Home cook’s high frying recipe book beats Jamie Oliver on Amazon’s bestseller list
WHEN Nathan Anthony was stuck at home during the pandemic, he decided to share a recipe for slow cooker spicy parsnip soup. He had no expectations that anyone would see it.
Now the first thing the BT manager does when he wakes up is check whether his air fryer cookbook is still the number one bestseller on Amazon.
The Healthy Air Fryer Book, released this month, pipped Jamie Oliver to become the fifth fastest-selling cookbook since records began and outsold Prince Harry’s memoir, Spare.
Meanwhile, demand for The Healthy Slow Cooker Book, which came out in January, was also “mental”.
Mr Anthony, 32, who is known as Bored of Lunch online, now has more than 2.5 million followers on social media. His stuffed chicken breast pesto recipe has been viewed more than 19 million times alone.
The influencer, who is originally from County Armagh, Northern Ireland, wrote both his books while working full-time. He has been at BT for eight years, joining as a graduate after completing a masters in HR at Queens University in Belfast. He has only just handed in his notice.
Air fryer sales increased 3,000 per cent last year amid the cost of living crisis. The appliances have an average cost of £56 a year, compared to £336 for an electric cooker. Mr Anthony was an early convert. “I’ve had one for four or five years, my mum has had one for 10 years,” he said.
As someone who enjoyed going to the gym and keeping fit, he knew it was a quick and healthy way to cook the sort of meals he liked to eat.
Mr Anthony took a pressure cooker to university, and while his flatmates were fighting over the hob after lectures, he would have already prepared his dinner, only having to heat it up in the microwave when he got in.
His passion for the air fryer, which is like a small convection oven, circulating hot air to cook the food, is so strong he has used his oven just twice in the past 12 months – only because he couldn’t fit a whole turkey in his air fryer at Christmas.
Mr Anthony does all the cooking at home for his partner, an oncology doctor at the NHS, and most of his recipes come from preparing dinner at home.