The right ingredients
When celebrity food writer Nigel Slater began working on his autobiography, Toast: The Story of a Boy's Hunger, he had no idea it would become such a phenomenon. Nor did he ever think it would be adapted for film.
'Toast started as a short story,' says Slater. 'And it started as a story about the food I grew up with. But as I wrote, I realised that the food was linked to what I was doing at the time and my state of mind.
'Everything that was going on wasn't just about a packet of sweets, or a pie or pudding - and so I put that down on paper as well. And then my editor looked at it and said, 'You know, this is a book.''
The book was published in 2004. Soon after, producer Faye Ward got her hands on a copy and knew it would make a great movie.
'It's such an enjoyable read that you felt it would be crazy not to bring it to the big screen,' she says.
Once Slater found out that BBC wanted to create a made-for-TV movie, he was delighted and even a little shocked that he had never thought of the idea before.
'It hadn't occurred to me when I was writing it that it would ever become a film. The minute somebody said to me, 'It would make a good film', I thought, 'Of course it will'.' And it did. The BBC broadcast the film at the end of last year. This week marks its theatrical release in Hong Kong.
The film is set in 1960s Britain. Nigel (a young version played by Oscar Kennedy; an older version by Freddie Highmore) wakes up everyday to the delight of burnt toast. He is very close to his ailing mother (Victoria Hamilton), but she is useless in the kitchen. Her speciality includes canned and powdered goods. His mother's awful cooking eventually triggers Nigel's interest in the culinary arts.
Nigel's mother dies of asthma when he is nine, leaving him with his emotionally distant father (Ken Stott). That's when Nigel tries to be the cook in the house. But newly hired cleaning lady Mrs Potter (Helena Bonham Carter) happens to be a great cook and begins to catch the attention of Nigel's father.
Nigel enrols in domestic science classes to further develop his love for culinary arts. Soon he lands a job in a kitchen at a local pub, and that's when his eyes are open to a world of limitless opportunity.
Toast opens on Thursday
Contains mature content
