Appetite: A Memoir in Recipes of Family and Food

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I was moved to tears several times, especially when the author talked about his lovely relationship with his parents and his mum's fight with dementia. When making the Yorkshire puddings the instructions state to divide the batter equally, but it does not say around how many portions the roast beef and puddings serves, so it would be rather a guessing game the first time. I thoroughly enjoy this combination book of memoir and favourite recipes which I think works really well, with just the right balance between the two. While perhaps ill-advised by modern weaning standards, it seemed to work for him in 1967, and from that moment on he was hooked on food. Overall, moving, funny and surprisingly relatable, "Appetite" is a most delicious literary treat and one of the best memoirs I've read.

Whether it’s the book of his favourite recipes he gives to each of his children on their 18th birthday or the time he spends teaching his father to make a cheese soufflé, he demonstrates that food is a way of showing he cares. Balls has always been a keen home chef, the primary meal-maker for himself, Yvette and their three children, Ellie, 22, Joe, 20, and Maddy, 17. The most entertaining part of the book covers his Westminster years, including the 1993 lunch when Peter Mandelson asked him to quit journalism and work as Gordon Brown's adviser.So, although Balls knows his Ottolenghi, Angela Hartnett and, um, Nigella, he might do worse than get to know Jane Grigson’s Good Food in England and Simon Hopkinson’s The Prawn Cocktail Years; or indeed, that Seventies classic, the Reader’s Digest Round the Year Cookbook.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an ARC of this delightful book. Of course this may not have available when Ed’s mother showed signs, but I think it would be really responsible to have a note at the end of this book. Ed chats all things Appetite with Lara and Liv on the Spectator’s Table Talk podcast which is available to listen to here , and you can read more about Appetite in this article from the Guardian.I haven’t actually tried his revolutionary sounding sponge cake which uses double cream rather than butter; let’s keep an open mind here.

Things became a bit more interesting when he spilled the beans on PM Gordon Brown’s general disinterest, and sometimes abject distrust, of any plate put in front of him; or a senior colleague, Peter Mandelson’s exquisite minimalist presentation of tomato soup luncheon with a side of lettuce. His stories resonated with the listeners at Durham Book Festival, as tales of Sunday roasts and the quirks of family eating awakened the audience’s collective memories.

I bought the book really for the recipes which I understood were going to be good 'old fashioned' cooking.