Nigel Slater (1)Recensioni

I love reading food books but in the beginning I wasn't sure I was going to like this one. The problem was that he kept talking about British products and food terms that I didn't know, so it wasn't always clear what he was talking about. I've learned living here amont a lot of British expats that pudding means dessert, but jelly? To me it is something you spread on bread, like jam or marmalade. But I think to a Brit it is jello.

After a while I hit my stride and so did Slater. He began to talk about things very biographical and very personal, but always in an oblique way, always talking around food. It was original and effective and I enjoyed it heaps.

BOSKY.

I liked the start of this but I struggled with the flow, it jumps around a lot and is really just a collection of jumbled memories centered on food and some awkward sexual moments.

Fantastic resource cookbook, all about starting points and where you can take a 'recipe' from there. Encourages thinking and being more involved with your cooking than just measuring/mixing/cooking. It is a cookbook but it is also wonderfully readable.

This was a library read but I'm pretty sure I'm going to order my own copy of this one.

This was such a delightful read. It’s more Christmas appreciation rather than cookbook I think ,but I adored it. A personal reflection on the Christmas season that I really identified with.

Really enjoyed this memoir. Slater has a great way of telling stories that engage you.

Blindingly British, personal reflections on the national sweets and biscuits.

Nigel Slater's Real Food by Nigel Slater (2000)

Toast by Nigel Slater (2004)

Zuerst habe ich den Film gesehen und wollte dann das Buch lesen. Hat mir gut gefallen, der eine Stern fehlt, weil das Vergnügen getrübt wurde, weil der Autor nur englische Gerichte, Snacks und Lebensmittel nennt. Klar, geht ja nicht anders, aber da fehlt eben der Wiedererkennungswert.

Would of liked it more if the author had not undermined himself at times. Obviously I feel pretty sorry for him and I respect the humour with which he distances himself from what was an awful childhood on the whole, but it was rather repetitive and the sum of the parts did not add up to anything special - and I think handled better it might have. But it whiled away some long train journeys fairly pleasantly, even given the uncomfortable nature of much of it.

I'm not sure I need to own this one. More to read than cook from, but as good as his books usually are.½

This man can write about food so well. Reading of his memories invoked my own. The food ones. Couldn't much relate to his descriptions of sexual awakening.

Actually, I can't recommend this book at all, as the childhood anecdotes are boring, and don't fit together into a narrative.

However, if you are into childhood (mostly) food anecdotes, do yourself a favour and skip everything after his father's death. The stories of his early experiences in hotel kitchens alternate between disgusting food incidents and too much sex. The tone is completely different from most of the book.½

A lovely memoir of growing-up and becoming sexually aware in the 1960s, told in bite-sized chunks of food memories.

I grew up at the same time as Nigel and I knew some of his loneliness and isolation, so I was rooting for him all the way. I cried when his beloved mother died when he was so young. I felt for him as his stiff and emotionless father showed his disappointment in the unsporty young Nigel. I winced with him at his overbearing and manipulative stepmother.

All the time, I could taste the lumpy Bisto gravy and the tinned peaches of a 60s childhood, alternately salivating and retching. Fascinating and evocative.

A lovely memoir of growing-up and becoming sexually aware in the 1960s, told in bite-sized chunks of food memories.

I grew up at the same time as Nigel and I knew some of his loneliness and isolation, so I was rooting for him all the way. I cried when his beloved mother died when he was so young. I felt for him as his stiff and emotionless father showed his disappointment in the unsporty young Nigel. I winced with him at his overbearing and manipulative stepmother.

All the time, I could taste the lumpy Bisto gravy and the tinned peaches of a 60s childhood, alternately salivating and retching. Fascinating and evocative.

