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#707905 - 08/16/11 04:25 PM
Re: New Article - Real Fast Food Book Review
[Re: Asha - Scot./Eng. Culture]
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BellaOnline Editor
Parakeet
Registered: 09/02/08
Posts: 1166
Loc: Germany/France
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Always loved his weekly articles in the 'Observer' newspaper Asha, made many of his recipes without one single complaint from anyone who had to eat them, and then about four years ago bought Real Fast Food. And it is a cook book which really does what it says, but in an innovative way. There is nothing boring about what he turns into a meal in a very short time.
As a Chef/Cook Book writer impossible to fault, have given Real Fast Food to several friends who insist they 'don't have time to cook', and they have all changed their minds.
Have never seen him on TV but heard him interviewed on Radio and he seems perfectly OK, a bit complex, as we all are, but having read his autobiography 'Toast', and seen a DVD of the BBC film in which the cast was amazing, am not sure what to think.
It was certainly not a flattering description of his family, his mother, father and then stepmother, and at the time I really thought it verged on the cruel, supercilious and was somewhat self pitying.
Later read an article by his step sisters, which made it sound as if a great deal of his autobiography had very little relationship to the facts.
However he is a cooking genius and often geniuses are a little eccentric, it seems to come with the territory.
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Francine McKenna-Klein - German Culture Editor German Culture Site - German Culture Facebook Avatar: HOHENZOLLERNBRUECKE Cologne, the CATHEDRAL and LUDWIG MUSEUM. Photo "Der Wolf im Wald". The EU won the 2012 Nobel Prize for Peace and "The European Dove of Peace 2012" by Plantu is added. Western Europe has enjoyed the longest period of peace in its history.
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#707935 - 08/16/11 06:03 PM
Re: New Article - Real Fast Food Book Review
[Re: Asha - Scot./Eng. Culture]
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BellaOnline Editor
Parakeet
Registered: 09/02/08
Posts: 1166
Loc: Germany/France
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Yes you are right Asha, we all put our own slant on our memories one way or another, but in this case there were things in the book that simply did not take place, and others, such as the fact that he supposedly lived alone with his father and stepmother, were incorrect.
However I do believe he was for whatever reason desperately unhappy, perhaps because it seems he was not 'the son' his father had wanted, and that is why he wrote what he did.
The BBC film was so well acted, standing as a story on its own without necessarily being based on an 'autobiography', and it was worth watching. The BBC do these programmes so well, and the casts are always impeccable, and this one did not let them down.
And whatever else Nigel Slater writes brilliant cook books.............and his recipes actually work.
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Francine McKenna-Klein - German Culture Editor German Culture Site - German Culture Facebook Avatar: HOHENZOLLERNBRUECKE Cologne, the CATHEDRAL and LUDWIG MUSEUM. Photo "Der Wolf im Wald". The EU won the 2012 Nobel Prize for Peace and "The European Dove of Peace 2012" by Plantu is added. Western Europe has enjoyed the longest period of peace in its history.
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#708989 - 08/20/11 07:49 AM
Re: New Article - Real Fast Food Book Review
[Re: Asha - Scot./Eng. Culture]
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BellaOnline Editor
Parakeet
Registered: 09/02/08
Posts: 1166
Loc: Germany/France
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Think it would have been very difficult for those sisters to deal with the situation, they are not used to the media, might even be afraid of it, and also probably have no experience with lawyers. Who knows, after the advice they were given, and not knowing that the book would be a relative success read by some thousands, they might have thought 'Least said, soonest mended', and wanted to stay out of the limelight.
The film though is a different thing, it was seen by millions who would have accepted it as being the truth, as that is how it was advertised. A bit like Mel Gibson's version of life in Scotland being considered genuine 'history', Enigma 'code breaking' being achieved in the USA and not Bletchley Park, Hertfordshire where it actually happened, the African slave who led the mutiny on the Spanish slave ship Armistad being shown in court in shackles, when he was kept in a cell in a completely different state from where the trial took place, etc. etc.
To a certain extent, when something is supposed to be 'fact', most of us believe what we are told unless we actually know differently, but 'historians' and film makers are usually trying to do two different things.
The book was an interesting read, and for someone whose cooking is so light and appetising, Nigel Slater came across as a surprisingly tortured soul.
The BBC film was definitely worth seeing. A fantastic cast, brilliantly acted and characterised, it is excellent TV, and it is not important to a viewer whether or not, like most things on television, it is basically fictional.
Am sure his 'Puddings' are just as good as all his other recipes Asha, so no doubt you are having a lot of fun trying them out.
_________________________
Francine McKenna-Klein - German Culture Editor German Culture Site - German Culture Facebook Avatar: HOHENZOLLERNBRUECKE Cologne, the CATHEDRAL and LUDWIG MUSEUM. Photo "Der Wolf im Wald". The EU won the 2012 Nobel Prize for Peace and "The European Dove of Peace 2012" by Plantu is added. Western Europe has enjoyed the longest period of peace in its history.
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