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Nigel Slater

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Nigel Slater (born in Wolverhampton, England, in the late 1950s, according to his publisher)[1] is an award-winning British food writer and journalist. 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 has contributed to GQ, Harpers and Queen, and Sainsbury's magazine and serves as art director for his books.

Contents

[edit] Career

Although best known for uncomplicated, comfort-food recipes presented in early bestselling books such as The 30-Minute Cook and Real Fast Food, he became known to a wide 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. The book was published in October 2004 and became a bestseller after it was featured on the Richard and Judy Book Club. Like his newspaper columns, the photographs illustrating Slater's books are by Jonathan Lovekin.

"I think the really interesting bits of my story was growing up with this terribly dominating dad and a mom 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.

[edit] Private life

Slater is gay and apparently unattached.[4] His 2005 book, The Kitchen Diaries, however, which is a largely daily examination of his at-home cooking, uses the pronouns "our", "we", and "us" throughout the text, which suggests that he shares his home with another individual. Also, numerous recipes in the book serve only two people.

He has two elder brothers, Adrian (15 years his senior) and John (a schoolfriend of his brother's whom the elder Slaters adopted five years before Nigel Slater's birth).[5]

[edit] 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."[6]
  • "Food has been my career, my hobby, and, it must be said, my escape."[7]
  • "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."[8]
  • "Good kitchens are not about size; they are about ergonomics and light."[9]
  • "It is the deep, salty stickiness of food that intrigues me more than any other quality."[10]
  • "Well let's face it, who on earth besides antique dealers and gay couples actually still give dinner parties?"[11]
  • "Almost anything is edible with a dab of French mustard on it."<ref>"The Kitchen Diaries"</ref>

[edit] Publications

Cookbooks

Autobiography

[edit] Awards

2004 André Simon Award for "Toast"

2004 Glenfiddich Food Book of the Year for "Toast"

2004 British Biography of the Year Award for "Toast"

2004 Observer Food Monthly Book of the Year Award for "Toast"

2000 André Simon Award for Cookbook of the Year for "Appetite"

1999 Glenfiddich Award for Best Visual Work for "Real Food"

1999 Best Newspaper Cookery Journalist Award

1996 Media Personality of the Year Award (Good Food Awards)

1995 Glenfiddich Cookery Writer of the Year Award

1995 Glenfiddich Trophy

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikivisual.com/index.php/Nigel_Slater"
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