Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries

In the interest of full disclosure, I'll tell you right away that I was sent a copy of Nigel Slater's latest book by his US publisher last week to review here. But I'll also tell you that I would have happily paid full price for this book, because ever since discovering the Observer Food Monthly online and then reading Toast, I am convinced that Nigel Slater is my kitchen hero.

The Kitchen Diaries is the best cookbook I've read or cooked from in a long time. Slater kept a diary of everything he had for dinner over the course of one year. Most of the time, he cooked his meals, freely admitting, however, to evenings of ordered-in bento boxes or a plate of canned baked beans with frozen french fries. But whatever Slater had to eat, his lyricism casts all of his meals in a golden light and makes each sound irresistible, whether it's a thin slice of brown bread plastered thickly with cold, sweet butter, or a four-course Christmas Day supper.

I started reading, from the beginning, on Friday night, and by Saturday I'd plowed through the entire thing. The structure of the book, and Slater's easy tone, makes the book read like the archives of a blog. Each day, you uncover a little bit more about the reader. It's enticing and funny and even bittersweet. There's a lemon ice dedicated to a dead friend here, and a strange encounter with an anonymous fan and a bag of frozen peas there. And more than anything, there is Slater's firm and unerring taste, and his literary talent.

Can I read you the entry from August 13? Actually, I'll just retype it here. And tell me if it doesn't have you clicking straight over to Amazon to buy this book. "I break my glasses, lose my watch at the gym and realize that the ripe tomatoes I intended to pick for supper have been sucked to a pulp by the snails. The day ends with me slicing a ball of mozzarella into four, trickling olive oil over it and adding some small thyme leaves in lieu of basil. Ciabatta soaks up the milky, olive-oily juices from the plate. A delight, but it does not quite soak up the whole bottle of wine."

Or how about something taken from May 30?  "Two of us ate the beets and their greens with slices of crumbly goat cheese, hacking off bits of cheese and pushing them on to the still-warm beets with ruby-stained fingers. After the fudgy, chalk-white cheese and sweet, claret roots, we filled up on slices of thickly buttered white bread cut from a cottage loaf. Oh, and I bought pinks too, a fat bunch of them, and sat them in a creamware jug on the kitchen table."

And June 23 (I promise I'll stop after this). "Five people turn up for a meeting that ends up dragging on later than anyone expected. They keep looking longingly at the oven, hoping I will suddenly produce a meal out of nothing. In truth, I'm tired and I cannot wait for them to go, and so offer them the only thing I have around - sardines on toast. We end up eating round after round with bottles of beer, till every crumb of bread is finished and my larder is looking distinctly depleted."

Slater's sure hand with ingredients, his inspired take on leftovers, his deep understanding of those days when you simply cannot cook but still need something to nourish you, his disdain for long ingredient lists, his uncanny way of turning simply everything he describes into the very thing you must have for dinner, right now, no doubt about it - these are all reasons to buy this book. I may not have 101 cookbooks, but my collection comes close and I can tell you honestly that not a single one of my cookbooks has me as inspired as this one does.

You will, I think, want to cook everything in this book. I've already started to.

Comments

[Lia]

Luisa, where do you find all the time to read great books, cook such amazing meals and write all these interesting posts about them? You are certainly inspiring!

I, on the other hand have a pile of books on the windowsill near my bed, a million and one recipes I need to make and a bunch of posts I should have written by now but haven't gotten around to. I might just have to live vicariously through you :)

[ann]

oh man, i lurve Nigel Slater!
He and the no-longer-with-us Bert Greene are my cooking angels that hover over my shoulders while i'm crafting a new recipe
i MUST buy this NOW!
thanks Luisa!

[shauna]

Oh dear, what have you done to me? I want so much to read this book, and yet, I can't. Not only because I should be writing my own book -- and his would be an ample distraction toward that end -- but also because his sentences would start slipping into mine without my knowing it. Slater is a genius. Okay, maybe in January I can read this. Thanks for sharing excerpts, though.

[Lydia]

Nigel Slater is the kind of writer we all wish we could be, isn't he?

[Aurore]

I actually ordered that book and should get it soon. Now, I can't wait !

[Molly]

I just got this book in the mail this morning and thumbed through it on the way to work - it's WONDERFUL. I'm totally smitten. Do tell: what have you cooked from it?

[Pille]

Interesting to see how different the US edition looks:) I've got the UK edition, and it's absolutely wonderful - both as a cookbook, as well as bedtime reading!

[Luisa]

Lia - Well, thank you. If it's any consolation, the only reason I'm posting every day is because of that danged NaBloPoMo (that, YES, I realized I signed up for of my OWN volition)... I also feel like I've always got a million other things to do!

Ann - yes, yes, you MUST!

Shauna - hurry up and get your manuscript done with, so you can get started on Slater. Isn't that good motivation? :)

Lydia - indeed. Not only writer, but also, um, life liver. You know?

Aurore - fantastic. Get ready for lots of dinners at home because you will want to cook everything!

Molly - yay! I had a feeling you'd love this. Well, I've already made two things from the book, but I'm going to have to tease you and say you'll have to check back for posts on them because have I MENTIONED NaBloPoMo and the four million posts I have to do between now and 11/30? I've got to have something to write about... :)

Pille - I'm so glad you agree. Luckily the conversion from UK to US seems to have gone smoothly...no snafus with ingredients amounts so far.

[Maya]

I am completely out of the loop on this one. I have only seen his name floating about, but everyone here is simply waxing poetic. Dang. I have to make room on the shelf.

[Paige]

I knew there was a book I'd been trying to remember to read, and it was Toast. Now I have to buy them both. Can't wait.

[gemma]

Lovely review and Nigel Slater almost writes as well as you ;)

[Julie]

I have been a fan of Nigel Slater ever since I picked up a copy of The 30-Minute Cook: The Best of the World's Quick Cooking from a remainder table about five years ago. His writing of the recipes -- not the headnotes, the recipes -- is completely charming, captivating, and even poetic. And the food itself is immensely appealing.

I read Toast last winter and loved it, and I have The Kitchen Diaries on my Amazon wishlist.

[shuna fish lydon]

Good god woman but you are killing me. Yes! From thousands of miles away!

Another book?

Why? So it will be another one I love but can't finish?

Oy vey but I am going to have to go out and get that. Thanks.

A lot.

[Luisa]

Maya - yes, DO, please! You won't regret it, I promise.

Paige - oh, Toast! It's so lovely. And sad. But good.

Gemma - love you, darling.

Julie - I really need to catch up on my acquisition of his previous cookbooks. Though I'm so enchanted with this one right now, that I might have my hands full ;)

Shuna - my pleasure, honey. My pleasure! :)

[Grant]

I so want this book. I had planned on asking for it for Christmas, but now I'm thinking I cannot wait that long. I have another of Mr. Slater's cookbooks - Appetite - which is also beautiful, but I love the whole seasonal thing this one seems to have going on.

[lindy]

I think I am going to have to break down and read some Nigel Slater.

I felt a bit queasy when I first read about him, and learned that his autobiography was called "Toast", and existed well before I had even thought of a blog.

Obviously, I've been missing something.