Nigel Slater
Encyclopedia
Nigel Slater is an English food writer, journalist and broadcaster. 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 serves as art director for his books.
. He moved to Worcestershire
as a teenager and attended Chantry High School
where he enjoyed writing essays and was one of only two boys to take cookery as an O-Level subject. He used food to compete with his stepmother - the former cleaning lady - for his father's attention. Their biggest battle was over lemon meringue pie - his father's favourite. His stepmother refused to divulge her recipe, so Slater resorted to subterfuge in order to turn out his own version. "I'd count the egg-shells in the bin, to see how many eggs she'd used and write them down. I'd come in at different times, when I knew she was making it. I'd just catch her when she was doing some meringue, building up that recipe slowly over a matter of months, if not years."
He gained an OND in catering at Worcester Technical College in 1976. He then worked in restaurants and hotels in the UK, before becoming a food writer for Marie Claire
magazine in 1988. He became best known for uncomplicated, comfort food recipes presented in early bestselling books such as The 30-Minute Cook (1994) and Real Cooking, as well as his engaging, memoir-like columns for The Observer
which he began in 1993.
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
and BBC Two. In 2009 he presented the six part series Simple Suppers on BBC One, and a second series the following year.
as "the sort of ragbag of choice culinary morsels that would pass the time nicely on a train journey". His book Tender is the story of his vegetable garden, how it came to be and what grows in it. The book is to published in two volumes - the first on vegetables was released late in 2009, the second on fruit released in 2010. Tender is described as a memoir, a study of fifty of our favourite vegetables, fruits and nuts and a collection of over five hundred recipes.
Slater became known to a wider 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. Slater has called it "the most intimate memoir that any food person has ever written". Toast was published in Britain in October 2004 and became a bestseller after it was featured on the Richard & Judy Book Club. 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." A film based on the book also called Toast
, starring Freddie Highmore
as the 15-year-old Slater and Helena Bonham Carter
as his stepmother, has been broadcast on BBC One.
area of North London, where he maintains a kitchen garden
which often features in his column. He was a guest "castaway" on the BBC Radio 4
's Desert Island Discs
in June 2005.
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
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
Marie Claire
Marie Claire is a monthly women's magazine first published in France but also distributed in other countries with editions specific to them and in their languages. While each country shares its own special voice with its audience, the United States edition focuses on women around the world and...
for five years. He also serves as art director for his books.
Life and career
Young Nigel Slater attended Woodfield Avenue School, Penn, West MidlandsPenn, West Midlands
Penn is an area now divided between Wolverhampton in the West Midlands and South Staffordshire. Originally, it was a village in the historic county of Staffordshire. There is considerable confusion about exactly which areas fall within Penn...
. He moved to Worcestershire
Worcestershire
Worcestershire is a non-metropolitan county, established in antiquity, located in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire" NUTS 2 region...
as a teenager and attended Chantry High School
Chantry High School (Worcestershire)
The Chantry High School is mixed gender comprehensive school in Martley, Worcestershire, England. The school has about 700 students on roll who come mainly from small villages around the edge of Worcester, The school has a Technology College specialism...
where he enjoyed writing essays and was one of only two boys to take cookery as an O-Level subject. He used food to compete with his stepmother - the former cleaning lady - for his father's attention. Their biggest battle was over lemon meringue pie - his father's favourite. His stepmother refused to divulge her recipe, so Slater resorted to subterfuge in order to turn out his own version. "I'd count the egg-shells in the bin, to see how many eggs she'd used and write them down. I'd come in at different times, when I knew she was making it. I'd just catch her when she was doing some meringue, building up that recipe slowly over a matter of months, if not years."
He gained an OND in catering at Worcester Technical College in 1976. He then worked in restaurants and hotels in the UK, before becoming a food writer for Marie Claire
Marie Claire
Marie Claire is a monthly women's magazine first published in France but also distributed in other countries with editions specific to them and in their languages. While each country shares its own special voice with its audience, the United States edition focuses on women around the world and...
magazine in 1988. He became best known for uncomplicated, comfort food recipes presented in early bestselling books such as The 30-Minute Cook (1994) and Real Cooking, as well as his engaging, memoir-like columns for The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
which he began in 1993.
In 1998 Slater hosted the Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
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
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
and BBC Two. In 2009 he presented the six part series Simple Suppers on BBC One, and a second series the following year.
Writing
Slater's book, Eating for England: The Delights & Eccentricities of the British at Table (Fourth Estate), is devoted to British food and cookery. It was published in October 2007 and was described in The Sunday TimesThe Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
as "the sort of ragbag of choice culinary morsels that would pass the time nicely on a train journey". His book Tender is the story of his vegetable garden, how it came to be and what grows in it. The book is to published in two volumes - the first on vegetables was released late in 2009, the second on fruit released in 2010. Tender is described as a memoir, a study of fifty of our favourite vegetables, fruits and nuts and a collection of over five hundred recipes.
Slater became known to a wider 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
Asthma
Asthma is the common chronic inflammatory disease of the airways characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and bronchospasm. Symptoms include wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath...
when he was nine) and his burgeoning sexuality. Slater has called it "the most intimate memoir that any food person has ever written". Toast was published in Britain in October 2004 and became a bestseller after it was featured on the Richard & Judy Book Club. 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." A film based on the book also called Toast
Toast (film)
Toast is a British TV film directed by S.J. Clarkson, and based on cookery writer Nigel Slater's autobiographical novel of the same name....
