Nigel Slater - Toast

review by Ro Guru Bennett on show 20th Jan
This is the autobiography of the chef Nigel Slater. I watched the play Toast over the Christmas break and this roused my interest, so I read an extract from the book which was humourous and so I bought it.

I felt very sorry the young Nigel Slater. His mother died of what appeared to be asthma when he was about eight years old and he writes very movingly about her with affection. His father seemed to be pretty grumpy much of the time, but also had moments when he was kind and understanding with Nigel - however on the whole he seemed to be very impatient and disappointed with his son. Nigel’s step-mother was depicted as a working class gold digger who wormed her way into his father’s affection and the family home, proving once again that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach and sex - and Nigel obviously felt great animosity towards her, although he did admire her culinary skills. He comes across as a bit of a snob - but it does seem that when his father died, his step mother ended up with everything and he had to work his way through college to become a chef.

I thought from the play that Nigel was an only child - but the book reveals that he was one of three brothers and that his step mother also had children. As I read the book I grew less sympathetic towards Nigel and by the end decided that I didn’t particularly like him as a person and didn’t particularly like much of the content of the book either. It was funny in parts, and clever in the way it was set out - most chapters being around food - but there was far too much emphasis on sex for my taste - I found it a bit tawdry and sordid - and it has made me think more than twice about eating out in restaurants after reading what some of the chefs get up to!

Reviews:
A mixed bag in both the British and US reviews - one 1* said she took the book Toast and his cookery books to the Charity shop! More 5* though so most seemed to like the book.
Ro Bennett