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Toast

3.65 of 5 stars 3.65 · rating details · 2,458 ratings · 355 reviews

Toast is Nigel Slater’s truly extraordinary story of a childhood remembered through food. In each chapter, as he takes readers on a tour of the contents of his family’s pantry—rice pudding, tinned ham, cream soda, mince pies, lemon drops, bourbon biscuits—we are transported....

His mother was a chops-and-peas sort of cook, exasperated by the highs and lows of a temperamenta...more

Paperback, 256 pages

Published October 6th 2005 by Gotham (first published January 15th 2003)

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Aug 08, 2009 K.D. Oliveros rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book brought back childhood memories. Not that I was into hard-to-pronounce food names when I was growing up but reading the book made me think back of how it was when I was growing up in Quezon. There is a part in Nigel's memory as a boy when he kept on discussing the odor of their house or the people in it. Did our house in Quezon have an odor? Maybe the odor of the sand (as our house had no cement flooring then), beer and smoke (as my father had those vices), copra (just like the last ti...more This book brought back childhood memories. Not that I was into hard-to-pronounce food names when I was growing up but reading the book made me think back of how it was when I was growing up in Quezon. There is a part in Nigel's memory as a boy when he kept on discussing the odor of their house or the people in it. Did our house in Quezon have an odor? Maybe the odor of the sand (as our house had no cement flooring then), beer and smoke (as my father had those vices), copra (just like the last time I visited), sea breeze (as our town is in an island) or combination of all? Maybe people who are good cooks have special nose just like Nigel. I could not remember the odor of our house so that should explain the reason why I am not a good cook.

One of my most favorite boyhood memoirs is ANGELA'S ASHES by the late (he died last month) Frank McCourt. It was a poignant sad story of being dirt-poor in Ireland. This book, TOAST: THE STORY OF A BOY'S HUNGER is somewhat opposite as it is not just about being poor. In Philippine standard of poor, the foods that Nigel was having, e.g., sherry tifle, jam tarts, spaghetti bolognese, etc. were fit for the rich and famous. Back in Quezon, when I was growing up, I remember having to divide an apple one Christmas day with my siblings (this was before the import liberalization in the 80s) and my mother making macaroni salad and chilling it inside a styrofoam with lots of ice because there was no electricity then in Quezon so there was no refrigerator. The first time I had a Magnolia pinipig cruch was when I was already in my third year high school (1979) and I had to eat it right away because it had to come from Gumaca that was 45-minute motorboat ride from Quezon.

Nigel being a neglected battered son when he was small added a bit of drama to the story. I am sorry for him and I am glad that he was able to get over it and find happiness now that he is an adult. The story ended abruptly but with finesse and it is an unconventional ending. It reminded me of how John Steinbeck decided to end his famous novel, THE GRAPES OF WRATH: the breast-feeding scene. Nigel Slater ended this book with this conversation:

"There will be someone who'll ask you if you want a bed for the night soon enough." "What, just like that?" I asked. "Yes, son," he smiled. "You'll be fine, you'll just be fine."

It's just simply clever. Just like telling that everything will be all right in the end without having to put a lot of drama just to deliver the message just like how Nicholas Sparks would end his novels. I read that Nigel is a famous celebrity chef but he knows how to write. No wonder this novel won the British Book Awards Biography of the Year. I highly recommend this book to all food lovers who at the same time enjoy reading biographies. (less)

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Apr 14, 2008 Bethany rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: food, book-group

An enjoyable collection of memories linked to food.

I felt sad for Nigel as a young boy. He seemed to lack so much. Gladly, he was able to find happiness as an adult.

When I finished this book, I immediately began to read Orxy and Crake. I was amazed at how many similar themes the two books shared. Mother leaves at a young age. Father is too distracted with life to pay attention to young boy. Many memories around food.

I think the two books make an interesting pair.

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Oct 01, 2009 John rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: bio-and-memoir, lgbt, library_books, audiobook, food-and-drink

I'm giving this one a fourth star because Slater really does write well; however, he became progressively bitchier as the book went on. His world fell apart when his mother died when he was 10, which is understandable, though not for the usual reasons. He's fairly open about his ability to manipulate his parents, esp his mother ("Eventually, if I nagged persistently enough, they'd get me what I wanted ... just as I'd moved on to wanting something else usually (sigh)"). Life with his single fathe...more

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Jan 22, 2013 Cecily rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: biog-and-autobiog

Autobiographical account of middle class 60s/70s childhood, as defined and recalled by particular foods and his mother's poor cooking - except that it wasn't quite as bad as he makes out. As he is the same age as me, many of the typical foods of his childhood have strong memories for me too (surprise peas, angel delight, space dust).

