Toast

A food-obsessed youngster competes for his father's affections against a cleaning woman who knows that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach in director SJ Clarkson's adaptation of Nigel Slater's best-selling memoir. Growing up, Nigel (Freddie Highmore) never knew the simple joys of a home-cooked meal. While his asthmatic mother places the family on a steady diet of canned food, young Nigel pores over gourmet cooking books with the enthusiasm of an adolescent who's just discovered his first Playboy Magazine. Later, as Nigel's mother begins to fall ill, the relationship between the young boy and his gruff father grows increasingly strained. Shortly after Nigel's mother dies, his father hires a new cleaning woman named Mrs. Potter (Helena Bonham Carter) -- who also happens to be a wiz in the kitchen. His father enchanted by Mrs. Potter's show-stopping lemon meringue pies, the conflicted adolescent is aghast when he learns that the housekeeper will soon be his stepmother, and the family will be moving to the country. Nigel's initial horror quickly turns to elation, however, when he discovers that the local school offers a domestic science class. Before long, Nigel has become something of a culinary artist himself, and uses his skills to win back his father's affection one bite at a time. Later, after Nigel lands a job in a local pub, he discovers a whole new world of opportunity that will take him to the world-renowned Savoy Hotel in London after his father passes away.