BBC Olive Magazine

***BBC Olive Magazine***

I recently subscribed to a few magazines on the BBC 3 for £1 trial offer to see if any of them would give me inspiration in the cooking department. Olive was one of the magazines that I gave a try, which is issued monthly.

***What's it like?***

Well the cover price is 10p more than Good Food at £3.40 for what looks like a very similar magazine.

The issue that I am reviewing is that of June and it is available in the newsagents during the first week of the month.

It is a glossy quality magazine and has around 130 pages. This month there is a focus on British Food.

The main format of the magazine is in three parts:

~Eating In (of course recipes to try at home)
~Eating Out (reviews of restaurants and cafes)
~Eat Away (recipes and food from around the world)

There are regular columns such as the letters column, new food items on the market, a look at drinks, questions and answer page and the usual classifieds.

Every month there is also an in depth discussion about a foodie issue. This month the discussion is about the pros and cons of commercial bread. This month there is also a feature on up an coming talent in the British Food Industry.

***Opinion***

Straight away I felt as if the magazine was a bit pretentious. I had subscribed to a few others and so could make a comparison straight away. Good Food magazine seemed more down to earth and a bit more realistic. I can see that in this magazine they want to appeal to a more confident and adventurous cook, however the ingredients seemed a bit too 'posh' and some are only available from the Waitrose of M &S food section! This was for 'Miso Pollack with Edamame Noodles'

Another example of this is a reader's question:

"I have been given some salt cod from Madeira and have no idea what to make with it. Any suggestions?"

In our house it would most likely be a bit of trout that my brother has come back from fishing with! So I think you can see this magazine does not deal with the mundane ingredients of everyday life!

There was a dish of the day section for the month of June which had some good ideas. I also thought that the styling and photographs made the food look very appetizing! The recipes are rated according to their difficultly which I thought was a nice touch. Each recipe also contains the nutritional content which is useful to know. There was also a challenge were Gordon Ramsay was challenged by a reader to make the best chicken curry. I won't say who won, but this is a regular feature and I though this was a fun part.

There was also a section with 7 meals for £35 and the shopping list to go with it. Again some of the items were a little obscure and I think any reasonable cook could achieve meals less expensive than this anyway.

I mostly enjoyed the 'Eat In' section, but found the reviews of restaurants all over the UK a bit useless really. I am not likely to visit them and if I do, then I will probably have forgotten what was said by the time I do! This section I thought didn't have a great deal of use to most readers.

There are some classifieds but not too many, so that was a plus. There was also a review of the months best foodie tv and websites, which gave me an idea of what to look out for. There is also a handy recipe index at the back.

The most useful article for me was Lulu's masterclass - 'Olive's guru shares her cooking secrets'. What was it about?.... What cooking secret was she about to reveal?...- Making a simple sponge! Just about my limit!!

Overall, I did like reading it (out of curiosity - is this how people really live?), but really will not put much of what I read into practice! But for all you Jamie Oliver's out there - knock yourself out!!

***Availability***

From the newsagents for £3.40 or there is a bit of a discount for subscribing directly - 25% off the full cover price and a free Sophie Conran pestle and mortar worth £15 this month!

Also published on Dooyoo under the same username.

When Ciao asks whether you would recommend this to a friend - yes I would, but only someone who is adventurous and confident with cooking.