A cookbook preview

I didn't think Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries was due to be published until October 3rd, the date given by most on-line retailers. Yet I managed to pick up a copy yesterday, some two weeks early, though not as early as a friend, Sara, who knows Nigel¹. She got her copy personally sent several weeks ago. And I had to pay for my copy.

Some intial thoughts on it; very nicely presented, beautifully laid out, great photography, even nice paper and one of those little strips to mark your page, all very old-fashioned in some respects. The writing is it's usual chatty, informal style, filled with asides and comments. Whilst touting some 300 new recipes, it is not a cookbook as a collection of recipes, but more of a journal of buying, growing, sourcing, preparing, eating and enjoying food in all it's stages and all it's forms. From cheese on toast to slow cooked pot meals (and that's just January), it is about real food as made in the home. No allusions to restaurant food, no showy dinner party stuff, just everyday food.

1. The sounds of names dropping...