Nigel Slater on The Top Cookery Books of All Time

So your first choice is Nigella Lawson’s How to Eat. This was, I believe, her first book and the one that really launched her career?

Yes it was. If I could keep only one cookbook, this would be it. How to Eat suits the way I cook. It is as if Nigella is sitting on a stool next to me in the kitchen as I’m cooking. It’s almost like she’s chatting to me. There’s an intelligence to the way she writes and she expects a certain intelligence of her readers as well. Her recipes don’t patronise. There’s nothing reverential or sombre about the food she writes about, or the way she writes about it.

She mentioned at a talk in New York recently that when one of her recipes calls for two carrots that’s normally because that’s what she happened to have in her refrigerator. It’s really up to you if you want to put in one carrot or three… There is a school of thought that recipes are set in stone and that you have to follow them word for word. The lovely thing about Nigella’s writing is that her recipes do work in spirit as well as in practice. You can do exactly that, you can think, ‘Well actually I’ve got three carrots, I’ll just put three in.’

She is always very generous, and it’s quite clearly written by someone who adores food. With every page, you know she loves this stuff, and she wants you to love it too. It’s a very, very special book for me. My own copy is falling apart.

Your next choice, The Cook’s Companion, is by Stephanie Alexander – one of Australia’s most famous chefs. What can you tell me about this book?

This book is too big. It’s the heaviest book in my collection. But for all its sins of weight, it has a very clever balance between information and inspiration. So, for instance, if I turn to ‘peaches’ or ‘pork’, it gives me enough background for me to know what I’m doing before I start on the recipes. But it’s not a heavy read. Stephanie is obviously a very experienced cook: she’s been cooking in restaurants for pretty much all of her life. But she wears that knowledge and experience quite lightly; she doesn’t hit you over the head with it. And I like the way she cooks; it’s quite robust cooking. I tend to turn to her when I come across something that I want to know a bit more about. I wonder, ‘What does Stephanie say?’ She’s very good on ingredients, and because she’s had years and years of experience, it’s very, very first hand. I find that invaluable, those years of knowledge.

The Amazon reviews do seem to absolutely rave about it: ‘The greatest cookbook every published’; ‘My cooking bible’, etc. But is it more ingredients rather than recipes?

It is a bible. And no, there are a lot of recipes in there. They vary from the basic classics, some very simple things, and then she’s got her recipes from her restaurants as well. It’s a colossal work. It must have taken her years.

Is it very Australian? I know there’s kangaroo in there.

There is certainly an Australian slant. If you struggle you can probably get kangaroo here in London, but I’m not sure I want to. Apparently it’s very lean…

Your next choice is Elizabeth David’s French Provincial Cooking. Food writers always seem to love her, but for the rest of us is this more of a work of literature than a practical everyday cookbook?

It is a beautiful read. I find the recipes intensely inspiring. But I don’t follow them word for word. One of the things that very few people dare to mention about Elizabeth David is that some of her recipes don’t work. It’s heresy to say so, but they don’t. It’s the spirit of her recipes, and the way in which they’re written that’s inspiring. I find her very grounding. When you read chef’s recipes, and you suddenly think, ‘It’s all too fancy. I want to go back to basic good cooking!’ then I pick up French Provincial Cooking. Yes, there are complicated pâtés and terrines in there. But many of the recipes are quite quick – you can knock up one of her chicken sautés or a little pork au pruneaux very quickly. I think because of her descriptions and the way she writes, sometimes her recipes seem more complex than they are. Another thing I like about this book is the fact that it doesn’t date. A lot of books written in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, when you look at them, they’re almost caricatures: you find it difficult not to laugh. Whereas this book, it’s as relevant today as it was then. She was lucky – she got to that classic stuff before anybody else did…

And what’s your favourite recipe in French Provincial Cooking?

I think the poulet à l’estragon.