Nigel Slater’s memoir told around the meals he shared with his family may be unique in its style and the childhood remembrances of joy at the simple pleasures instilled by food. For anyone of a certain age it will spike the memory, and for those too young to know what people used to eat it will be a history lesson told with real humour. His recollection of the dreaded crates of (often warm) yucky milk that would arrive at school is one I share, only had it been me made to stand at the front of the class until I drank it all, I would have stood there all day rather than even make the attempt. It’s hard to believe we used to consume even half these things, even more difficult to believe a few still exist. Along with stories of how children caught diseases such as measles and mumps (not in the book but when one child caught something, the others sent round to make sure they caught it too so they all got it over and done with) with no talk of vaccinations may sound shocking now, but was a commonplace occurrence then. He tells some of these memories with the innocent callousness only a child can muster; as an adult Slater has said he regretted being so harsh, but I think it’s forgivable as these are childhood recollections not tempered with time and understanding, more real for all that.½

What a fantastic book. I have long admired Nigel Slater as a chef but never read any of his work before. As well as having great and original recipes this book is stuffed with the history of cooking and wonderful and atmospheric photographs, It is obvious that the man is a supreme enthusiast with a highly developed palate. This is a book to which I shall keep on returning. Excellent on drink/s as well as food. Good index for a change!

It doesn't state anywhere in my copy exactly where these passages were taken from, but I would assume they are from his column in the Observer. I don't know how the sequence was decided upon, but I felt this was a slight flaw in the book - sometimes similar themes were grouped together, but others were mixed about which could sometimes make you wonder if you hadn't already read that passage before.

But besides that, this book was really quite charming. I love how here is a food writer, who fully embraces some of the more naff aspects of British food like mass produced biscuits as well as the higher brow things like organic farmers markets. I'm of a different generation to him, but there were a lot of foods he mentioned that I could join in on the nostalgia of (I actually went & bought some Murray Mints after reading about them!). As someone who cooks more out of necessity than passion, & who's talent is limited at best, I also felt I learned a bit from this book too.

The nature of the book being a patchwork of (I assume) previously published passages does make it a bit jumpy, & I mainly preferred the longer passages where he really got into his stride on a topic, but as a light read before bed I felt this was a fairly ok book. But I'll be honest - it wont be a permanent resident on my bookshelf that I'll re-read.

The sort of cookbook that gets me straight into the kitchen. Lovely stuff.

A cook in the orchard

It was a mistake reading this in April/May when I have to wait for fruit to start ripening.

This is a lovely book both for the garden and the kitchen. I know I will be pulling it out again and again as the various fruits become available. My one complaint is the silly 'ct' character.½

After having read years ago, I re-read this book as my entry for an Edible Books contest. Though I didn't win the contest (toasted french bread topped with apple butter, crumbled blue cheese, freshly chopped sage) all was at least eaten so I can solace in that. The upside was enjoying a memoir whose subtitle might be a bit misleading. The author was never in danger of going hungry for food but the hunger was indeed one for love and acceptance by his father after the death of his mother at age of nine or so. The look back into one's childhood is always bittersweet but this book is a good example that most of us will find our way if we accept ourselves and that reminder was well worth the second reading.½

Good book to learn to cook from, especially if you live alone.½

Here we have many traditional favourite dishes given Slater's special touches. Chapters are arranged alphabetically by vegetable and include information about growing as well as cooking. His writing is pure poetry, like this entry about cabbage:

"The dead of winter, all is silent, the world hushed by a thick covering of snow. The point in the year when strident flavours are needed: game birds, smoked bacon and dank mushrooms that have waited patiently in the fridge... The cabbage family is suddenly allowed back into the kitchen. Each dark-green leaf somehow seems as if it will fend off our winter ills. Elephant ears of crinkled green, sparkling with dew; tight buds of young sprouts; black plumes of cavolo nero like the feathers on a funeral horse, and the dense, ice-crisp flesh of red cabbage. Strong flavours indeed."

Slater's book was informative, a very enjoyable read and all the recipes I've tried so far have been excellent. What more can a cook ask for? This one gets five stars!