2018 will in future be known as the year of the Great West Norwood Cookbook Cull. But which books to get rid of, and which to keep? The Random Recipe Adventure will help us decide (you can read a bit more about the premise here). Each week, a book will be taken from the shelves, examined, and cooked from. Losers go to Oxfam – winners stay on the shelves, with a promise that they will no longer be neglected quite as much as they have been for the last decade or so.
WEEK 10
The book
The Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater
How/where/when did I get it?
Yet another Christmas present, presumably in 2005, the year of its publication.
Have I used it since then?
Don’t be ridiculous – it’s Nigel Slater.
What Did The Random Recipe Generator throw up?
On this occasion, nothing.
Let me explain.
There are recipes in this book. But there are also ideas, and that is one of the areas where Nigel (we’re on first-name terms – of course we are) really shines. His descriptions are saliva-inducing, of course, and the recipes can be wonderful, but when he says ‘This is what I did. I took some lamb chops…’, he’s giving you that most important kitchen commodity: Permission To Tinker.
So rather than slavish devotion to the Holy and Precise Word of the Gospel of Nigel, I imbued myself with his spirit and allowed my own experience, knowledge and whim to guide me, coupled with a deep understanding of what we all like eating. Then, with Nigel perched figuratively on my shoulder, I tinkered. The result? Deeply savoury lamb burgers with garlic and smoked paprika, a courgette concoction zinged up with lemon juice, and a grated potato cake that was very nearly a complete disaster but – mostly thanks to Tessa’s calm intervention – took a left turn through the archway labelled ‘delicious’ at the last minute.
It was simultaneously nothing to do with the book in question and the embodiment of it. Thank you, Nigel, for Permission To Tinker.
So, what about it?
Don’t be ridiculous – it’s Nigel Slater.
The Verdict: Keeper or Chucker?
Don’t be ridiculous – it’s Nigel Slater.
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I taught myself to cook properly, by which I mean, taught myself how to cook without slavishly following every element of a recipe, by reading Nigel Slater’s books. Also, when I was first teaching myself to cook, i.e. how to feed myself and the other half, I loved his recipes for the fact they were the only ones I’d encountered that were designed for two people rather than four. In those days I did not cook for the freezer, so this was a godsend. Once my kitchen is refurbished this year I am looking forward to reacquainting myself with Nigel’s words of wisdom. (Though I would contend that he is not entirely sound on ‘Indian’ curries, much better on ‘Thai’. Which is probably heresy but I know what I know.)
Nigel Slater is to cooking what Elizabeth Zimmerman was to knitting. If you knitted I suspect you would get on well with EZ – her books are chatty and have little nuggets of wisdom scattered through them. She didn’t use patterns but made them up as she went along.