Hester Sophia Frances Grigson (born 19 June 1959) is an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 cookery writer

Food writing

Food writing is writing that focuses on the topic of food, both widely and narrowly defined.-Definition:Food writer Mark Kurlansky gives the scope of food writing when he observes: “Food is about agriculture, about ecology, about man’s relationship with nature, about the climate, about...

 and celebrity chef

Celebrity chef

A celebrity chef is a kitchen chef who has become famous and well known. Today celebrity chefs often become celebrities by presenting cookery advice and demonstrations via mass media, especially television. Historically, celebrity chefs have included Antoine Carême and Martino da Como.-External...

 known as Sophie Grigson. She has followed the same path and career as her mother, Jane Grigson

Jane Grigson

Jane Grigson was a notable English cookery writer.-Life and writings:...

. Her father was the poet and writer Geoffrey Grigson

Geoffrey Grigson

Geoffrey Edward Harvey Grigson was a British writer. He was born in Pelynt, a village near Looe in Cornwall.-Life:...

.

Life

Grigson was born in Swindon

Swindon

Swindon is a large town within the borough of Swindon and ceremonial county of Wiltshire, in South West England. It is midway between Bristol, west and Reading, east. London is east...

, Wiltshire

Wiltshire

Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...

 in 1959 and attended Oxford High School. From there she went on to study mathematics at UMIST

UMIST

The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology was a university based in the centre of the city of Manchester in England. It specialised in technical and scientific subjects and was a major centre for research...

, Manchester

University of Manchester

The University of Manchester is a public research university located in Manchester, United Kingdom. It is a "red brick" university and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities and the N8 Group...

. After graduating in 1982 with a Bachelor of Science

Bachelor of Science

A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...

 degree in mathematics (she was Vice President of the UMIST Alumni Association), she worked for a time as a production manager of pop videos for groups including Bonnie Tyler

Bonnie Tyler

Bonnie Tyler is a Welsh singer, most notable for her hits in the 1970s and 1980s including "It's a Heartache", "Holding Out for a Hero" and "Total Eclipse of the Heart".-Early life:...

 and the Style Council

The Style Council

The Style Council were an English band, formed in 1983 by the ex-The Jam singer and guitarist Paul Weller, with keyboardist Mick Talbot. The permanent line-up grew to include drummer Steve White and Weller's then-wife, vocalist Dee C. Lee. Other artists such as Tracie Young and Tracey Thorn also...

. Having inherited her mother's love of food, she found she also enjoyed writing about it. Her first food article, published in 1983 in the Sunday Express Magazine, was entitled Fifty ways with potatoes. She has since written columns for the Evening Standard

Evening Standard

The Evening Standard, now styled the London Evening Standard, is a free local daily newspaper, published Monday–Friday in tabloid format in London. It is the dominant regional evening paper for London and the surrounding area, with coverage of national and international news and City of London...

, The Independent

The Independent

The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...

and The Sunday Times

The Sunday Times (UK)

The Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper, distributed in the United Kingdom. The Sunday Times is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International, which is in turn owned by News Corporation. Times Newspapers also owns The Times, but the two papers were founded...

.

Grigson's television debut came in 1993 with the twelve-part series Grow Your Greens, Eat Your Greens on Channel 4

Channel 4

Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

. Her more recent television work includes Sophie Grigson in the Orient and Sophie Grigson in the Souk for Travel Channel

Travel Channel (UK)

Travel Channel is a British satellite television channel, transmitting 24 hours a day in 19 languages across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific...

.

She won the Guild of Food Writers Cookery Journalist Award 2001. She is a keen supporter of organic and local food suppliers and, like Jamie Oliver

Jamie Oliver

James "Jamie" Trevor Oliver, MBE , sometimes known as The Naked Chef, is an English chef, restaurateur and media personality, known for his food-focused television shows, cookbooks and more recently his campaign against the use of processed foods in national schools...

, is an advocate for decent children's food. She is a patron of the Children's Food Festival

Children's food festival

Children's Food Festival 2009The Children's Food Festival, organised by the , is fronted by Patrons Raymond Blanc and Sophie Grigson, who will be giving hands-on demos, inviting children to help them chop, stir, smell and taste...

. Sophie Grigson runs food and wine tours in association with World of Experience Tours, now part of Great Experience Travel. She was previously married to William Black and they had two children, Florrie-Sophia and Sidney.

Publications

• "Food For Friends" (1987)
• Sophie's Table (1990)
• Gourmet Ingredients (1991, nominated for the James Beard Award, published by Van Nostrand Reinhold)
• Eat Your Greens (1993)
• Travels à la Carte (1994, with William Black)
• Fish (1998, with William Black)
• Sophie Grigson's Herbs (1999)
• Organic (2001, with William Black)
• Sophie Grigson's Country Kitchen (2003)
• The First-time Cook (2004)
• Vegetables (2006) Collins; ISBN 0-00-721377-8

External links

• There are food and wine tours with Sophie Grigson and