It is subtitled "A boy's hunger", and his hunger is emotional at least as much as it is culinary. The result is sweet and sour.

There was a BBC TV adaptation in Dec...more

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Feb 13, 2011 Fiona rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: male-writers-non-fiction, memoir, home-and-garden, 52-book-challenge-for-2011, lgbtq

A delightful little memoir written by Britain's greatest food writer. Written in bitesize chapters within a entire feast of words, Nigel Slater narrates with great honesty, wit and vividity his "story of a boy's hunger", his sexual awakening, his culinary journey through childhood and adolesence in sixties suburban England. 'Toast' is flavoured with Nigel's favourite tastes and teenage torments, decorated with a dollop of pain and seasoned with a great big pinch of passion for food and eating wh...more

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Oct 22, 2011 Ashleigh Brown rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: cookery, food-related-non-fiction, favourite-authors

Let me start by saying I adore Nigel Slater. I am a vegetarian and so I obviously have an opinion about his meat eating ways but read this anyway. Aside from that his prose on food are amazing. You feel every emotion conjured up by his childhood. You are there with him throughout all his memories. I have a couple of his cook books and they are exactly the same he has this way of making your mouth water with his vivid descriptions. This book is funny and sweet and sad and details his early memori...more

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Aug 08, 2011 Sam Woodfield added it

The concept of this novel is really good and Nigel Slater really takes us on a journey of the senses as he descibes his life through the food he has come across.

I think Slaters description of his life through food really is mutli-sensory as he describes the look, taste, texture and smell of those foods presented to him. Its something that everyone can relate to - I certainly remember where and when I tasted some of the best food I have ever had, and so for Slater to use these memories as teh ba...more

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Apr 15, 2013 Claudia Butwell rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: reading-logs-2013

This book caught my eye while on holiday in a book shop and I decided to read it for some unknown reason (maybe it was the name?). I think I generally enjoyed the book although some of the themes puzzled me, it made me dig deeper to discover the roots of them.

This goes under the category of "a diary, autobiography or biography" as it is narrated by Nigel, the author, and how he looks back at his life through food. This intrigued me as it was a point of view I hadn't explored before and it entert...more

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Jan 30, 2013 Melody rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: heard

While I enjoyed the food part of this memoir, I didn't like the tone. I came to it with no prior knowledge of who Slater is, I picked it up primarily because I needed an audio book, my library had this available, and it was a memoir.

Slater lost his mum early on, his brother was much older and left home soon after, which left Slater alone with his dad for awhile. Then his dad finds a new woman with whom to share his life, and his son is resentful and angry and bitter about this still. She admitte...more

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Jan 20, 2013 Julie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biography-autobiography

This is another 3.5 star rating, but lacking the ability to "split hairs" on goodreads, I take it to the next level.

What is painfully apparent from the first chapter of this book is that Nigel Slater lacked nourishment from the day he was born -- and remained that way until he reached adulthood and found his own reason for being. He seems to have been born into a family which had refined the art of witholding what a growing boy needs -- proper nourishment in body or soul.

From the first, we are i...more This is another 3.5 star rating, but lacking the ability to "split hairs" on goodreads, I take it to the next level.

What is painfully apparent from the first chapter of this book is that Nigel Slater lacked nourishment from the day he was born -- and remained that way until he reached adulthood and found his own reason for being. He seems to have been born into a family which had refined the art of witholding what a growing boy needs -- proper nourishment in body or soul.

From the first, we are inundated with images of food -- and there are lots of "empty calories" here: Rollos and sherry trifles; Cadbury's Mini Rolls and jam tarts; mashed potatoes and rice puddings; lemon curd and treacle tarts; crumpets and fruit cocktails swimming in syrup. The list is an endless parade of boiled down dinners and Cap'n Crunch breakfasts.

Admittedly, many of the British/American/Canadian post-war children were raised on this fare, given the new availability of treats groaning on the supermarket shelves; however, this emptiness was exacerbated in the Slater household by a twittery-headed mother who couldn't boil water and a self-centered Dad whose greatest comforts were found in endless jars of pickled walnuts, and inside his greenhouse, coddling pink begonias.

