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Tender: Volume II: A Cook's Guide to the Fruit Garden
Uniting the anecdotal charm of Toast with the intuitiveness and seasonality of The Kitchen Diaries, Fruit is Nigel Slater's definitive guide to seasonal garden fruits. Combining reminiscences from a lifetime spent working with and enjoying food, along with cultivation tips for the growing season, Fruit shows you how to use seasonal fruits in simple suppers and indulgent desserts. Organised alphabetically, each fruit is carefully considered in Slater's inimitable, unhurried warm prose, to give you an instinctive understanding of our heritage garden fruits. From a weekday supper of pork chops with cider and apples to a Chinese Sunday roast with spiced plum sauce and old family favourites of a deeply appley apple crumble to traditional fruit ices, Slater shows how the delicious flavours of fruits offer far more than simply being the inspiration for the occasional pot of jam, but are really the hidden gems in imaginative meat dishes and the backbone of successful home baking.
620 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2010
8 people are currently reading
666 people want to read
About the author
Nigel Slater
82 books426 followersNigel Slater is a British food writer, journalist and broadcaster. He has written a column for The Observer Magazine for seventeen years and is the principal writer for the Observer Food Monthly supplement. Prior to this, Slater was food writer for Marie Claire for five years. He also serves as art director for his books.
Although best known for uncomplicated, comfort food recipes presented in early bestselling books such as The 30-Minute Cook and Real Cooking, as well as his engaging, memoir-like columns for The Observer, Slater became known to a wider 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.
Slater has called it "the most intimate memoir that any food person has ever written". Toast was published in Britain in October 2004 and became a bestseller after it was featured on the Richard and Judy Book Club.
"I think the really interesting bits of my story was growing up with this terribly dominating dad and a mum 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." 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, who had been the family's cleaning lady] - and to be honest I was really very jubilant - and thereafter all I wanted to do was cook."
In 1998 Slater hosted the Channel 4 series Nigel Slater's Real Food Show. He returned to TV in 2006 hosting the chat/food show A Taste of My Life for BBC One.
Slater has two elder brothers, Adrian and John. John was the child of a neighbour, and was adopted by Slater's parents before the writer was born.
He lives in the Highbury area of North London, where he maintains a kitchen garden which often features in his column.
Although best known for uncomplicated, comfort food recipes presented in early bestselling books such as The 30-Minute Cook and Real Cooking, as well as his engaging, memoir-like columns for The Observer, Slater became known to a wider 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.
Slater has called it "the most intimate memoir that any food person has ever written". Toast was published in Britain in October 2004 and became a bestseller after it was featured on the Richard and Judy Book Club.
"I think the really interesting bits of my story was growing up with this terribly dominating dad and a mum 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." 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, who had been the family's cleaning lady] - and to be honest I was really very jubilant - and thereafter all I wanted to do was cook."
In 1998 Slater hosted the Channel 4 series Nigel Slater's Real Food Show. He returned to TV in 2006 hosting the chat/food show A Taste of My Life for BBC One.
Slater has two elder brothers, Adrian and John. John was the child of a neighbour, and was adopted by Slater's parents before the writer was born.
He lives in the Highbury area of North London, where he maintains a kitchen garden which often features in his column.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
January 1, 2016
Nigel Slater is one of my favorite cookbook authors for his ability to write a story that's as interesting to read as the recipes are to cook. There is nothing pretentious or difficult about his food. It is all quite easy to make. I was a bit crestfallen when I saw that Tender Volume I had almost no desserts in it, not knowing that Tender Volume II would be almost all desserts.
This is such a fantastic collection of recipes covering so many different fruits, that if I had to get a housewarming gift for someone, I would seriously consider this alone (if they loved to bake or had a garden), or both as a set. I think it's impossible to get just one and not want the other.
