Nigel Slater is one of Britain's most highly regarded food writers. His beautifully written prose, warm personality and unpretentious, easy-to-follow recipes have won him a huge following. He writes an award winning weekly column in the 'Observer' and edits their 'Food Monthly' supplement, and he is a regular contributor to Sainsbury's 'The Magazine'.
The premise of Nigel Slater's mouthwatering new book is summed up in one of the earliest chapters, The New Cook's Survival Guide. The first three bullet points read: 1. Don't think you have to cook every day. 2. You can live on home-made soup and toast. 3. A diet of home-made soup and toast gets boring after a while. In essence, the author takes 100 classic recipes and pulls them apart, teaching readers to use their own initiative - adding ingredients here, taking away ingredients there. We end up with our own personal versions of stews, pastas and puddings and the confidence to refine, edit or simplify these dishes whenever we want. Slater has a wonderfully unpretentious style and there are chapters called Cutting Down the Work, Kids in the Kitchen and even a section on why junk food is so delicious. This is certainly not a book for vegetarians or for those trying to avoid a high-cholesterol diet but, as with all Slater's books, the reader cannot but be carried along by the author's obvious relish for the good things in life and the pleasure he derives from good ingredients as opposed to complicated recipes. The food is exquisitely photographed throughout - chocolate has never looked so chocolatey or fruit so fruity, and Slater's inspiring prose makes him much more than just another cookery writer. This book is set to become another classic. (Kirkus UK)