So, back to simple | Nigel Slater: A Cook’s Book
…But casual does not mean careless. There is much pleasure to be had from doing a little thing meticulously – taking your time to perform a kitchen task that could be done more quickly. There is a lot of satisfaction in slowly, carefully unfurling and washing salad leaves. Drying them too. If I am enjoying a specific kitchen task – making a salad dressing, shaping a loaf or grating a lemon – I will often slow down, taking a minute or two more to enjoy the process. It is why my pestle and mortar gets as much use as my food processor. Both have a place in the kitchen, but one is about getting something done, the other about enjoying doing it.
I would rather have a good time round a table with friends and some rough-edged cooking than marvel in silence at the cook’s technical precision…Unfettered by the chains of classical cooking or misplaced authenticity, I am free to enjoy myself in the kitchen, and only care whether or not something is delicious. Something is either good to eat, or it isn’t.
