Product Description

The Sunday Times Bestseller, and the biggest memoir of the year, from Britain's best loved food writer. TOAST is Nigel Slater's truly extraordinary story of a childhood remembered through food. Whether relating his mother's ritual burning of the toast, his father's dreaded Boxing Day stew or such culinary highlights of the day as Arctic Roll and Grilled Grapefruit (then considered somehting of a status symbol in Wolverhampton) this remarkable memoir vividly recreates daily life in sixties surburban England. His mother was a chops-and-peas sort of cook, exasperated by the highs and lows of a temperamental AGA, a finicky little son and the asthma that was to prove fatal. His father was a honey-and-crumpets man who could occasionally go off 'crack' like a gun. When Nigel's widowed father takes on a housekeeper with social aspirations and a talent in the kitchen, the following years become a heartbreaking cooking contest for his father's affections. But as he slowly loses the battle, Nigel finds a new outlet for his culinary talents, and we witness the birth of what was to become a lifelong passion for food. Nigel's likes and dislikes, aversions and sweet-toothed weaknesses form a fascinating and amusing backdrop to this incredibly moving and deliciously evocative memoir of childhood, adolescence and sexual awakening.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1891 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-16
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
'Acutely observed, poignant and beautifully written!Slater tells his heartbreaking story with great subtlety. The theme of food and love is a fascinating one and I have never seen it better handled.' Daily Telegraph 'Few, if any, food writers engender such affection as Nigel Slater. He evokes time, people and place with!unmatched sensuous energy!Extraordinary.' Observer 'Toast is a magnificent reminder of!food in family life.' Lynne Truss, Sunday Times 'A talent for prose as simple and pleasurable as his recipes.' Sunday Telegraph 'Moving, funny and finely crafted, it's a real gem' Independent 'It achieves a remarkable freshness![and] reveals a gift for doleful, Alan Bennett-like comedy.' Guardian 'This book should be treasured for its prose!and for its vision of a world seen through the senses.' Independent on Sunday '[A] touching odyssey through childhood tastes, treats and tortures!' Sunday Times 'Toast is served up with seasoning and flair!Vivid and moving.' Observer

Sunday Mirror, Best of Christmas Books
'This touching memoir proves Nigel Slater's more than a cookery writer. Its emotional impact will strike a chord with many.'

Independent
"Moving, funny and finely crafted, this is a true gem."

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.