Nigel Slater in Conversation

 

Join gallery owner, Mike Goldmark, in live conversation with the cook who writes, Nigel Slater.

A long-running Kitchen Chronicle

Nigel has written his weekly column for The Observer newspaper for twenty-six years. It is his curiosity and fascination for details, his observations of the small, human moments of cooking and eating that are the hallmark of his writing. The much-loved essays from his kitchen are photographed each week by Jonathan Lovekin.

The Diaries and other works

Nigel’s recipes are often told as stories, as in his award-winning books Tender, the three-volume Kitchen Diaries and The Christmas Chronicles. Others are collections of simpler, more concise recipes to use as daily inspiration. These are published as Appetite, Eat and the recently published, vegetable-based GreenFeast. He has also written a best-selling memoir and a book of essays. Nigel's books have been translated into German, Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Korean, and Taiwanese.

The Story of a Boy’s Hunger

Toast is the memoir of Nigel’s childhood. It has won five literary awards and been translated into six languages. Toast has been dramatised for radio, made into a film and has recently been adapted for the stage. After its premier at The Lowry and the Edinburgh Fringe it moved to London in the spring and summer of 2019 and then toured for six months until the end of the year.

On Screen

Having written and presented nine television series for the BBC including Simple Suppers, Dish of the Day and Eating Together, his latest televsion work is the three part documentary series, Nigel Slater’s Middle East, in which he travelled through Turkey, Iran and Lebanon. The latter was nominated in this year’s Fortnum and Mason Awards. Toast, the film of his childhood memoir starring Helen Bonham Carter and Freddie Highmore is currently on Netflix.

On Stage

Nigel Slater's Toast, the stage play of his much loved memoir, has been performed at The Lowry in Salford and at the Traverse Theatre at the Edinburgh Fringe in the summer of 2018. Adapted by Henry Filloux-Bennett and directed by Jonnie Riordan, it starred Giles Cooper as Nigel. Toast was on stage at The Other Palace Theatre in London before touring the country for six months.

Literary Festivals

Nigel has appeared at the Berlin Literary Festival in conversation with Priya Basil, in Birmingham with Ravinder Bhogal (2018) and in Dublin (2019) with Marian Keyes. In Spring 2020 he will be attending the Cologne Literary Festival where he will be in conversation with literary critic Denis Scheck.

Podcasts

How to Fail with Elizabeth Day

A long-standing collaboration

Although he writes alone, Nigel develops his recipes, documentaries and television series with his long-standing collaborator James Thompson. James creates, directs and produces their television programmes and is Food Director of the stage production of Toast. He is co-founder and Executive Director of Sloe Films working in London and the Middle East.

Awards

Nigel's writing has won the National Book Awards, the Glenfiddich Trophy, the James Beard Award, The Fortnum and Mason Award, the British Biography of the Year and the André Simon Memorial Prize. Television awards include a Guild of Food Writers’ Award for his BBC1 series Simple Suppers and the BBC Food Personality of the Year. The stage adaptation of Toast by Henry Filloux-Bennett, was itself recipient of a Cameo Award. Nigel is an honorary Master of Letters (MLitt). He was awarded an OBE in the New Year Honours 2020 'for services to cookery and to literature'.

Traveller... Collector...Instagrammer....

Nigel’s home is in London but he travels regularly. He takes an annual ‘sabbatical’ in Japan. He is also a gardener “of sorts” and a collector of ceramics and contemporary art. He is active on both Instagram and Twitter. Author, diarist, programme maker and cook, he remains very much an amateur in the kitchen. Nigel is not and never has been a professional chef. His food is simple, understated, handcrafted home cooking. He believes there is something quietly civilizing about sharing a meal with other people.“The simple act of making someone something to eat, even a bowl of soup or a loaf of bread, has a many-layered meaning. Sharing food suggests an act of protection and caring, of generosity and intimacy. It is in itself a sign of respect.”
Image of Nigel Slater kindly supplied by @jennyzarins