About Me

Somebody once asked me how I’d ended up writing about food and wine ‘Sheer greed’ was my reply. I love cooking and wine so when I started in journalism some 17 years ago I sought every opportunity to write about them.

Journalism was a second - no, third or fourth career. Before that I’d been in PR, consumer advice and politics and done an extended stint as an earth mother. But I’d always regretted not having trained as a journalist and one day decided to go back to study

I’ve written for most of the UK national newspapers with regular columns on the Times, Guardian and Daily Mail. (My outlets have always been diverse - I remember feeling very proud one weekend at having an article in both The Guardian and The People - a left wing broadsheet and a highly populist tabloid for those of you who are not familiar with them).

I’ve written for food magazines such as BBC Good Food and Sainsbury’s Magazine for whom I’ve been a regular contributor for the last six years and overseas magazines such as Australian Gourmet Traveller and Bon Appetit. I’ve been a contributing editor to the wine magazine Decanter for even longer, writing mainly about food and food and wine matching. In 2002 I was nominated Food Journalist of the Year by my colleagues in the British Guild of Food Writers.

I’ve written 15 books on subjects as diverse as champagne, cheese, steak, sausages and student food (I’ve never liked to be pinned down or categorised as a certain type of writer) and am currently working on two more including what I hope will be a groundbreaking book on beer and food. You can find out more about them in the Books section.

As well as this website I also have a student website beyondbakedbeans.com, named after my Beyond Baked Beans student books which was listed in the Independent's 50 best websites for foodies as one of the 8 best for "recipes, chat and reference"

When not doing all of the above I spend time with my husband and (now very grown up) children, dividing our time between England and our holiday home in the South of France. Other enthusiasms are music (I’m sadly addicted to iTunes), reading (when I get a chance), football (we’re all ardent supporters of Liverpool FC) and photography.

To contact me email fiona@matchingfoodandwine.com