By the time I reached the chapter on Crumpets, I was starving, despite the groaning board presented before me. I felt I had gained 10 lbs in emptiness. I could only marvel that the little boy in this household survived to tell the tale. Not only did he survive, but he became one of the best, most-acclaimed chefs and food writers in the UK.

The story is told strictly from his point of view: a starving, angry, misunderstood little chap, who is quite clever, very funny at times, and desperate to get out of his prison. It is told from the self-centeredness of a child, with no room (or not much) for compassion and little insight into the world of adults. One feels somehow shrunken to the height of a ten-year old boy, feeling, seeing, tasting everything through his eyes, through his emotions. You feel -- absolutely -- what it is to be a child again and to have no filter on one's emotions, and no control over one's life.

I read it in one sitting -- a fascinating, thought-inducing way to spend a winter afternoon.

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Dec 30, 2012 Sue Oaks rated it 5 of 5 stars

For a near – forty woman who has spent far too many hours worrying about all things food related (think Jenny Craig, Weight-watchers, imagined food intolerances and digestive issues and a history of roller-coaster numbers on the dreaded scale), Toast: the story of a boy’s hunger by Nigel Slater would have to be a miracle-worker to engage the reader.

Well miracle worker he must be, for I could barely put the book down. For someone who has barely set foot in the kitchen except to read the labels o...more For a near – forty woman who has spent far too many hours worrying about all things food related (think Jenny Craig, Weight-watchers, imagined food intolerances and digestive issues and a history of roller-coaster numbers on the dreaded scale), Toast: the story of a boy’s hunger by Nigel Slater would have to be a miracle-worker to engage the reader.

Well miracle worker he must be, for I could barely put the book down. For someone who has barely set foot in the kitchen except to read the labels of the packets and tins in the pantry and sweat about fructose, fat and carbohydrates, suddenly this descriptive delight of a memoir has inspired a rich and delightful chocolate cake, a caramel mud-cake ‘Mum, this is the best cake I’ve ever eaten’ and a curried chicken soup produced in the slow-cooker, all within a week of reading.

Based on Nigel’s experiences with food, this book become the ultimate ‘show don’t tell’ example (would-be writers take note), as the story emerges from between the engaging and palate enticing lines to bring the reader’s heart as close to the heart of young Nigel as a story could manage. The characters are brought to 3D life in the novel and they are all that characters should be; unique, quirky, imperfect and loveable in their humanity. Relationships emerge in scraps as scenes reveal the intricacies of the dance between human beings.

Memorable lines abound:

‘It is impossible not to love someone who makes toast for you … once the warm, salty butter has hit your tongue you are smitten. Putty in their hands.’

‘Mum drew the line at Mr Whippy cornets, which she considered beyond the pale … heaven knows what she would have said if she had seen me on my way to school, biting off the end and sucking the soft, grainy ice ream through the bottom.’

‘Cake holds a family together. I really believed it did. My father was a different man when there was a cake in the house. Warm. The sort of man I wanted to hug rather than shy away from.’

What a read! My taste buds are going to thank Nigel for this one forever, my hips and thighs will curse him and my family therapist will go broke, because now I have the answers! Five bloody good stars. Thanks Nigel.

http://bookreview32.blogspot.com.au/2...(less)

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Dec 12, 2012 Hilary G rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Oh dear! Hils on Toast sounds a bit like a recipe.

I wasn't immediately engaged by Toast, although I certainly related to the burnt toast in the opening line. Toast isn't really toast unless the whole flat is filled with thick, black, choking smoke [I have no sense of smell and a bad habit of wandering off to do something more interesting]. At first, the little chapters on food that is rather unexciting (Arctic Roll, Sherry Trifle…) was too much like snacks. You have one but it doesn't fill you u...more Oh dear! Hils on Toast sounds a bit like a recipe.

I wasn't immediately engaged by Toast, although I certainly related to the burnt toast in the opening line. Toast isn't really toast unless the whole flat is filled with thick, black, choking smoke [I have no sense of smell and a bad habit of wandering off to do something more interesting]. At first, the little chapters on food that is rather unexciting (Arctic Roll, Sherry Trifle…) was too much like snacks. You have one but it doesn't fill you up, so perhaps you have another, but never really feel satisfied. I must say, though, that little by little I got quite involved in the world Nigel Slater was creating (or recreating) and the live of this very lonely little boy, whose brothers were much older than him and whose mother died. I found some of the chapters very sad and moving such as the incontinent old auntie and the spaghetti and the game with the babysitting uncle. In fact, thinking back (it is about a fortnight since I finished reading the book), my major impression is that Slater used food principally, or maybe uniquely, to communicate sad memories. Was there any joyful food? The most I can remember is the farty noise made by the jelly and even that seems rather a sad sort of pleasure since it wasn't shared with playmates.

