Book

Notes from the Larder

📖 Overview

Notes from the Larder documents a year of cooking and eating through Nigel Slater's kitchen diary entries. The book contains both recipes and observations about ingredients, seasons, and daily meals prepared in his London home. Each month brings new seasonal ingredients and cooking inspiration, from winter's root vegetables to summer berries. Slater records his market purchases, garden harvests, and the simple dishes that emerge from his pantry and stovetop. The writing captures both practical cooking notes and moments of reflection about food's role in daily life. Photographs throughout show ingredients, finished dishes, and glimpses of Slater's kitchen and garden. The diary format reveals how cooking intertwines with memory, weather, and the passing of time. This chronicle demonstrates how paying attention to everyday meals can connect us to both nature's rhythms and our own personal rituals.

👀 Reviews

Readers describe Notes from the Larder as a personal diary-style cookbook that chronicles Slater's daily cooking and observations throughout the year. What readers liked: - Relaxed, conversational writing style - Focus on seasonal ingredients and simple cooking - Detailed descriptions of kitchen moments and food preparation - Works as both a cookbook and bedtime reading - Photography and book design What readers disliked: - Limited actual recipes compared to page count - UK-specific ingredients can be hard to source elsewhere - Some found the diary format repetitive - Price point considered high by several reviewers Ratings: Goodreads: 4.4/5 (144 ratings) Amazon UK: 4.7/5 (231 ratings) Amazon US: 4.5/5 (41 ratings) Notable reader comment: "Like having a conversation with a knowledgeable friend in the kitchen" - Goodreads reviewer "Beautiful but impractical for actual cooking" - Amazon reviewer

📚 Similar books

Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater A collection of recipes interwoven with observations of seasonal cooking and eating through one year.

An Everlasting Meal by Tamar Adler The narrative follows ingredients from market to table with instructions for turning scraps and leftovers into future meals.

Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin Essays and recipes merge to tell stories of cooking, feeding others, and finding comfort in the kitchen.

The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters The fundamentals of cooking unfold through recipes and principles that emphasize market-fresh ingredients and uncomplicated techniques.

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat A guide to understanding the elements of cooking through personal stories, science, and recipes that build upon each other.

🤔 Interesting facts

🌿 Notes from the Larder is written as a daily kitchen diary, chronicling an entire year of Nigel Slater's cooking, gardening, and food observations. 📚 The book is part of Slater's "Kitchen Diaries" series, which includes three volumes documenting his intimate relationship with food and cooking. 🍳 Slater wrote the entire book by hand in notebooks before it was published, believing that handwriting helps create a more personal and authentic connection with his thoughts. 🌱 Many of the recipes in the book were inspired by produce grown in Slater's own London garden, which he tends himself and uses as a source of both ingredients and inspiration. 🏆 The book received widespread acclaim for its honest, unpretentious approach to food writing, with The Guardian calling it "deeply personal yet universally appealing."