, starring Freddie Highmore
Freddie Highmore
Alfred Thomas "Freddie" Highmore is an English actor. He is best known for his roles in the films Finding Neverland, Five Children and It, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Arthur and the Invisibles, August Rush, The Golden Compass, The Spiderwick Chronicles, and Toast.-Early life:Highmore was...
as the 15-year-old Slater and Helena Bonham Carter
Helena Bonham Carter
Helena Bonham Carter is an English actress of film, stage, and television. She made her acting debut in a television adaptation of K. M. Peyton's A Pattern of Roses before winning her first film role as the titular character in Lady Jane...
as his stepmother, has been broadcast on BBC One.
Personal life
Slater has two older brothers, Adrian and John. John was the child of a neighbour and was adopted by Slater's parents before he was born. He lives in the HighburyHighbury
- Early Highbury :The area now known as Islington was part of the larger manor of Tolentone, which is mentioned in the Domesday Book. Tolentone was owned by Ranulf brother of Ilger and included all the areas north and east of Canonbury and Holloway Road. The manor house was situated by what is now...
area of North London, where he maintains a kitchen garden
Kitchen garden
The traditional kitchen garden, also known as a potager, is a space separate from the rest of the residential garden - the ornamental plants and lawn areas...
which often features in his column. He was a guest "castaway" on the BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
's Desert Island Discs
Desert Island Discs
Desert Island Discs is a BBC Radio 4 programme first broadcast on 29 January 1942. It is the second longest-running radio programme , and is the longest-running factual programme in the history of radio...
in June 2005.
Cookbooks
- The Marie Claire Cookbook, Hamlyn, (ISBN 0-7064-2573-1, 1992)
- Real Fast Food, Michael Joseph Ltd, (ISBN 0-7181-3577-6, 1992) or Penguin Books Ltd, (ISBN 0-14-046949-4, 1993)
- Real Fast Puddings, Michael Joseph Ltd, (ISBN 0-7181-3577-6, 1992) or Penguin Books Ltd, (ISBN 0-14-023283-4, 1994)
- The 30-Minute Cook, Michael Joseph Ltd (ISBN 0-7181-3752-3, 1994)
- Real Cooking, Michael Joseph Ltd, (ISBN 0-7181-4090-7, 1997) or Penguin Books Ltd (ISBN 0-14-025277-0, 1999)
- Real Food, Fourth Estate Ltd, (ISBN 1-85702-971-2, 1998) or (ISBN 1-84115-144-0, 2000)
- Appetite, Random House of Canada Ltd, (ISBN 0-679-31212-9, [2000) or Fourth Estate Ltd (ISBN 1-84115-470-9, 2000)
- Thirst, Fourth Estate Ltd, (ISBN 1-84115-768-6, 2002)
- The Kitchen Diaries, Fourth Estate Ltd, (ISBN 0-00-719948-1, 2005) or Gotham Books, published by Penguin (USA) Inc., (ISBN 1-592-40234-8), October 2006
- Tender, Volume One, Fourth Estate Ltd, Harper Collins (ISBN13 978-0-00-724849-0) (2009)
- Tender, Volume Two, Fourth Estate Ltd, Harper Collins (2010)
Autobiography
- Toast: The Story of a Boy's Hunger, Fourth Estate Ltd, (ISBN 1-84115-289-7, 2003) or HarperPerennial (ISBN 0-7011-7287-8, 2004)
- Eating For England, Fourth Estate Ltd, (ISBN 0-00-719946-5, October 2007)
Awards
- 1995 Glenfiddich Cookery Writer of the Year Award
- 1995 Glenfiddich Trophy
- 1995 Glendfiddich Award for Best Visual Work for The Observer
- 1996 Media Personality of the Year Award (Good Food Awards)
- 1999 Glenfiddich Award for Best Visual Work for Real Food
- 1999 Best Newspaper Cookery Journalist Award
- 2000 André Simon Award for Cookbook of the Year for Appetite
- 2004 André Simon Award for Toast
- 2004 Glenfiddich Food Book of the Year forToast
- 2004 British Biography of the Year Award for Toast
- 2004 Observer Food Monthly Book of the Year Award for Toast
- 2004 WH Smith People's Choice Award for "Toast"
- 2006 British Book Award for The Kitchen Diaries
- 2007 Specialist Writer of the Year, PPA Awards
- 2009 Honorary M.Litt. from the University of WolverhamptonUniversity of WolverhamptonThe University of Wolverhampton is a British university located on four campuses across the West Midlands and Shropshire. The city campus is located in Wolverhampton city centre with a second campus at Compton Park, Wolverhampton; a third in Walsall and a fourth in Telford...
- 2009 BBC Food Personality of the Year
External links
- Official site
- Nigel Slater 5th Estate
- Nigel Slater interview The Comment Tree
- Nigel Slater columns and recipes The Observer
- Nigel Slater: the interview The Observer, 14 September 2003
- Tamasin Day-Lewis 1998 The Real Cook Waitrose
- Nigel Slater's Simple Suppers BBC One