Toast: The Story of a Boy's Hunger

Toast: The Story of a Boy's Hunger
Nigel Slater

This Sunday Times Bestseller is the memoir of Britain’s best loved food writer, Nigel Slater.TOAST is Nigel Slater’s truly extraordinary story of a childhood remembered through food. Whether relating his mother’s ritual burning of the toast, his father’s dreaded Boxing Day stew or such culinary highlights of the day as Arctic Roll and Grilled Grapefruit (then considered something of a status symbol in Wolverhampton) this remarkable memoir vividly recreates daily life in sixties surburban England.His mother was a chops-and-peas sort of cook, exasperated by the highs and lows of a temperamental AGA, a finicky little son and the asthma that was to prove fatal. His father was a honey-and-crumpets man who could occasionally go off ‘crack’ like a gun. 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 and amusing backdrop to this incredibly moving and deliciously evocative memoir of childhood, adolescence and sexual awakening.

Toast

The story of a boy’s hunger

Nigel Slater

Copyright (#ulink_430f43d7-b59b-5619-a1f1-ca659ecadeb3)

Fourth Estate

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

First published in Great Britain by Fourth Estate in 2003

This edition published by Fourth Estate 2010

Copyright © Nigel Slater 2003

Nigel Slater asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9781841154718

Ebook Edition © AUGUST 2010 ISBN: 9780007386871

Version: 2019-04-19

Praise (#ulink_563573b0-ad91-5871-b71b-265270a89478)

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

‘An ingenious and touching treat’

Times Literary Supplement Books of the Year

‘Toast follows a recipe – boyhood blues without bitterness – that looks simple yet is actually hard to pull off. Slater manages it’

Guardian

‘Delightful…singular and original’

Evening Standard

‘The genius of his food writing comes from an obvious belief that food and happiness share the same organ in the brain’

LYNNE TRUSS, Sunday Times

‘A banquet of unlikely delectations…England’s answer to Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential’

Daily Telegraph

‘Proves he can write mouth-wateringly about families and life too: I gobbled it up’

Daily Telegraph Books of the Year

Dedication (#ulink_bff291d6-2c2b-55f8-b341-18a427f0e4cf)

For Digger, Magrath and Poppywith love

In memory of Elvie 1902–2002

Contents

Title Page (#u7323c385-06e2-58e5-aeb3-2574a8013b9e)

Copyright (#udc8151ef-5be2-5622-8baf-d197a4edb52a)

Praise (#u4dc4322a-647e-5a9e-8548-6de99684647e)

Dedication

Toast 1 (#u6cbc8da9-a807-58bd-a64c-12cca1e433c5)

Christmas Cake (#uc9589127-5136-5bf6-9e6a-8ace4d9a067b)

Bread-and-Butter Pudding (#u012e0050-2857-54b5-b9b2-a6aa35f3e9fa)

Sherry Trifle (#u16e64fd0-7572-5212-a8ce-505194a437a7)

The Cookbook (#uf6fd2f4e-bfb9-5179-806d-34b91358a7ab)

The Lunch Box (#ueb30f2cc-5f09-55b1-9ef8-35e591fc9b3d)

Jam Tarts (#uad664c52-b141-54d5-9a5f-0c031f71d1e5)

Spaghetti Bolognese (#uf8c7a3a9-5b7e-5812-a5b6-fef96ba4ee28)

Arctic Roll (#uccd99298-3fcc-54c3-9fe0-56b010dda2f9)