Appetite - Hardcover

What is there to say about a new Nigel Slater book? Especially one called Appetite. It is exactly what it should be. This is the book he has been heading for all along. It is about food, to be sure, but it is also a statement of his personal philosophy, which seems to amount to this: that our appetites are founded in pleasure; and that we must interrogate those pleasures, and take them very seriously indeed, if we are to eat as well as we can. To eat well means to eat, and cook, pleasurably. So in Appetite Slater takes food, and cooking, back to where he believes it belongs, back to the realm of sensuous pleasure and comfort. Back to the sheer bliss, as he might say, of putting something warm, soft, and sticky in your mouth.

Very cleverly, he has built his book not around detailed recipes as such--that would be too specific for his purposes--but around the sort of thing that might pop into your head as something you would really like to eat. These are the kinds of food this generous and handsome book celebrates; foods that have a genuine part to play in people's lives. This is quintessential Nigel Slater: laid-back, not claiming any special privilege as a chef ("If I can do it, so can you," he remarks), and all wrapped up in that wonderful, lived-in, squashy prose that hits the spot every time. A feast of a book, from a man with no tricks or gimmicks, who is happily in touch with his own appetites and wants to put us in touch with ours. --Robin Davidson, Amazon.co.uk

?If you decide to go through life without cooking you are missing something very, very special. You are losing out on one of the greatest pleasures you can have with your clothes on.? ? Nigel Slater

A chance comment spurred the heralded Observer columnist and wildly popular cookbook author Nigel Slater to write Appetite. A reader asked ?If you don?t give me exact amounts in a recipe, then how will I know if it is right?? Slater realized the reader had so little confidence in his own cooking that he didn?t know what he liked unless he was told. Appetite is not about getting it right or wrong; it is about liking what you cook.

To help the everyday cook achieve culinary independence, Slater supplies the basics of relaxed, unpretentious, hearty cooking, written with his trademark humour and candour. Slater doesn?t believe in replicating restaurant-style theatricality to impress guests -- he simply loves food, and his love is evident on every page.

Slater covers the philosophies of cooking, the basics to have on hand, and detailed descriptions of necessary equipment and ingredients. He tells you which wok to buy (the cheap one), and why it can pay to flirt with the fishmonger. There are sections on seasoning, a good long list of foods that pair well, and a large collection of recipes for soup, pasta, rice, vegetables, fish, meat, pastry and desserts. These are straightforward, easy-to-make dishes adapted for the North American cook -- every one a springboard to something new, different and delicious. And with full-colour photography throughout the book, Appetite is a feast for the eyes as well as the palate.