Kitchen Shelf: Issue 103

Maddie Ballard samples must-reads for the savvy cook.

A Cook’s Book: The Essential Nigel Slater by Nigel Slater, Fourth Estate, $60

Subtitled The Essential Nigel Slater, this might just be Nigel Slater’s best book to date. Certainly I devoured it from cover to cover, like a novel, and reading it before bed was immensely comforting during the stress of the Omicron outbreak and world news in early March.

It seems the writing of it was also a comfort for Nigel himself: penned during the 2020-2021 pandemic while holed up at his house in London, A Cook’s Book catalogues food eaten to soothe. The book’s chapters run the full gamut of comforting home cooking – precisely the kinds of things you want to eat when you’re feeling a bit anxious. Chapter titles include “A Bowl of Soup”, “Sometimes, You Just Want Pie”, “Pudding and Other Matters” and “The Ritual of Tea”.

The recipes, like all Nigel’s recipes, are approachable and flavour-forward; food simply presented and eminently cookable. Many are soothingly English: Baked Cauliflower with Cheddar, Mustard and Onions; Bread Sauce; Blackberry and Apple Pie. But the book also traverses the flavours of the world – think Baked Tomatoes with Ginger and Coconut, Red Lentil and Bulghur Burger or Linguine with ‘Nduja and Tomatoes.

The book offers food for every mood and season – whether you’re heading home from a late night (try one of the Frying Pan Suppers), having the grandparents round for tea (Apricot and Lemon Curd Cake, anyone?) or planning a family supper (Nigel’s roast chicken, see recipe page 112, would be perfect). Meat-eaters and vegetarians will be equally at ease here, with both a section on “The gory glory of steak” and an amazing, if unassumingly titled, section on “Vegetables from the grill”. And those who look forward to dessert will find plenty to inspire, with more than 50 recipes for biscuits, cakes and other puddings. (You can try Nigel’s fudgy Marsala Almond Chocolate Slice from the recipe on page 108; it’s just the thing with an after-dinner espresso.)

Like all of Nigel’s books, though, it’s not just about the food. With its impossibly lyrical prose and frequent meditations on the pleasures of eating, it’s also a sheer joy to read. And beside it all are Jonathan Lovekin’s gorgeous photos, coaxing autumnal colours out of every plate of food, and capturing light through windows, Nigel’s garden in the rain and plenty of gentle interiors.

If you’re after not only dinner inspiration (which abounds here) but also a cookbook you will want to read cover to cover and give to all your friends, this is the one to buy.