Toast: The Story of a Boy's Hunger

(Hardback)

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Now with an updated foreword by Elizabeth Day and afterword by Nigel Slater, twenty years later Toast has become a classic food memoir, detailing all the food, recipes and cooking that have marked Nigels passage from greedy schoolboy to great food writer.
Toast is Nigel Slaters truly extraordinary story of a childhood remembered through food. Whether relating his mothers ritual burning of the toast, his fathers dreaded Boxing Day stew or such culinary highlights of the day as Arctic Roll and Grilled Grapefruit (then considered something 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 Nigels 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 fathers 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.

Nigels 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.

Reviews

'Acutely observed, poignant and beautifully writtenSlater 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 withunmatched sensuous energyExtraordinary.' Observer

'Toast is a magnificent reminder offood 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

Author Bio

Nigel Slater is one of Britains most highly regarded food writers. His beautifully written prose, warm personality and unpretentious, easy-to-follow recipes have won him a huge following. He writes an award winning weekly column in the Observer and edits their Food Monthly supplement, and he is a regular contributor to Sainsburys The Magazine.