Nigel Slater is up there with my favourite chefs. We share similar values when it comes to food, specifically don’t overdo the ingredients and keep things simple (sounds familiar to GreatGrub members). I recall first becoming a major fan of his when he devoted an entire TV show to the potato and included the chip sandwich (thick fries in thick slices of bread with lashings of butter) among his favourite dishes.

This book is about real food for real people. Nothing here is beyond the grasp of even the novice cook. And I am certain that all the ingredients within each recipe are widely available. Moreover, in keeping with our own philosophy at GreatGrub, he calls on a dash of this, or a handful of that, recognizing that there is no substitute for individual experiment and taste. I fell in love with this book on the first page which reads simply this:

There is too much talk of cooking being an art or a science — we are only making ourselves something to eat.