Nigel Slater (born in Wolverhampton, England, 1958[1]), is an award-winning British food writer, journalist and broadcaster. He has written a column for The Observer Magazine for over a decade 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.
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Career
Although best known for uncomplicated, comfort-food recipes presented in early bestselling books such as The 30-Minute Cook and Real Fast Food, 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".[1] 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."[2]. 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."[3] 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. His latest book, Eating for England: The Delights & Eccentricities of the British at Table (Fourth Estate), is devoted to English food and cookery. It was published in October 2007 and was described in The Times as "the sort of ragbag of choice culinary morsels that would pass the time nicely on a train journey".[4]
Private life
Several reviewers of his books and columns have noted that Slater often uses the word "we" in regards to his home life and cooking experiments but that he has never commented on his partner's identity or gender. He lives in north London. In an interview with Gregg Shapiro in 2005, he is described as openly gay. [5] Slater has two elder brothers, Adrian (12 years his senior) and John (a neighbour of his family's whom the elder Slaters adopted five years before Nigel Slater's birth).[6]
Quotes
- "Food is, for me, for everybody, a very sexual thing and I think I realised that quite early on. I still cannot exaggerate how just putting a meal in front of somebody is really more of a buzz for me than anything. And I mean anything. Maybe that goes back to trying to please my dad, I don't know. It's like parenting in a way I suppose."[7]
- "Food has been my career, my hobby, and, it must be said, my escape."[8]
- "I understood that if ever one wanted to live with someone you cooked for them and they came running. But then it is my idea of hell these days, living with someone. The idea of sharing your life with someone is just utterly ghastly. I know why people do it, but it's never a good idea."[9]
- "Eating, and that feel of food in the mouth, is all part of comfort and affection and warmth, and I think that a lot of the reason that I turned to food was because I was actually quite a lonely child."[10]
- "Good kitchens are not about size; they are about ergonomics and light."[11]
- "It is the deep, salty stickiness of food that intrigues me more than any other quality."[12]
- "Well let's face it, who on earth besides antique dealers and gay couples actually still give dinner parties?"[13]
- "Almost anything is edible with a dab of French mustard on it."[2]
- "I have never eaten a boiled egg, but I have had a soldier or two." [3]
Publications
Cookbooks
- The Marie Claire Cookbook, Hamlyn, (ISBN 0-7064-2573-1, 1992)
- Real Fast Food, Michael Joseph Ltd, (ISBN 0-7181-3577-6, 1992) or Penguin Books Ltd, (ISBN 0-14-046949-4, 1993)
- Real Fast Puddings, Michael Joseph Ltd, (ISBN 0-7181-3577-6, 1992) or Penguin Books Ltd, (ISBN 0-14-023283-4, 1994)
- The 30-Minute Cook, Michael Joseph Ltd (ISBN 0-7181-3752-3, 1994)
- Real Cooking, Michael Joseph Ltd, (ISBN 0-7181-4090-7, 1997) or Penguin Books Ltd (ISBN 0-14-025277-0, 1999)
- Real Food, Fourth Estate Ltd, (ISBN 1-85702-971-2, 1998) or (ISBN 1-84115-144-0, 2000)
- Appetite, Random House of Canada Ltd, (ISBN 0-679-31212-9, 2000) or Fourth Estate Ltd (ISBN 1-84115-470-9, 2000)
- Thirst, Fourth Estate Ltd, (ISBN 1-84115-768-6, 2002)
- The Kitchen Diaries, Fourth Estate Ltd, (ISBN 0-00-719948-1, 2005) or Gotham Books, published by Penguin (USA) Inc., (ISBN 1-592-40234-8), October 2006
Autobiography
- Toast: The Story of a Boy's Hunger, Fourth Estate Ltd, (ISBN 1-84115-289-7, 2003) or HarperPerennial (ISBN 0-7011-7287-8, 2004)
- Eating For England, Fourth Estate Ltd, (ISBN 0-00-719946-5, October 2007)
Awards
1995 Glenfiddich Cookery Writer of the Year Award 1995 Glenfiddich Trophy 1995 Glendfiddich Award for Best Visual Work for The Observer 1996 Media Personality of the Year Award (Good Food Awards) 1999 Glenfiddich Award for Best Visual Work for Real Food 1999 Best Newspaper Cookery Journalist Award 2000 André Simon Award for Cookbook of the Year for Appetite 2004 André Simon Award for Toast 2004 Glenfiddich Food Book of the Year forToast 2004 British Biography of the Year Award for Toast 2004 Observer Food Monthly Book of the Year Award for Toast 2004 WH Smith People's Choice Award for "Toast" 2006 British Book Award for The Kitchen Diaries 2007 Specialist Writer of the Year, PPA Awards
References
- ^ Nigel Slater. Waterstones.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-14.
- ^ "The Kitchen Diaries"
- ^ "Eating For England"
External links
- Official site
- Index columns and recipes in The Observer
- Appearance on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs
- Presenting TV series A Taste of my Life
- 1998 Profile by Tamasin Day-Lewis
- Microsite for The Kitchen Diaries at Harper Collins
- Interview with The Observer about his childhood and writing life
- Excerpt from Toast
- Interview with Slater by journalist Gregg Shapiro for the gay website afterelton.com
- Review of Toast by Matthew Fort for The Observer, 2003
- Review of The Kitchen Diaries by William Leith for The Guardian, 2005
- Review of Toast by Lynne Truss, for The Times, 2003
- Review of Eating for England, in The Times, 2007
