TOAST

The only one food that Nigel Slater’s mother
could cook without ruining it was toast, and so consequently this was his
staple diet as a young middle-class boy grooming up in Wolverhampton, a town in
the British Midlands, in the 1960’s. Late at night Nigel would surreptitiously
read cookery books in bed by torchlight pining for exotic mouthwatering food. When his poor kitchen-challenged mother suddenly died he and his
cold-fish of a father were now on their own and their diet consisted of cheese
on toast for the best part of a year until Mrs. Potter turned up.  She
came to be their cleaner and a shocked (rather snobby) Nigel took a instant
dislike to the house being evaded by this colorful loud-mouthed chain-smoking
woman simply because she was common.

Mrs. Potter however not only took her cleaning duties
very seriously but she was also a dab hand in the kitchen and very soon it was
obvious to both father and son that this would how she would worm her way into
their lives on a more permanent basis.  A plan that Dad soon acquiesced
too with great delight but one that made Nigel come to hate this interloper with
a vengeance.

Mrs. Potter already had a husband so to avoid him and
make a fresh start Dad secretly bought a new house miles away in the country and
moved both Nigel and Mrs. Potter in to live happily ever after. But that was
never going to happen, and as Nigel grew up and went to High School he took
cookery lessons to ostensibly to cultivate his passion for food, but in reality
it was to take Mrs. Potter on in fighting for his father’s attention as she had
been bombarding him with gourmet meals. It could only end in tears, or worse.

This delightful biopic based on the memoir of Food
Writer and TV Personality Nigel Slater is as light and fluffy as the lemon
meringue pie he was obsessed with perfecting.  An entertaining period
piece that Brits excel at with its wistful Dusty Springfield soundtrack and a
script by Lee Hall who has also penned ‘Billy Elliot’, this was a joy to
watch.  Young Nigel is played by two actors, the older one was Freddie
Highmore who seems to corner the market on teen roles right now, but it is Oscar
Kennedy in his screen debut playing the young Nigel who really steals the
spotlight with his wonderful grieving.  But both boys are out shone by the
delectable Helena Bonham-Carter who’s pitch perfect as the garrulous
Mrs. Potter with her good/bad character is gorgeously funny and steals the
movie and truly made it the treat that it is.