Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is widely known as a writer, broadcaster and campaigner for his uncompromising and unsqueamish commitment to real food. His series for Channel 4 have earned him a huge popular following, while his books have collected multiple awards including, in the case of The River Cottage Cookbook and The River Cottage Meat Book, both the Glenfiddich Trophy and the André Simon Food Book of the Year.

His mother started him cooking, just to keep him occupied on rainy days. As a result he did a lot of cooking for friends at Eton and Oxford.

With no specific career in mind he thought he might like wildlife conservation so he went to Africa and travelled round all the southern game reserves, learning useful skills like how to marinate ostrich in Coca-Cola and wart hog in Bovril.

Back in England, and jobless at 24, he happened to hear that kitchen staff were needed at the River Café. So he went to see Ruth Rogers and Rose Gray, cooked them a lemon tart and started work the next day. Unfortunately he was sacked after eight months.

He went off to Provence to cook for the food writer Quentin Crewe while he decided what to do next. He realised that even if he couldn't be a chef, he could write about food, so he came back and started freelancing, for Punch, the Evening Standard, the Sunday Times.

His first television appearance was on Channel 4's Food File, talking about offal in Smithfield Market and this led to his first Channel 4 series ‘A Cook on the Wild Side’ when he drove around Britain picking up roadkill.

Hugh lives in Dorset, surrounded by animals, most of which are destined to be consumed by him and his family.

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Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

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