How strange that a mother that couldn't cook and food so evocative of sadness it was almost palpable should lead Slater to the career he subsequently followed. Perhaps the fact that I don't cook and am not hugely interested in food as a subject is because my mum was (and is) a good cook, who makes delicious meals out of good, wholesome food and who knows what everyone likes and caters to them [I always get pate, , Stilton cheese, fish and liver – all my favourites – but not all at once]. I associate many foods with happy occasions – bonfire toffee and parkin at the Guy Fawkes parties we had in our back garden, shrimps, mussels, cockles and whelks at the seaside, chips with mayonnaise on our days out in Holland. How terribly isolated this little boy was. In fact, how the family isolated itself with its airs and graces and notions of appropriate and inappropriate foods. I suppose the "better" food they ate (like grilled grapefruit!!!) was that time's equivalent of today's designer stuff. In fact, though I love things like lobster and champagne, some of the best foods are much plainer and more plebian – faggots, rabbit stew, Yorkshire pudding with treacle for afters.

I thought the book was original and was a good attempt at recreating a past time which was both communal and personal. I was surprised by some of the foods that were obviously commonplace at the time but I had completely forgotten. Surprise Peas! I don't think I ever ate any, but I can certainly recall them, perhaps from advertisements. I seem to think they were freeze dried (or dehydrated?) and alarmingly chlorophyll green? Angel Delight! My mum says you can still get it, though I have never tasted it because it was made with milk. I thought Slater was quite successful in creating an atmosphere of the past, though there were one or two jarring moments. One I can recall was the expression 24/7, which I am sure was never heard before the 1990s. The book was so dependent on its readers relating to its particular time frame that I think it risks being almost inaccessible to younger readers.

The book had its own charm and I enjoyed it. I must confess I had never even heard of Nigel Slater, so I had no preconceptions. I thought his book well written, quite original and worth reading. And sad. It made me feel terribly sad.

Finally, I must say I think the little boy on the cover of the book is delicious. He reminds me so much of my brother who had the same sticky-out ears, freckles and bashful look. I think that was part of the sadness I felt because we've all grown up and we are old now!
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Jun 26, 2012 Caroline Roberts rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really enjoyed the book but thought Slater, perhaps unintentionally, revealed himself to be something of a 'nasty piece of work'. His insinuation that his father was masturbating in the shed and his insistence that his step mother was trying to 'feed' his father to death (unlikely at best) were just two examples of 'memories' that reflected badly on the author. Following his fathers death he recounts the following in relation to his step mother:
'Joan fussed over me all week, making steak for m...more

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Oct 14, 2011 Sandra Lawson rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Nigel Slater is my favourite cookery writer and TV food presenter. I refuse to call him a television chef, because he isn't, but he understands food and how different flavours and textures work together. His cookery books aren't at all fussy or precise and he makes it very clear that cooking is a very personal practice that can be varied as the cook wishes. But his recipes draw in the reader, make your mouth water, and make you want to rush off to the kitchen to start trying the dishes for yours...more

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Aug 29, 2011 Grace rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was ok , i didn't love it , yet i didn't hate it... so here is what its about....
This book is basically about a boy who only remembers his childhood through food. He tells the story of how each food had its own special meaning.
^^ that is bascially what its about. I couldn't really say anymore about it because it is very difficult to write about unless you actually read the blurb or have read the book itself. There is a sort of storyline to this book as it is woven into all of the boys...more

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Jul 27, 2010 Bluenose rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ann tells me I got this for her at Harrod’s in 2004. It does have a price in pounds though the sticker on the cover says Sussex Stationers. I found it in our bookshelves so I guess there are still some books there that I haven’t read.

