Nigel Slater (born in Wolverhampton, England, in the late 1950s, according to the BBC) is an award-winning food writer and journalist based in London, England. He has written a column for The Observer Magazine for over a decade and is the principal writer for the Observer Food Monthly supplement. Prior to this Slater was food writer for Marie Claire magazine for five years. He also has contributed to GQ, Harpers and Queen, and the Sainsbury's magazine and serves as art director for his books.

In 1998 Slater hosted the Channel 4 series Nigel Slater's Real Food Show. Although best known for his uncomplicated recipes and early bestsellers such as The 30-Minute cook and Real Fast Food, he became known to a wide audience with the publication of Toast: The Story of A Boy's Hunger, a moving and award-winning autobiography focused on his love of food, his childhood, his family relationships (his mother died of asthma when he was nine), and his burgeoning sexuality. The book was published in October 2004 and became a bestseller after it was featured on the Richard and Judy Book Club.

As Slater, who is openly gay, told the gay news and culture website afterelton.com about "Toast", "I think the really interesting bits of my story was growing up with this terribly dominating dad and a mom who I loved to bits but obviously I lost very early on; and then having to fight with the woman who replaced her.... I kind of think that in a way that that was partly what attracted me to working in the food service industry, was that I finally had a family."[1] As he told the Observer, "The last bit of the book is very foody. But that is how it was. Towards the end I finally get rid of these two people in my life I did not like [his father and stepmother, the family's former housekeeper] - and to be honest I was really very jubilant - and thereafter all I wanted to do was cook."[2]

He returned to TV in 2006 hosting the chat/food show A Taste of My Life for BBC One.

Slater's columns and books are photographed by Jonathan Lovekin.

"Food is, for me, for everybody, a very sexual thing and I think I realised that quite early on. I still cannot exaggerate how just putting a meal in front of somebody is really more of a buzz for me than anything. And I mean anything. Maybe that goes back to trying to please my dad, I don't know. It's like parenting in a way I suppose." "[3]

Cookery Books

• Marie Claire's Creative Cuisine, Hamlyn, (ISBN 0-7064-2573-1, 1992)
• 30 minute Suppers, Penguin, (ISBN 0-14-600351-98 )
• Real Fast Food, Michael Joseph Ltd, (ISBN 0-7181-3577-6, 1992) or Penguin Books Ltd, (ISBN 0-14-046949-4, 1993)
• Real Fast Puddings, Michael Joseph Ltd, (ISBN 0-7181-3577-6, 1992) or Penguin Books Ltd, (ISBN 0-14-023283-4, 1994)
• The 30-Minute Cook , Michael Joseph Ltd (ISBN 0-7181-3752-3, 1994)
• Real Good Food: The Essential Nigel Slater, Fourth Estate Ltd, (ISBN 1-85702-370-6, 1995)
• Real Cooking, Michael Joseph Ltd, (ISBN 0-7181-4090-7, 1997) or Penguin Books Ltd (ISBN 0-14-025277-0, 1999)
• Real Food, Fourth Estate Ltd, (ISBN 1-85702-971-2, 1998) or (ISBN 1-84115-144-0, 2000)
• Appetite, Random House of Canada Ltd, (ISBN 0-679-31212-9, 2000) or Fourth Estate Ltd (ISBN 1-84115-470-9, 2000)
• Thirst, Fourth Estate Ltd, (ISBN 1-84115-768-6, 2002)
• The Kitchen Diaries: A Year in the Kitchen, Fourth Estate Ltd, (ISBN 0-00-719948-1, 2005)

Autobiography

• Toast: The Story of a Boy's Hunger, Fourth Estate Ltd, (ISBN 1-84115-289-7, 2003) or HarperPerennial (ISBN 0-7011-7287-8, 2004)

2004 Andre Simon Award for "Toast"

2004 Glenfiddich Food Book of the Year for "Toast"

2004 British Biography of the Year Award for "Toast"

2004 Observer Food Monthly Book of the Year Award for "Toast"

2000 Andre Simon Award for Cookbook of the Year for "Appetite"

1999 Glenfiddich Award for Best Visual Work for "Real Food"

1999 Best Newspaper Cookery Journalist Award

1996 Media Personality of the Year Award (Good Food Awards)

1995 Glenfiddich Cookery Writer of the Year Award

1995 Glenfiddich Trophy

• Index of Observer columns and recipes
• Appearance on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs
• 1998 Profile by Tamasin Day-Lewis
• Harper Collins microsite for The Kitchen Diaries
• Interview on gay and culture website afterelton.com
• Interview with the Observer about his childhood, sexuality, and writing life