Toast

Nigel Slater’s Simple Supper is one of my favourite TV programs.  He always cooks in a whisk simple dinners with only a few ingredients, adorned with home-grown herbs freshly picked from his own garden.  And the man certainly has some style.  Watching the food cooked in LC pots at the kitchen in Nigel’s spacious modern flat (I suppose the backdrop is his home, isn’t it?) is a delight.
Incidentally I watched a movie called “Toast” only did I realize halfway that it was an autobiography of Nigel Slater.  It was a kind of shock to me learning about the sad childhood of the celebrity chef.  Before watching the movie, I have a naïve belief that celebrity chefs mostly grow up in loving families and their mums are likely the inspirations for the stars.

Nigel Slater lived in a middle class family.  Although the family hired a young gardener (whom Nigel fancied) to take care of the family plot, Nigel’s mother never cooked fresh produce.  Indeed, his mother was a culinary disaster.  She even had trouble reheating canned food in boiling water.  When even that failed, she would turn to buttered toast, which was the only food cooked by the loving mum that Nigel found irresistible. 

Perhaps the miserable dinners fuelled Nigel’s crave for cooking.  He would read cookbooks with a torch under his blankets at night and venture into cooking the then still very exotic Spaghetti Bolognese for the family, which was unfortunately found sickening by his mean and abusive father. 

Nigel’s mum later suffered from asthma and died when Nigel was still a teenager.  After her death, Nigel’s dad fell in love with a seductive married cleaner Mrs. Potter, who could cook perfectly anything you could name.  Nigel’s dad later decided to move to a remote place to avoid any scandal.  Nigel hated Mrs. Potter for her trying to replace his mother.  Perhaps his only happy moments were his home economics classes during which he would learn how to make scones and trifles.  Nigel's strong desire to gain his dad's love, coupled with his newly gained knowledge and fierce passion in cooking result in a series of cooking competitions between him and Mrs. Potter.  They would fight to make the best Lemon Meringue Pie.  Sadly, despite Nigel's passion and good efforts, he lost the battle against Mrs. Potter for his dad.  Mrs. Potter soon won the heart of Nigel’s dad through his stomach. 

Nigel’s hatred of his father flared up after he married Mrs. Potter.  With Mrs. Potter’s force-feeding, Nigel’s dad’s temperament grew worse.  To avoid his dad and Mrs Potter, Nigel took a job at a local pub’s kitchen.  Nigel’s dad soon passed away presumably because of bad health resulting from having too much food.  Nigel packed his bags and left to work in a hotel kitchen in London.

The movie doesn't focus on food itself, but rather Nigel's passion for food and cooking which I found very moving.  And the film brought back many memories of my home economics classes to this date I still find very useful. 

Here's another lemon meringue pie I made the other day, not as perfect as the one featured in "Toast" though.