Product Description

One of Britain's most well-known cooks describes his personal culinary odyssey, from dangerous encounters with his mother's weevil-seasoned cakes to being harangued by readers who think he deliberately styles Yorkshire puddings to look like a woman's private parts. This book aims to capture 30 years of British cooking and the recipes that we have grown up with since the days when a grilled grapefruit was the last word in dinner party chic. Everyone has gorged on cake mix, endured disastrous dinner parties, and put up with the loved one who can only ever produce burnt toast. Nigel Slater is no different. Accounts of hotels modelled on Fawlty Towers, the mystery of the disappearing condom and the seafood cocktail, and many more, take readers behind the scenes of British cuisine to reveal the unlikely origins of one of our foremost cooks.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #138488 in Books
• Published on: 2003-09-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 247 pages

Review
* 'Nigel is a bloody genius.' Jamie Oliver * 'The greatest cookery writer of them all.' Guardian * 'The pick of the bunch ... bubbling with ideas, suggestions, hints and personal opinions that genuinely help you to make your own mind up about how and what to cook.' The Times * 'He's a genius.' Matthew Fort, Guardian * 'Slater remains the reigning champion, a writer incapable of uninspiring sentences.' Daily Express * 'No one writes more temptingly about book.' Independent * 'My kitchen god' Red

Daily Telegraph
'This artful, disconcerting, endearing book deserves a place in the literature of childhood unhappiness and survival against the odds.'

Matthew Fort, Observer
'A vivid record of people whose lives never warrant the study of historians, biographers or even novelists... wonderful... extraordinary.'

Customer Reviews

Not just for foodies
Nigel Slater recounts his childhood with short stories. This book will make you laugh, cry and wince.
Unexpectedly this book contains more descriptions of a teenagers sexual encounters than you might imagine, but in line with all his other books Toast is a really good read with something for everyone.

If you have read his other books and are expecting another mouthwatering description of everything culinary then you are in for a shock as Slater re-lives his childhood.
Only covering his life up untill late teens/early twenties i wizzed through the pages and was left wanting more. Perhaps that is the best sign of a good book.

If you are buying this for a food lover, perhpas someone who has enjoyed Nigel Slater before, go for it, but be aware it doesn't follow completely in his previous books footsteps!

Salad cream and hostess trollies - my childhood writ large
I laughed at every single page in the opening chapters. The descriptions of growing up in Middle England, with its associated food snobberies are ruthlessly accurate. Perhaps that's why so many of us 30-somethings are obsessed with the latest food innovations - we are desperate to obliterate memories of childhood salads of ham, boiled egg and lettuce leaf.
However, Slater is also tender in his descriptions of his mother and her struggles with her health, and remarkably honest about his relationship with his step mother. Having always admired his food writing, his honesty and directness shine through here, too. But be warned - you may never want to eat in a provincial hotel dining room again, EU regulations or no!
A remarkable tale of growing up from a remarkable personality.

Wake up in the morning and all you want is Toast
Page one I was laughing out loud - by spaghetti I had tears of laughter rolling down my cheeks as I read extracts to my wife in between drying my eyes because I was laughing so hard.

The last book that made me laugh out loud was catch 22 - Toast is far easier to read and far more funny.

This book is a splendid multi course feast of events catalogued by food - Nigel you are a master story teller. If you remember your childhood with taste and smell this is the book for you - I'm only glad that we did not have our own Aunt Fanny.

10 out of 10 - you must read this pungent book.