A comedy drama based on the slim memoirs of cook and food writer Nigel Slater. In 1950s Wolverhampton, nine-year-old Nigel is left with his distant father and new housekeeper Joan Potter after the death of his adored mother. Unlike his mother, whose greatest culinary achievement was toast, Joan is an excellent cook, and Nigel is soon competing with her for his father's affections by trying to outshine her in the kitchen.