fiona Beckett
Fiona Beckett is an award-winning food and drink journalist, author and web publisher with 20 years of experience of writing for the UK’s top newspapers and magazines.
* started her career on the features desk of Today and has since spanned the world of tabloid and broadsheet journalism, writing weekly columns for The Times, Guardian and Daily Mail (the latter on wine) and regular features for the Telegraph and Sunday Times food pages. She was recently voted no. 8 in the UK's top 10 food and drink journalists by the UK Press Gazette. In 2002 she was voted Food Journalist of the Year by the British Guild of Food Writers.
* is currently wine columnist for The Guardian and Guardian Green, contributing editor to the wine magazine Decanter and wine writer for Fork magazine. In the past she has written for many of the UK's leading food, drink and lifestyle magazines including BBC Good Food, Country Living, Delicious, Good Housekeeping, Sainsbury's Magazine and Waitrose Food Illustrated and for international food titles such as Bon Appetit and Australian Gourmet Traveller.
* has interviewed many top chefs and food and drink personalities including Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay, Heston Blumenthal, Antonio Carluccio, Raymond Blanc, Rick Stein, Ruth Rogers and Rose Gray of the River Cafe, Charlie Trotter and the American wine critic Robert Parker
* has reviewed restaurants for the Sunday Telegraph and the Times and worked as an inspector for restaurant guides including the Good Food Guide and Time Out.
* has written 22 books on subjects as diverse as wine, beer and student cooking (the Beyond Baked Beans series). Her most recent book is A Well-Run Kitchen which she co-wrote and self-published with chef Stephen Markwick of Culinaria in Bristol.
* is a bit of a cheese buff. Her book Fiona Beckett's Cheese Course was recently published by Ryland, Peters & Small and she has a cheese blog called The Cheeselover. She's also just launched a project called Cheese School with cheesemakers and mongers Trethowans Dairy offering all day cheese courses and training.
* is one of the UK's leading experts on food and drink pairing with her own website matchingfoodandwine.com She also has a blog (yes, another one) called Food and Wine Finds which does pretty much what it says on the tin: highlights food and wine (and other drink) discoveries.
* runs a budget cookery site for students beyondbakedbeans.com which was listed among the Independent's 50 best websites for foodies as one of the 8 best for "recipes, chat and reference" It has an acccompanying Facebook page on which students can upload their own recipes, videos and tips.
* has appeared on local and national radio and TV including UK Food's Good Food Live, Radio 4's Woman's Hour, You & Yours and the Food Programme and Radio 5 Live's Matthew Bannister show.
Contact
fionab@the2fionas.com
fiona@matchingfoodandwine.com
Twitter: winematcher, food_writer
Skills
Feature writing (including food-related travel features), 'opinion' and other topical columns, trendspotting, interviews with chefs and food producers, restaurant reviews, recipe development (food & cocktails), recipe editing, matching food and wine, beer and other drinks, conducting tastings, copywriting, food photography (to web standard). Excellent contacts in the food and drink field.
