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Nigella Lawson
Nigella Lucy Lawson (born January 6, 1960) is an English journalist, cookery writer and television presenter.
Lawson grew up in the United Kingdom and attended Godolphin and Latymer School and Westminster School before graduating from Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, with a degree in Medieval and Modern Languages.
She was married to journalist John Diamond, whom she met in 1986 when they were both writing for The Sunday Times. They had two children, Cosima and Bruno. Diamond died of throat cancer in 2001. Lawson married advertising giant Charles Saatchi in September 2003.
Career
Nigella's love of cooking and food started at home, becoming part of her working life when she started the restaurant column in The Spectator and later wrote the food column for Vogue. She became deputy literary editor of the Sundat Times in 1986.
She became, among other things, a newspaper-reviewer on BBC1 Sunday-morning TV programme Breakfast with Frost.
She has also co-hosted, with David Aaronovitch, Channel 4 books discussion programme Booked in the late 1990s, and was an occasional compere of BBC2's press review What the Papers Say, as well as appearing on BBC radio.
Her first book, "How to Eat: The pleasures and principles of good food" was published to critical acclaim in 1998. It established Nigella's relaxed attitude to food and eating and won her a wide and dedicated audience.
Following slots as a culinary sidekick on Nigel Slater's Real Food Show on Channel 4, she has fronted three eponymous TV cookery series broadcast in the UK on the channel. She has had two series of Nigella Bites in 1999-2001, plus a 2001 Christmas special, and Forever Summer with Nigella in 2002, both of which yielded accompanying recipe books.
In 2000 Nigella introduced a whole new generation to the art of baking with another bestseller, ironically titled, "How to be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the art of comfort cooking".
She hosted a daytime TV programme on ITV1 in 2005 titled Nigella, in which celebrity guests joined her in a studio kitchen. Besides her own cookbooks, Nigella is featured in Off Duty: The World's Greatest Chefs Cook at Home (2005). A third series called Nigella Feasts, based on her book Feast, debuted on the USA's Food Network in Fall 2006.
Her first biography, Nigella Lawson by Gilly Smith, was published by Andre Deutsch in September 2005.
More recently in late 2006, Nigella did a show on BBC Two called Nigella's Christmas Kitchen. The two episodes secured the second highest ratings for BBC 2 each week that they were aired.
Awards
* British Book Awards 1998 - Illustrated Book of the Year for "How To Eat"
* British Book Awards 2000 - Author of the Year
WH Smith Book Awards 2001 - "How To Be A Domestic Goddess" shortlisted for Lifestyle Book of the Year
* Guild of Food Writers 2001 - "How To Be A Domestic Goddess" - Cookery Book of the Year
* World Food Media Awards 2001 - "Nigella Bites" awarded GOLD LADLE for best television food show
* WH Smith Book Awards 2002 - "Nigella Bites" awarded Lifestyle Book of the Year
Sources: Wikipedia, Channel 4
Links
Official Website
Nigella's recipes at Channel 4
Nigella at Style Network
Nigella's Kitchen (forum)