A Welsh dad who started creating his own air-fryer recipes over lockdown has put together his own cookbook that has become an 'air-fryer bible.' David Small, originally from Newport, struggled to find a recipe book for mostly British food with metric measurements, so started to put together his own recipes using his Ninja Foodi.
His recipe book has become so much of a success that it's been referred to as the 'bible' for air fryer users. David, 47, self-published the book on Amazon and celebrated the sale of his 50,000th book at the end of last year - a feat he "never imagined", Manchester Evening News reports.
"My kids rate everything I cook between one and 10, with 10 being the highest," he said. "So everything scoring nine or 10 made it into the book. It was finally ready in January of 2021. I knew there would be demand for the book as it was something that so many UK-based Ninja Foodi Facebook group members kept repeating. I didn't expect to sell anywhere near as many as I did however." You can get more local news and other story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
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David, who now lives and works in Germany, said that the things he missed about living back home were strong tea, bacon, British-style pork sausages, decent baked potatoes, HP sauce and malt vinegar - aside from friends and family, of course. His book, therefore, was focused on British food and includes ingredients that are available to buy from UK supermarkets.
"Cooking during lockdown and also trying to cook and feed my kids within an hour was no mean feat," he said. "I picked up the Ninja Foodi, knowing that I could cook well with it and quickly, eat and be back to work before the boss noticed that I was offline. I used it at least two, usually three times a day. My kids very much enjoy eating British-style dishes, often preferring it over the German-style cuisine.
"It has always been an important decision for me to feed my kids at least one home-cooked hot meal per day, so the ability to cook healthily, quickly and cost-effectively made the decision to use the Ninja Foodi a no-brainer for me."
David's children, Emily and Liam, said they were proud to tell their friends that their dad was a best-selling cookbook author. He has also received messages of support over Facebook from those who have used his recipe book.
"Over the last almost two years, I have received many lovely messages from readers via Facebook who have thanked me for the ridiculously simple way that I have written the book, giving them confidence in using the scary-looking gadget as well as allowing them to show-off to friends and family with the diverse variety of dishes that can be prepared in the device," he said.
"I have never really used a cookbook much, so I tend to over-explain everything in my book, just in case someone like me was to pick it up. The book has featured in the top 10 of the UK Amazon Cooking charts on a few occasions, usually after Christmas and Black Friday and currently sits in the top 100 of all books in the UK bestseller list, something I was absolutely not prepared for."
Some of David's recipes include a full English breakfast, Irish beef stew, Lancashire veggie hotpot, and sticky beef and broccoli. The Big Metric Ninja Foodi Cookbook is on offer in paperback for £14.38 and can be ordered online from Amazon here.
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