Tuesday 1 February 2011

Inspiration from a Brilliant Book - The Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater

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Sometimes you pick up a book and from the very first paragraph it has you hooked. Recently this has been happening to me with a few of my cookery books, but this week while I was up in Scotland I started reading this book and it has been the best and most inspirational of reads I have had for a long time. I struggled to put it down, and picked it back up at every opportunity.
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Nigel's style of writing and cooking are just so right for me. His ethos of buying locally, seasonally and fresh, and picking from his own veggie patch are so in tune with what I am trying to do this year. He admits when he just has cravings for fish fingers and has a mad dash to the corner shop to buy them (and gets spotted and tut, tutted at). It has been lovely to sit each day and dip into this book, to mark the pages so I can find recipes I want to try out and just to slip into his culinary world a little and lose myself in the wonderful pictures.
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It's not often that I use my Blog to recommend a book, in fact I don't think I've done it to this extent before, but this is definitely a book worth having if you're even slightly food minded. I got mine from Amazon, at a very reasonable price! I'm going to dip into some more of his books now to see if they can match up to this. ~
Sue xx

10 comments:

  1. Hi Sue, I was reading about Nigel Slater on another blog just the other day. To be honest I have never heard of him before, he is obviously big in the UK. He has written an Autobiography called "Toast" which was made into a BBC TV programme. I'm not sure if you already know this, I thought it may be of interest to you. Seems like changes are afoot with an upcoming move. I hope everything works out really well for you and DH. Linda

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  2. Hi Manchester Lass (from another one - me!) Yes, I got the book Toast when it first came out way back in 2003, and watched the programme at on the BBC at Christmas, in my opinion the best thing on over Christmas this year.

    I have all his books but with the exception of Toast I had never sat and read them properly before, after reading The Kitchen Diaries I am about to remedy that. It really was an inspiring book.

    I'm about to start on Tender one of his HUGE volumes about growing and eating your own veg......I may be missing for a while...Lol!!

    Thank you for your lovely comment.

    Sue xx

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  3. We love Nigel Slater's recipes and have his book, Real Food. We are always dipping in to his on-line recipes and watch any of his cookery programmes avidly. His recent programme about using up whatever is available was brilliant. Of course, he does use rather a lot of cream and butter!!! but other substitutes are available!! Ann x

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  4. I know Ann.....but cream and butter are sooooo yummy!!

    Sue xx

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  5. Had never heard of him til now but will look out for his books now. Always nice to know of an inspirational read.

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  6. Sue - I completely agree about this book. It was recommended to me by a work colleague a couple of years ago after she had created his double ginger cake and I swooned!! It is indeed a wonderful book to dip in and out of - he's got such a lovely gentle way about him
    Best wishes
    Kim x

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  7. I love nigel slater, his recipes use few ingredients, but he brings them together in a way to make them totally divine. I have his "real food" book and every recipe I have tried had been gorgeous :) plus as i read his books you can here him speaking to you lol

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  8. I'm another big fan of Nigel's cooking, and the way he writes about it. I've loved the "Simple Suppers" series on TV, and have loads of his books, though not this one. I really appreciate he de-mystifies cooking and encourages recipe creation rather than recipe following. His rich fruit cake recipe has become our gold standard for Christmas and Birthday cakes.

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  9. I love Nigel. He is my favourite 'celebrity chef' by a mile and his writing and style is so evocative. Haven't got this one. Birthday next month - it's going on the list. (Under 'bantams')
    Love C
    xxx

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  10. Sue. Reading Toast had me sobbing with laughter. His description of his first family dinner using a pre-packed drum of parmesan cheese had me roaring!

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