Inspiration and intent
This book changed my life over the past year.
I bought it as a gift for The Boy last Christmas. Somewhere along the line he had come to own one of Nigel Slater’s earlier books, Appetite and it was that book that introduced us to what is certainly our favourite meal. I will no doubt write about it later in the year, probably more than once, but suffice to say it is a meal that is impeccably simple and yet never out of place served to guests. That recipe got us both thinking.
See, when I met The Boy we inevitably got into the discussion of how I came to live in my little suburban flat, and I mentioned something flippantly about choosing it because it had a nicer kitchen than the other places in the neighbourhood. And that’s truth: I remember telling the estate agent that I was pretty much choosing on kitchen alone, as everything else was so cardboard-box-similar. So this made The Boy assume something: that I could cook.
In 2004, I could not cook. I could heat things up.
The shameful thing was that I honestly didn’t know there was a difference. At that point, I was perfectly convinced that things in boxes from M&S, heated correctly and served with impeccable presentation on my carefully chosen Ikea plates counted as cooking.
I had a lot to learn.
The Boy was not a masterchef. He was able to point out that my definition of cooking was wrong, and he had a bit more luck with following a recipe than I did at the time. So somewhere along the line, we started attempting a bit more cooking and a bit less heating things up. We messed up a lot along the way. But with heating things up (or indeed, take-away) as a back-up, it turned out to be not-so-scary. We started to find our little comfort zones. For all the fun I’ve been having with cupcake recipes over the last few years, The Boy has been doing the same with pastas and recently risotto. (I will declare from the beginning that we have very little hope of ever being a low-carb household, and we’ve decided it’s best to admit it and work with it. So pasta, cupcakes and a brisk walk around the park it is then.) But back to the book.
So I gave The Boy this book last Christmas because he was such a Nigel Slater fan. No extra special logic there. But it turned out that I was the one who would fall in love with this particular book. It is what it says: a diary rather than a traditional cookbook. A year’s worth of entries documenting what one well-known food journalist grows, buys, cooks and eats in real life. So a narrative format, with recipes thrown in here and there. And some gorgeous photos added in for good measure. (Another aside: the only way this book would be more amazing would be if it became a joint venture with Nick Bantock in a culinary Griffin & Sabine. But I digress.)
I tried my best to read the entries in season, though I could have thoroughly enjoyed reading it all in one weekend, like a brand new Harry Potter. By reading them in time with the calendar, I learned far more about what was in season, what was just about to be out of season and how herbs and spices do have a sort of seasonality about them. All sorts of good things to learn, little pieces of stories to amuse and recipes to top it all off.
I guess I just like everything to have a story, even my cookbooks.
Now back in my days of heating things up, I had a lot to learn. I still do. So much. But I have learned some basics, and more importantly, I have learned that I can really love cooking. It’s rarely a chore to me now. I still mess things up, but not as often as at the beginning. And yes, I know it’s schmaltzy, but I love that this is something we both enjoy. {It helps that we are both also big fans of eating.} We have learned enough that we are able to step away from cookbooks just a little. Even when we make something simple, we get excited when we put something together ourselves and it works. Look at us, we are the easily amused couple who get excited about dinner.
At least we are admitting it.
So thank you, Mr Slater, for Appetite and Kitchen Diaries and for so much inspiration. I hope you don’t mind that I’m totally stealing your idea and keeping my own personal kitchen diary for 2008. (If everything quickly disappears from the website, you’ll know that he did mind, I guess!) In my case, I am not keeping this because I am an expert and will share my ideas with the masses.
I’m keeping my kitchen diaries because it’s a life experience I want to record. I’m sharing it here because some of my friends share this newfound love of the kitchen, and if we help each other along the way, I think that would be brilliant. Someday it would even be nice to have them over for dinner.
Here’s to actual cooking this year. Cheers.
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