Appetite - Softcover

Slater, Nigel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1841154709 ISBN 13: 9781841154701

Publisher: Fourth Estate, 2014

Synopsis

Nigel Slater’s inspirational guide to home cooking.

‘I want you to take in the spirit of the recipes and to deviate according to your ingredients and your feelings. I urge you to break the rules. I want you to follow your appetite.’

Inspiring and irresistible, ‘Appetite’ takes a hundred simple classics and casts aside the insecurities of normal recipes. Ingredients are listed, followed by a suggestion of how much you might need, i.e. ‘double cream – start with 100 ml then see how you go’. Readers will be liberated to use their own judgement, indeed actively encouraged to skip half the ingredients for pared-down versions that will teach them the essence of a dish. Recipe titles reflect this approach – ‘a cheap spaghetti supper’, ‘a big pork roast’, ‘a curry to make you sweat’. Slater’s typically unpretentious style and ready wit put the fun back into food.

About this title

Review

What is there to say about a new Nigel Slater book? Especially one called Appetite. It is exactly what it should be. This is the book he has been heading for all along. It is about food, to be sure, but it is also a statement of his personal philosophy, which seems to amount to this: that our appetites are founded in pleasure; and that we must interrogate those pleasures, and take them very seriously indeed, if we are to eat as well as we can. To eat well means to eat, and cook, pleasurably. So in Appetite Slater takes food, and cooking, back to where he believes it belongs, back to the realm of sensuous pleasure and comfort. Back to the sheer bliss, as he might say, of putting something warm, soft and sticky in your mouth.

Very cleverly, he has built his book not around detailed recipes as such--that would be too specific for his purposes--but around the sort of thing that might pop into your head as something you would really like to eat. No one says "I fancy Shallow Fried Herring Milt with Sherry Vinegar, Parsley and Butter Sauce tonight"; but they might well think of a Creamy, Calming Pasta Dish, or a Big Fish Pie, or Bangers and Mash. They might like to know, too, some of the endless variations they can play on these platonic essences. These are the kinds of food this generous and handsome book celebrates; foods that have a genuine part to play in people's lives. This is quintessential Nigel Slater, laid-back, not claiming any special privilege as a chef ("If I can do it, so can you" he remarks); and all wrapped up in that wonderful, lived-in, squashy prose that hits the spot every time. A feast of a book, from a man with no tricks or gimmicks, who is happily in touch with his own appetites and wants to put us in touch with ours.--Robin Davidson

Review

‘He’s a genius, his food is scrummy and his voice more personal than usual.’ Guardian

‘Slater remains the reigning champion...‘Appetite’ is an instant classic. It’s comprehensive, inspirational and beautiful to look at.’ Daily Express

‘The total and utter must-have of the year.’ Rosie Kindersley

Praise for ‘Eat’:

‘Nothing was ever going to come close to Nigel Slater’s “Eat”. An instant classic’ Cookbook of the Year, The Times

‘This year’s smallest yet fullest cookbook is from Nigel Slater ... ‘Eat’ reminds us that he remains the UK cookery writer who breaks new ground as regularly as a mole.’ Rose Prince, Daily Telegraph, ‘Books of the Year’

‘There’s nobody better than Nigel Slater at making cooking seem a relaxed, modest and wholly enjoyable affair ... This chunky, easy-going book continues that approach in 400-plus pages which never run out of inspiration’ Daily Mail

About this edition

• Publisher: Fourth Estate
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1841154709
• ISBN 13: 9781841154701
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 448