Sometimes, it takes time to sit down and watch/read something that has repeatedly been recommended to you from those who know you well. Such is the case with Nigel Slater’s memoir Toast that was turned into the delightful film I would like to recommend to you today.

An autobiographical film based on Nigel Slater’s memoir of the same name Toast: The Story of a Boy’s Hunger (2003).

The film is fabulous.

As someone, like many of you, who adores Nigel Slater, for the cooking shows he has had in Britain to his many cookbooks, I think it is safe to say he is a British treasure (here is his IG account). Slater is a self-described, cook who writes, and has written many cookbooks since Toast was published in 2003, most of the cookbooks in the form of diaries. As Nigel has shared in many interviews, he as always and continues to keep multiple diaries/journals because he forgets easily – one for what he eats, primarily for practical purposes as he has a weekly column in The Guardian where he shares three recipes, always seasonal and paired with his vivid and leisurely prose, and then other diaries to record ideas and life. It is from these diaries that many of the books are birthed.

And the book that began it all, and brought his name more widely to the public as he was writing for various magazines previously, in fact, at this time, just prior to publishing the memoir, he was writing for Marie Claire UK, was his memoir Toast. In fact, the book came about it basically by accident in many ways. The directive for his next article for the magazine was to write about childhood food memories, and when he took his article to his editor at the time, Justine Picardie, who you may recall has written well-received biographies about fashion icons designers and muses such as Coco Chanel and Dior, Miss Dior (Miss Dior was chosen as a Petit Plaisir last year), she immediately saw that there was much more than an article in what he had written. With her encouragement, along with an additional editor who still works with Slater to this day, that his article was turned into a bestselling memoir.

And so it goes! Toast won awards upon its release, and in 2023 it celebrated its 20th anniversary after being adapted in 2010 to become a film, the film I am sharing with you today.

Many of you have are sitting there going, Shannon, I told you to watch that years ago! And you did, I know. I want to thank you for your patience because so many people have emailed me over the years and said, Shannon, you will love this film or you will love the book Toast. They were most definitely right. Spot-on right. 😌

The memoir that inspired the film — Toast: The Story of a Boy’s Hunger by Nigel Slater

Sometimes you just need to be ready to watch or read something. And in this case, because I knew a lot of Nigel Slater’s story, and knew the premise of Toast, I wasn’t ever ready emotionally to watch the film with regards to the relationship with his parents. And I knew there was death. And ironically, I was ready to watch it right now and that is what I did a couple of weeks ago.

So if you’ve never read/listened to the book or watched the film, here is a brief synopsis. It is a story of awakening in many respects.

You have a young boy who at the age of eight or nine, a boy who adores his mom, and essentially Nigel is an only child because his two older brothers are moved out of the house, but in the storyline, they are never mentioned (just a bit of real Nigel Slater backstory and why they aren’t placed in the film), is living a happy life.

So he technically was, as he’s described it, an only child. And at this point his mom is having severe complications with asthma. And she’s not a great cook, but she does cook. It’s very basic cooking. But she cooks. The early years of Slater’s childhood were idyllic as he himself has described in interviews. Up until the point of his mother’s death. They live in town in Wolverhampton in Birmingham in the 1960s in a nice Georgian house with a beautiful big back garden, a friendly neighborhood and his friends who he visits frequently. He adores his mother, they get along wonderfully, and his father is really never home because he owns his own business. Once Nigel’s mother has passed, you have his father trying to cope, and doing a quite horrible job of it. Nigel has described his father as a bully in interviews even today long after his father passed away while he was a teenager.

Young Nigel starts to experiment with cooking as a young child and saves up his pences to buy different ingredients at markets there in town. He begins to follow his curiosity and determination to eat better than what they have been eating, because while it wasn’t great when his mother cooked, it became even worse when his father attempted it.

Enter Joan, played by Helena Bonham Carter. And you will quickly, even though you love her as an actor, loathe her role in this film because she does a wonderful job of playing her part to a “T”. Joan, and this is what Nigel forever calls her, never step-mum, (he did change her name to protect the real-life person, who then ironically, as soon as the book/film came out outed herself anyway, even though Slater never shares her real name) enters Nigel’s life as the housekeeper that his father hires. She eventually snuggles her way into Nigel’s father’s life. And as Nigel Slate has said, whether for love or for money, she really wanted to be part of his father’s life.

As you would imagine, young Nigel astutely knew that Joan did not want him around and they never got on. Ironically, she is a phenomenal cook and baker which piques Nigel’s curiosity even further, but Joan feels threatened by his curiosity and his attempts at cooking and refuses to teach him anything. Eventually the new hybrid family moves out into the countryside, very isolated, yet in a beautiful home and garden as Nigel Slater has acknowledged in interviews.

But the home life wasn’t great. It was very tense. And so you have in the film, Helena Bonna Carter basically just makes an enemy of herself with Nigel. And it inspires Nigel Slater further to learn more about cooking on his own. He takes cookery classes in high school, the only boy who took cookery class at that time in his school, and told his father he was taking shop class. Then following his father’s marriage to Joan, as a way to get out of the house, Nigel took on a job at a local pub or local restaurant being a cook part-time.

Throughout the story, you observe a young boy begin to awaken as he explores his passion and love for cooking and food, about growing up through adolescence, and his sexual awakening as well, but also his courage to chase what he loves. Once his father passes away which happens suddenly while Nigel is still a teenager, this gives permission to Nigel to be free from this tense home life and he sets out to live and work in London. And it is this last scene that will bring a smile to those who know who Nigel Slater, the actual person, Nigel Slater, is because he has a decent cameo welcoming the young Nigel playing him in the film into his first cooking/restaurant job, at The Savoy in London.

It’s just an endearing film. And again, if you know Nigel Slater’s writing style, the book Toast will be just as lovely and even more humorous, but also even more tear-jerking. I look forward to reading it and welcoming it into my library soon.

Below is the trailer to the film, along with all of the links of how and where to enjoy offerings of the book and its adaptations as well as recipes I have enjoyed from Nigel Slater shared on the blog:

• watch the film on Amazon Prime
• read the book (that inspired all other adaptations)
• the play (in London, it is no longer running, but it may be in a theater near you)
• The memoir that inspired all of the above: Toast: The Story of a Boy’s Hunger
• Read Nigel Slater’s weekly recipe column in The Guardian.

More content about Nigel Slater:

• Nigel Slater’s Spaghetti Bolognese: A Valentine’s Day Dinner to Love
  • another adaptation with video tutorial –Papperdelle Bolognese, season #6, episode #3 of TSLL cooking show
• Zucchini, Pancetta Orzo w/Parmesan: A Nigel Slater Pasta Favorite for Simple Goodness during the Week or for a Casual Dinner Party

Toast was chosen as the Petit Plaisir for episode #398 of The Simple Sophisticate podcast, The Simple Two Word Phrase that will Transform Your Life in Extraordinary Ways, as taught by Mel Robbins (and it’s not the phrase seen on the cover!)

~Explore all of TSLL’s British-inspired Petit Plaisirs here.