|
Loading... Toastby Nigel Slater
LibraryThing recommendationsMember recommendationsLoading...
won't like
will probably not like
will probably like
will like
will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. Sad and funny (  ) chicjohn | Dec 3, 2009 |  Subtitled "The story of a boy's hunger," this is the story of a young boy whose mother was (to put it gently) not the greatest cook in the world. As he describes the horrors of the food she made, he manages to highlight the relationship of food to love in our lives. While he has always been interested in food and cooking, his father did not allow him in the kitchen, so when his mother dies and father must take over the provision of meals, life becomes even more dire. After dad hires (and later marries) a cook/housekeeper, the food gets better, but life somehow does not. In fact, the family is uprooted and moved halfway across England to establish a more uppity lifestyle to please the 'new mum.' Later when he gets old enough to get a job at a pub, and then a posh hotel, he realizes his calling in food prep. His father's death brings everything to a boil, severs the link with bridezilla, and provides Nigel with the impetus to go to cooking school and take up his true vocation. I 'read' this one as an audio while preparing our Thanksgiving meal. I loved hearing the British terms for foods --had to go look up a few--and laughed so hard I had tears in my eyes in a few places. It really brings out the role food (and in Britain the role of TOAST) in our lives, and how our relationships with food providers are formed so early in life. An enjoyable read--it's as much a coming of age bio as a food event-- even if you're not a foodie. (  ) tututhefirst | Nov 28, 2009 | I enjoy the British, but I don't understand what they see in Nigel Slater. (  ) pilarflores | Sep 29, 2009 | I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It brought back a multitude of my own food-related memories, and made me feel quite nostalgic (and very hungry) at times. Slater's writing is clear, honest, unsentimental, and bursting with fresh metaphors. The story of his childhood is so sad, but he tells it in such a positive way. A lovely read. Now, I'm off to the kitchen to butter myself some toast... ( ) nebowers | Sep 12, 2009 | A poingant tale of a boy growing up in sixties Britain told through his relationship to food. Each episode is ony a few pages long and most are titled by food. Frome thes facets the reader builds up a picture of a difficult child surviving a difficult childhood (his mothers death and his father's subsequent remarriage). Although my life is very different to Nigel Slater's I'm almost exactly his age and spent my first seven years in England, and this book brings back memories of cakes sunk in the middle, tinned mandarins in jelly, tinned fruit and ideal milk, maybe not cuisine but made and eaten with love. (  ) Figgles | Jul 27, 2009 |  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0007241828, Paperback)Toast is Nigel Slater’s truly extraordinary story of a childhood remembered through food. In each chapter, as he takes readers on a tour of the contents of his family’s pantry—rice pudding, tinned ham, cream soda, mince pies, lemon drops, bourbon biscuits—we are transported....His mother was a chops-and-peas sort of cook, exasperated by the highs and lows of a temperamental stove, a finicky little son, and the asthma that was to prove fatal. His father was a honey-and-crumpets man with an unpredictable temper. When Nigel’s widowed father takes on a housekeeper with social aspirations and a talent in the kitchen, the following years become a heartbreaking cooking contest for his father’s affections. But as he slowly loses the battle, Nigel finds a new outlet for his culinary talents, and we witness the birth of what was to become a lifelong passion for food. Nigel’s likes and dislikes, aversions and sweet-toothed weaknesses, form a fascinating backdrop to this exceptionally moving memoir of childhood, adolescence, and sexual awakening. A bestseller (more than 300,000 copies sold) and award-winner in the UK, Toast is sure to delight both foodies and memoir readers on this side of the pond—especially those who made such enormous successes of Ruth Reichl’s Tender at the Bone and Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential. (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:00 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wikipedia in English (1)
