IN a recent Guardian article celebrating the 20th anniversary of Nigella Lawson’s first cook book, How to Eat: The Pleasures and Principles of Good Food’ Nigel Slater wrote: “You can tell from the title this is more than a recipe book. From the first entry for roast chicken (stick half a lemon up its bottom) to the last – Marmite sandwiches (cream the butter and Marmite together as if you were making a cake) – the book is clearly the work of a roll-your-sleeves-up cook. Someone deeply familiar with the appetites of food-loving friends and a growing family. This is not some pictures-of-plates coffee-table tome.
“Nigella’s prose is lustrous, seductive and reassuring. You feel you are sitting by the cooker, Nigella passing you slightly-too-hot fritters from a pan as you gossip. She gently guides and cajoles her readers rather than barking orders at them. This is less a cookery manual, more a guide to having a good time at the table.”
Praise indeed for the female Peter Pan of cookery writers. She’ll be sharing her own feelings about her contribution to the renaissance of English cooking at this Lowry Q&A session when she will be interviewed by a range of authors, journalists and foodies t.
Sun Nov 11, Lyric Theatre, The Lowry, Pier 8, The Quays, Salford, M50 3AZ. Tel: 0843 208 6003. 2pm, £23.50/33.50/43.50. Buy tickets here.