Notes from the Larder: A Kitchen Diary

NIGEL SLATER is the author of a collection of bestselling books, including the classics Real Fast Food, Appetite, and the critically acclaimed The Kitchen Diaries. He has written a much-loved column for The Observer for eighteen years and is the presenter of the award-winning BBC series Simple Suppers. His memoir, Toast —The Story of a Boy’s Hunger, has won six major awards, including British Biography of the Year, and has been adapted into a BBC film. Ripe is the companion volume to Tender: A cook and his vegetable patch. Visit www.nigelslater.com.

Biography

Nigel Slater is the author of several classic cookbooks, including Real Fast Food and the award-winning Appetite. He has written a much-loved column for the The Observer (London) for more than a decade and has been described as a national treasure. He lives in London.

Biography courtesy of the author's official web site.

Good To Know

Some interesting outtakes from our interview with Slater:

"I put as much effort into keeping a low profile as most cookery writers do in publicizing themselves. Believe me when I say it is very hard work keeping ‘yourself to yourself,' probably harder than taking the celebrity ‘Look at me!' route."

"I suppose I am one of those people who finds even the most mundane of questions ‘too intrusive.' Though my book Toast is extraordinarily intimate, it is written about someone who seems far away, like he was a different person. It is sometimes hard to recognize that little boy -- to remember that it was actually me."

"I believe in the maxim ‘Any useless thing chucked out is gain.' I wish I knew who said it so I could say thank you to them. They changed my life."

"I hate being photographed. I hate it even more when those photographs are published. But what I hate most is being called a ‘celebrity chef.' I am not the sort of cook who dances around in front of the camera with a skillet in my hand. I just make myself something to eat at home, and if I think its good then write about it because I think others might enjoy it too. End of story."

"Traveling is not my thing because it upsets me being away from my cat. He is very old now and I worry I won't be there for him when he decides to ‘call it a day.' Sometimes I think he has a better life than me. No one ever cooks me tuna for my supper or puts a hot water bottle in my bed. And no one has ever fed me by hand when I couldn't be bothered to get out of bed. He lives like a king."

"Here are some of the little things I like: the first bite of buttered toast, old-fashioned French roses, the smell on my hands from picking tomatoes from my garden, dark chocolate flavored with cardamom, wearing high-top sneakers, Vietnamese food, black clothes, paintings by Mark Rothko, sculptures by Giacometti, green tea, watching Six Feet Under, reading Vanity Fair when I should really be doing something very urgent, dipping hot french fries into homemade garlic mayonnaise."

"Here are some of the silly little things I dislike: duvets, ties, fillet (there are so many more interesting cuts), eggs, the smell of tea with milk in it, small ‘boutique' hotels, queuing, clutter, big portions."