Toast

Toast is based on the autobiography by Nigel Slater, a noted British chef. It recounts the formative period in his childhood when he discovered his love of food and cooking.

The film takes place mostly in the 1960s and 70s. In the earlier period, when Nigel was a child (played by Oscar Kennedy), we can see how his diet has been misshapen by his mother’s lack of culinary skills. Perhaps formed by years of not wasting food and the lack of fresh foods during the war years (this is my speculation), coupled by her declining health (she has an asthmatic condition), Nigel’s mother (Victoria Hamilton) has neither the inclination nor the talent to whip up a decent or tasty meal. She consistently boils up things in a can and little more. The title of the film (and the book it is based on) comes from the last ditch effort she makes when a meal turns out wrong—toast is easy to make and hard to mess up. During this period young Nigel is also befriended by a handsome young gardener (Matthew McNulty) who expounds on the wonderful taste of garden-fresh vegetables. But his mother’s bad cooking has not turned Nigel off food, instead he has some battles with his father about refusing to eat badly cooked meals and insists there is a better way.


Nigel’s father (Ken Stott) also seems to share his wife’s proclivity for a bland and poor meal. This sentiment turns after he hires a new housecleaner after his wife dies. Mrs. Potter (Helena Bonham Carter) is “common” but a wonderful cook, something Nigel grudgingly admits. But he sees the signs—the quickest way to a man’s heart is through his stomach—and his father marries the brassy and overblown woman despite Nigel’s dislike of her.

As Nigel grows older (now played by Freddie Highmore), the mutual dislike between him and Mrs. Potter, now the new Mrs. Slater, continues. He constantly tries to learn recipes to show his father she is not needed, including taking home economics with the girls in school. He figures out her fabulous recipe for lemon meringue pie, but even his growing talent cannot sway his father. A very brief stint in a country restaurant kitchen awakens his love of cooking professionally as well as his homosexual awakening.

Although the story shows that Nigel’s battle with Mrs. Potter is what ironically fueled his love of cooking, I preferred the earlier story when he was younger. The dramatic plotline involving his mother’s declining health, and what we can see is Nigel’s true love of her despite this major “fault” of hers of not knowing how to cook, shows just how devoted he was to her. There was a spark here and there of her trying to be more adventurous and perhaps if she had lived and Nigel cooked more as he grew older, they could have found a common interest that would have worked for both of them. I felt the Mrs. Potter storyline, although at times funny and probably recounted true events, usurped the more personal earlier story. I also preferred the acting of young Oscar over the older Freddie, whose performance seemed a little too detached compared to Oscar’s more emotionally involved performance.

A soundtrack with several good songs by Dusty Springfield, whose sultry torch songs are repositioned here for Nigel's lost love of his mother as well as to his love of food, and good period production values, add to the artistic elements of the film. If there was one element I would have liked more to see, it would have been to have more up close scenes between Oscar and his mother, to show more their connection to each other.