“How I transformed from cooking-phobe to food devotee”
For nearly two decades, Lindsay Nicholson had a split personality when it came to food. By day, the magazine she edited championed home-cooked family meals – but by night, on her own, it was all too often the ping of the microwave that heralded dinner. It was only when cooking became a form of solace and escape that she discovered how pleasurable it could be
ILLUSTRATIONS BY TRINA DALZIEL
As I sit at my desk writing this, a saucepan of lentil soup – lunch for today and tomorrow – simmers on the hob.
Later this afternoon, when my work is done, I’ll treat myself to a banana cake – making one, that is. I’ve been saving and freezing overripe bananas until I have enough.
Neither of those activities may strike you – as someone who reads a food magazine – as remarkable.
They may well be the stuff of your everyday life. But for me they represent the culmination of a lifetime of ambivalence about that most normal and mundane of everyday activities – making ourselves something to eat.
Many people have complex lovehate relationships with food. But what’s remarkable in my case is that for nearly two decades I was responsible for running Good Housekeeping – one of the most famous and successful magazines in Britain, known for the excellence of its recipe section. I spent much of my working day discussing recipes, selecting images of food and interviewing top chefs… …And most nights I went home to a microwaveable ready-meal.