans have been around our food has been gathered and hunted - and was really wild!

A great series well worth buying.

I don't know how he did it !

As an avid fan of the TV series, I was really pleased to see that this had been finally released a year after its transmission. What a man! I wasn't a great fan of Jamie Oliver before I accidentally watched this on TV one evening at home and how easily I was converted!! If you want to watch how difficult it is to take some really challenging kids and turn them into hard-working, talented chefs and see a celebrity chef lose him temper along the way - this is definitely for you. It's fascinating viewing - the DVD equivilent of a car crash - riveting! If you're a fan of Jamie Oliver or know someone who is, you should definitely get this for Christmas. As the TV campaign stated"Has Jamie bitten off more than he can chew?" - watch it and see. Classic reality TV.