Toast: The Story of a Boy's Hunger [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Slater, celebrated in Britain for his food columns in London's Observer, recalls his childhood in great and moving detail, interweaving his hunt for oral gratification with prose portraits of his family. His mother, utterly devoted to him yet something of a kitchen klutz, could not make up for the physical abuse that burst from his conflicted father. Slater's mother's early demise and his father's remarriage to the family's cleaning woman did little to enhance the sensitive lad's self-image. What joy the boy found stemmed from occasional culinary successes out of his mother's kitchen and from an endless, stereotypically English cascade of sweets. Readers of Slater's accounts of eating out in the 1960s may come to believe that the British really invented fast food, something for which Americans generally shoulder blame. Slater's hunger for both food and human love are achingly recorded. American readers may find some of this memoir tedious and obscure since Slater obsesses over the seemingly boundless output of British candy factories, never employing a generic term when there is a regional trademarked noun at hand. Mark Knoblauch
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'Acutely observed, poignant and beautifully written!Slater tells his heartbreaking story with great subtlety. The theme of food and love is a fascinating one and I have never seen it better handled.' Daily Telegraph 'He recreates with moving honesty and laugh-out-loud comedy the hopes and fears of boyhood. Remarkable.' Observer '"Toast" connects emotions, memory and taste buds. Genius.' Lynne Truss, Sunday Times 'A talent for prose as simple and pleasurable as his recipes.' Sunday Telegraph 'Exquisitely written!You read this remarkable memoir partly cringing, partly marvelling at Slater's hallucinogenic retrieval of times past. He is the Proust of the Nesquik era.' Independent 'It achieves a remarkable freshness![and] reveals a gift for doleful, Alan Bennett-like comedy.' Guardian 'This touching memoir proves [Slater] is more than a cookery writer. Its emotional impact will touch a chord with many.' Sunday Mirror 'Wonderful, precise!extraordinary.' Matthew Fort 'It's bitter-sweet, it's a book to be consumed in a single sitting, a book that slips down really nicely. However you want to put it, "Toast" is delicious.' The Oldie 'This book should be treasured for its prose!and for its vision of a world seen through the senses.' Independent on Sunday '[A] touching odyssey through childhood tastes, treats and tortures.' Sunday Times 'Toast is served up with seasoning and flair!Vivid and moving.' Observer

One of our best-loved food writers recounts his culinary odyssey - from greedy schoolboy to gourmet and }Observer{ food columnist. Slater's columns are hugely popular, and his backlist sales consistently strong. His last hardback; }Appetite{ sold over 100,000 copies. A winning combination of food writing and biography which could well emerge as one of the books of the year. Disturbingly confessional in places - should raise a few eyebrows in the media! 20 integrated b/w illus. *Also appeared in August Buyer's Notes*. -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.

The Sunday Times Bestseller, and the biggest memoir of the year, from Britain's best loved food writer. 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 somehting 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.

Nigel Slater ist die unumstrittene Autorität unter Englands Kochbuch-Autoren. Seine Bücher sind allesamt Bestseller und gewannen namhafte Preise wie die renommierte Glenfiddich Trophy und den Andre Simon Award. Er ist ausgebildeter Koch und ein renommierter Journalist. Er hat eine eigene Kolumne im Observer und ist außerdem Produzent mehrerer Kochsendungen bei der BBC.