Nigel Slater is a British food writer of whom I was vaguely aware. This is the story of his early life told with a great deal of reference to food, particularly candy, of which the British have a mind boggling variety. I vividly remember English sweet shops from my...more

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Jan 08, 2010 pinknantucket rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: ms-readathon-2005

The thing I was most amazed about when reading this book was Nigel Slater’s apparently incredible memory for food – the taste, the appearance, the context. I tried to conjure up of some of my childhood memories of food, but all I could think of was the time I threw up after eating spaghetti and dreaming about gorillas (left over from an episode of David Attenborough’s “Life on Earth”). And I can’t claim to remember the particular texture or special ingredients of the spaghetti in question. (The...more

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Nov 27, 2009 Beth rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: biographies_memoirs, glbt

While I generally liked the author's voice and many of the stories, I think this book was hampered by the American publisher trying to balance the unique British qualities and items in the book with the need to appeal to an American audience. Thus there's a glossary, which is a nice idea but wasn't really successful because it included lots of obvious terms the reader would probably know or could figure out from context and left out several items that would have been helpful. (The glossary also...more

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Mar 08, 2010 Louise rated it 4 of 5 stars

It's stating the obvious, but Nigel Slater is a chef and a cookery writer, and for the most part this book is about food, and the parts that were just about food I thoroughly enjoyed. It was like taking a trip down memory lane reading about foods and sweets from my childhood that I'd forgotten all about - the ice creams you used to get from the ice cream man in slabs wrapped in paper for example, Birds custard and that horrible, horrible milk all primary school children used to be given.

The boo...more

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Feb 01, 2013 Janet rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When I started this book I was delighted to realise that not only was it Nigel Slater talking about food in the beautifully and often humorous way he usually does, but that it was formed in the shape of a memoir of his youth.

This is a coming of age story of the author, who lost his mother at an early age and then had to compete for his somewhat cold father's affections with a new stepmother, who provided him plenty of competition in the culinary arena of their kitchen.

This makes for some quite s...more

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Feb 19, 2011 Kirsti rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: anger, cake-eaters, eccentricity, humor, imagination, memoir, nonfiction, food

About tapioca: "This is the most vile thing I have ever put in my mouth, like someone has stirred frog-spawn into wallpaper paste."

I love my library's used-book sale because I find random things I never would have heard of otherwise. This is a sad and funny memoir about growing up obsessed with food. At first I thought it was going to be a male, foodie version of Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life or A Girl Named Zippy . . . an entertaining memoir of a childhood in which nothing much scary or trag...more

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Dec 23, 2009 Kasey Sinclair rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: own-real-book

Under normal circumstances, I am not one to read memoirs. Quite honestly I don’t care about someone else’s life enough to read a whole book about their life. Especially if I don’t know them other than seeing them on television. If a friend wrote a memoir, on the other hand, I’d snatch it up in a heartbeat if only to see how much smack they talk about me. LOL But as a dear friend took the time to send me a copy of Toast knowing how much I enjoy learning about the ordinary life in the UK, I decide...more

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Jan 11, 2009 Stephanie rated it 4 of 5 stars

I guess I love British celebrity chefs so much because I don't have to watch them on TV.
I hate all the German famous cooks because they're everywhere in the media around me, whereas somebody who only exist on the internet and in cookbooks can't get on your nerves.

So I had never really heard of Nigel Slater until about a week ago when I picked up one of his cookbooks in the library.
Even though it was a translated copy, I instantly fell in love with both his style of cooking (no-fuss, easy "recip...more

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Aug 09, 2012 Lynne Norman rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really wanted to like this book - I really did - as I generally like Slater as a food writer and presenter. But 'Toast' left a bitter taste - not what you want from a food-based memoir. The nostalgia felt heavy-handed, the humour (for instance the used condom incident) felt forced and cynical and Nigel - as portrayed by himself - came across unsympathetic and a little bit self-pitying. I also wondered at some of the memories he chose to share as, often, I felt he went well past the mark. I don...more

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Feb 26, 2012 Jane rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is a wonderful biographical account of Nigel Slater's childhood. Mollycoddled by his mother and never able to please his father for whom the boy never seemed good enough or comparable with his older brothers. His love for his mother whose cooking abilities left a lot to be desired that a housekeeper was employed to provide some sustenance as well as other housekeeping tasks. Nigel's only friend at home is the young gardener who is unfairly sacked due to an inadvertent comment on Nigel's par...more

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Oct 06, 2011 Adam Stone rated it 4 of 5 stars

Toast is a memoir about the difficulty years of TV cook Nigel Slater’s life from just before he lost his mother at about the age of nine till his father died when he was 16 when he went off to catering college and finally realised his dream to be able to cook.

