Slater, Nigel

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Slater, Nigel

PERSONAL:

Born in Wolverhampton, England.

ADDRESSES:

Home—London, England. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Penguin Group, Gotham Publicity, 375 Hudson St., New York, NY 10014.

CAREER:

Food writer. Marie Claire, London, England, food editor, 1988-93; Observer, London, England, food columnist, 1993—.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Glenfiddich Award, 1989, 1995, 1999, 2004; Cookery Writer of the Year Award, 1995, 1999; Glenfiddich Trophy, 1995; BBC Media Personality of the Year, 1997; Guild of Food Writers Broadcaster of the Year, 1999; André Simon Award, 2001, 2004; People's Choice Book of the Year, 2004; British Biography of the Year, 2004.

WRITINGS:

The 30-Minute Cook: The Best of the World's Best Cooking, photographs by Kevin Summers, illustrations by Juliet Dallas-Conte, Wiley (New York, NY), 1996.

Real Fast Food: 350 Recipes Ready-to-Eat in 30 Minutes, Overlook Press (Woodstock, NY), 1996.

Real Cooking, M. Joseph (London, England), 1997.

Real Fast Desserts, Overlook Press (Woodstock, NY), 1997.

Nigel Slater's Real Food, photographs by Jonathan Lovekin, Fourth Estate (London, England), 1998.

Appetite: So What Do You Want to Eat Today?, photographs by Jonathan Lovekin, Fourth Estate (London, England), 2000, Clarkson Potter (New York, NY), 2002.

Thirst, Fourth Estate (London, England), 2002.

Toast: The Story of a Boy's Hunger (biography), Fourth Estate (London, England), 2003, Gotham (New York, NY), 2004.

The Kitchen Diaries: A Year in the Kitchen with Nigel Slater, Gotham (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributes a regular column to the Observer and to Sainsbury's Magazine.

SIDELIGHTS:

British food writer Nigel Slater is the author of numerous cookbooks, food biographies, and articles about food and eating. He writes a regular column for the Observer and contributes to several other periodicals. Born in Wolverhampton, England, in the late 1950s, Slater developed a love for food at a very young age. He sought out food as a form of comfort from his unhappy family life, and later in reaction to his own questions regarding his sexual identity. His mother died when he was nine, and some of their last words included an argument about the mince pies that Slater wanted to help her to make. After that, Slater used cooking as a means of getting attention, and when his father remarried, he bonded with his new stepmother in the kitchen. Toast: The Story of a Boy's Hunger recounts the details of Slater's childhood, until he reached the age of eighteen, showing how food and cooking became his main coping mechanisms. In order to accurately remember the emotions of that time, Slater revisited many of the foods and recipes of his youth. Kyle Smith, in a review for People, remarked of Slater that "his memories are invariably fresh and warm in this charming memoir." In a review for Booklist, Mark Knoblauch wrote: "Slater's hunger for both food and human love are achingly recorded." A contributor for Kirkus Reviews called the book "an engrossing, revealing look back at his 1960s childhood through the foods that filled his family's kitchen."

The Kitchen Diaries: A Year in the Kitchen with Nigel Slater follows Slater over a year as he cooks and serves meals in his own home, including shopping lists and photographs of the dishes as they are prepared. A true diary of his cooking for the year, the book illustrates how Slater uses seasonal ingredients and shops at specialty stores and farmers' markets. Elfreda Pownall, in a review for the Spectator, declared that with this volume, "Slater has become the foodie Pepys." A contributor for Bookseller wrote: "The joy of Nigel's recipes consists in their personal exuberance."

Cookbooks by Slater focus primarily on freshness of ingredients and speed of preparation. Real Fast Food: 350 Recipes Ready-to-Eat in 30 Minutes, provides quick recipes for dishes such as Black Bean Tacos with Tomato-Chili Salsa. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly remarked of Slater's style: "The fairly slapdash arrangement is part of the appeal." Other offerings include The 30-Minute Cook: The Best of the World's Best Cooking and Nigel Slater's Real Food.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Slater, Nigel Toast: The Story of a Boy's Hunger, Fourth Estate (London, England), 2003.

Slater, Nigel The Kitchen Diaries: A Year in the Kitchen with Nigel Slater, Gotham (New York, NY), 2006.

PERIODICALS

Atlantic Monthly, May, 1996, review of Real Fast Food: 350 Recipes Ready-to-Eat in 30 Minutes, p. 122.

Bookseller, July 29, 2005, review of The Kitchen Diaries, p. 32.

Booklist, September 1, 2004, Mark Knoblauch, review of Toast, p. 36.

Caterer & Hotelkeeper, July 25, 2002, "Book Reviews," p. 42; November 24, 2005, "Review of Reviews," p. 23.

Entertainment Weekly, October 22, 2004, Melissa Rose Bernardo, review of Toast, p. 99.

Europe Intelligence Wire, October 13, 2002, Nigel Slater, "Observer Food Monthly."

Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 2004, review of Toast, p. 623.

Library Journal, August, 2004, John Charles, review of Toast, p. 111; September 1, 2004, Wilda Williams, "Food, Glorious Food," review of Toast, p. 44.

New Statesman, October 16, 1998, Bee Wilson, review of Real Cooking, p. 46; October 6, 2003, William Skidelsky, "Two Recent Memoirs Reveal how Hunger May Drive a Man to Be a Chef," p. 56.

Publishers Weekly, January 22, 1996, review of Real Fast Food, p. 66.

Spectator, November 26, 2005, Elfreda Pownall, review of The Kitchen Diaries, p. 48.