Sophie Grigson

Hester Sophia Frances Grigson (born 19 June 1959) is an English cookery writer and celebrity cook known as Sophie Grigson. She has followed the same path and career as her mother, Jane Grigson. Her father was the poet and writer Geoffrey Grigson, and her half-brother was musician and educator Lionel Grigson.

Grigson was born in the village of Broad Town, near Swindon, Wiltshire, in 1959 and attended Oxford High School. From there she went on to study mathematics at UMIST, Manchester. After graduating in 1982 with a Bachelor of Science 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 and the Style Council. 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 publications including the Evening Standard (1986–93), the Sunday Times (1994–96) and The Independent (1997–98).

Grigson's television debut came in 1993 with the 16-part series Grow Your Greens, Eat Your Greens on Channel 4, which won the Caroline Walker Prize (Media Category). Her more recent television work includes Sophie Grigson in the Orient and Sophie Grigson in the Souk for Travel Channel.

She won the Guild of Food Writers Cookery Journalist of the Year Award in 2001 for her work in Country Living magazine. She is a keen supporter of organic and local food suppliers and, like Jamie Oliver, is an advocate for decent children's food. She is a patron of the Children's Food Festival.

Sophie Grigson runs food and wine tours in association with World of Experience Tours, now part of Great Experience Travel. She now lives in Oxford, where she runs Sophie's Cookery School – a pop-up cookery school.

She was previously married to William Black, with whom she had a daughter named Florrie and a son, Sid.