From this book you get the impression that while Slater idolised his mother he never really got on with the father, and it was not for want of trying, as his father didn’t really know what to think of him as he wasn’t into sports or things...more

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Jul 18, 2011 Julie rated it 2 of 5 stars

I wouldn't say this was a bad book but it was very different from my expectations. I had expected something funny and tongue-in-cheek about growing up with a mother who couldn't cook.

It's actually much darker, exploring a childhood stained with death and a dysfunctional step family. There's also far too many references to various moments of sexual awakening. It's hard to see how these are relevant sometimes, and they're certainly much less enjoyable to read than the stories about food.

The main p...more

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Dec 05, 2010 Veronica rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, found

If you grew up in Britain in the 60s and 70s, you can open this book at any page and encounter a Proustian moment. Spaghetti in those long blue packets, with instructions in Italian (it was the only kind of pasta you could buy). Grated Parmesan in carboard drums ("Daddy, this cheese smells like sick." "Yes, son, I think it must be off."). Steak Diane flambed at the table in smart restaurants. Aztec bars, sherbet lemons, Curly-Wurlies, licking the filling out of Walnut Whips, it's all there; Nige...more

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Feb 07, 2011 Donna rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Dan

Shelves: a-z-challenge, cooking, library, biography, 2011

I watched the TV adaptation of Toast over Christmas, but I have to say this book was much better. The TV version took a bit of artistic license, leaving out characters and situations and failing to convey the real passion Nigel Slater has for food.
Each chapter is a reminiscence of a certain food that he remembers from his childhood he and interweaves it into what was happening in his life at that time. These are sometimes only a page long, so it is easy to zip through this book. The foods range...more

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Apr 24, 2011 Eliza rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir

4/19/11: Slater's memoir is purportedly about food--the British food that he grew up with in the 1960s--so both a fascinating glimpse into a culture and a bit repulsive--but as I worked into it, I found that it was about so much more. Slater's mother died when he was maybe 9 or 10 (he's vague), and his childhood and teen experiences, both with and without food, are so wound up with that event and its aftermath that suddenly, Walnut Whips are more poignant than you ever would have imagined. His w...more

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About Nigel Slater

Nigel Slater is a British food writer, journalist and broadcaster. He has written a column for The Observer Magazine for seventeen years and is the principal writer for the Observer Food Monthly supplement. Prior to this, Slater was food writer for Marie Claire for five years. He also serves as art director for his books.

Although best known for uncomplicated, comfort food recipes presented in earl...more Nigel Slater is a British food writer, journalist and broadcaster. He has written a column for The Observer Magazine for seventeen years and is the principal writer for the Observer Food Monthly supplement. Prior to this, Slater was food writer for Marie Claire for five years. He also serves as art director for his books.

Although best known for uncomplicated, comfort food recipes presented in early bestselling books such as The 30-Minute Cook and Real Cooking, as well as his engaging, memoir-like columns for The Observer, Slater became known to a wider audience with the publication of Toast: The Story of a Boy's Hunger, a moving and award-winning autobiography focused on his love of food, his childhood, his family relationships (his mother died of asthma when he was nine), and his burgeoning sexuality.

Slater has called it "the most intimate memoir that any food person has ever written". Toast was published in Britain in October 2004 and became a bestseller after it was featured on the Richard and Judy Book Club.

"I think the really interesting bits of my story was growing up with this terribly dominating dad and a mum who I loved to bits but obviously I lost very early on; and then having to fight with the woman who replaced her ... I kind of think that in a way that that was partly what attracted me to working in the food service industry, was that I finally had a family." As he told The Observer, "The last bit of the book is very foody. But that is how it was. Towards the end I finally get rid of these two people in my life I did not like [his father and stepmother, who had been the family's cleaning lady] - and to be honest I was really very jubilant - and thereafter all I wanted to do was cook."

In 1998 Slater hosted the Channel 4 series Nigel Slater's Real Food Show. He returned to TV in 2006 hosting the chat/food show A Taste of My Life for BBC One.

Slater has two elder brothers, Adrian and John. John was the child of a neighbour, and was adopted by Slater's parents before the writer was born.

He lives in the Highbury area of North London, where he maintains a kitchen garden which often features in his column.(less)

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The Kitchen Diaries: A Year in the Kitchen with Nigel Slater

Tender: Volume I: A Cook and His Vegetable Patch

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“Food has been my career, my hobby, and, it must be said, my escape.” — 2 people liked it

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