What I like most about his style of cooking is that it is all quite common sense, which just derive from his questions of what would he like to eat, and what does he have on hand. I think you start to get a better feel for how to use what's around you in your food, and you start to feel more comfortable about pulling your own meals together once you use these books. I never make extemporaneous desserts, but many of the ones in here are highly adaptable, so you can use your preferred fruit with similar results. There are even a few no-cook/bake desserts (cheesecake!) in here. Those are always at the top of my list!
Of particular interest are the background/intro notes on each fruit and the spice/food/taste pairings for each one.
This is such a fantastic collection of recipes covering so many different fruits, that if I had to get a housewarming gift for someone, I would seriously consider this alone (if they loved to bake or had a garden), or both as a set. I think it's impossible to get just one and not want the other.
What I like most about his style of cooking is that it is all quite common sense, which just derive from his questions of what would he like to eat, and what does he have on hand. I think you start to get a better feel for how to use what's around you in your food, and you start to feel more comfortable about pulling your own meals together once you use these books. I never make extemporaneous desserts, but many of the ones in here are highly adaptable, so you can use your preferred fruit with similar results. There are even a few no-cook/bake desserts (cheesecake!) in here. Those are always at the top of my list!
Of particular interest are the background/intro notes on each fruit and the spice/food/taste pairings for each one.
July 23, 2011
Utterly beautiful book; the photographs are sumptuous. Worth reading for the apple and walnut chapters alone. I think this one is up there with The Kitchen Diaries. It's almost a work of art.
June 16, 2012
Nigel has made me very excited for the allotment my family is getting, which is going to be turned into a mini orchard/fruit garden. His writing is food porn at its finest (/most hardcore?!) and most of the recipes are great- a few less so, such as the lamb and quince stew which had a sauce of only water and a little honey, and try as we might it tasted of nothing more than slightly sweetened water! However that was just one recipe, and it's the baking that really makes this book special- a gooseberry summer pudding, a moist damson spelt cake, a blackberry focaccia...
January 8, 2016
I've long thought Nigel Slater had the soul of a gardener, so to me this book is the soulful marriage of garden and kitchen and perfect for it. It's all fruit, all seasonal and English garden-grown, so no bananas or mangoes. But: quinces, medlars, blackcurrants, redcurrants, pears, apples, grapes and the most amazing compendium of recipes to go with, as well as useful advice about growing them in your garden. And he writes with exquisiteness - if there is such a word. And the photos are just right. I have lost many an afternoon already with it sitting heavily on my lap.
June 21, 2014
This is how a cookbook should be written, as a one on one discussion between the cook and the reader. Loved every page of this. Funny, tender, clearly written, brilliant recipes and a sharp eye for details of the world around him. More than a cookbook, much more.
February 18, 2011
A lovely cookbook. Because of the content and layout, I really want the first one of this pair.
October 13, 2011
Fabulous book. Is it a biography of a garden and its gardener or is it a recipe book? Simple answer: both.
December 14, 2012
Yummy! So many good recipes in here. So many good ideas to try. This is on my use all the time cookbook shelf(US title is "Ripe"). And it's just fun to pick up and read. Gorgeous pictures as well.
December 22, 2023
I couldn't have Volume I without Tender: Volume II: A Cook's Guide to the Fruit Garden. As you might have guessed, I'm lucky enough to have a productive garden and allotment. With a glut of redcurrants, blackcurrants, blackberries and at times apples and pears, I eagerly turn to Nigel Slater for inspiration. I've produced lots of tasty treats from the pages of this recipe book. And again, as in Volume I, the reader benefits from recipes and also advice on the different types of fruits and what they are best paired with. Highly recommended.
September 17, 2023
Beautiful photography of seasonal English fruit and great recipes. There are one or two recipes involving meat but most are vegetarian/vegan or easily made vegan. I appreciate that these are seasonal recipes with produce that is easy to grow yourself if you have access to a garden or allotment.
August 5, 2020
My absolute go to for cooking from the farm
August 12, 2016
If you are in need for ideas this is a good one.
Cook something different and not to difficult.
Cook something different and not to difficult.
January 19, 2014
Beautiful to read.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews