Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

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Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (born January 14, 1965) is a British celebrity chef and TV presenter, noted for his mildly eccentric antics and back-to-nature philosophy.

Born in London and raised in Gloucestershire, Fearnley-Whittingstall first became interested in cookery as a young child but he chose to study at St Peter's College, Oxford University, after attending Eton College, and then began his career with conservation work in Africa in preference to commencing a career as a young chef.

After the work in Africa he spent a brief period as a sous-chef at The River Café, but was made redundant. He then worked as a freelance journalist, with pieces published in Punch magazine, the Evening Standard and The Sunday Times.^[1]

He moved on to television production, where his reputation was initially that of a chef who is prepared to try cooking everything; he has an unorthodox style of TV presentation. Initial exposure came in Cook on the Wild Side, an exploration of earthy cuisine. His habit of "picking up roadkill and eating the hedgerows [...] earned him his nickname of Hugh Fearlessly-Eatsitall".^[1] He followed this with the series TV Dinners, during an episode of which he notoriously flambéed and puréed a human placenta which was served as a pâté^[2] and "much enjoyed by the baby's family and friends".^[1]

In 1997 he moved into River Cottage in Dorset, which he had previously been using as a weekend and holiday home. This became the setting for three Channel 4 series: Escape to River Cottage, Return to River Cottage and River Cottage Forever. He has since bought a farm nearby with his family. Through his experiences on these programmes, in which he had to produce everything himself in The Good Life style, he has become a keen supporter of the organic movement. Beyond River Cottage followed Hugh's progress as he sets up a new business from River Cottage H.Q. (close to his farm near the original River Cottage in west Dorset). In 2005, a series called The View from River Cottage was produced using extracts from the four previous series accompanied by newly-recorded narration followed by The River Cottage Road Trip consisting of two brand new one hour shows. 2005 also saw Hugh appear in Channel 4's The F-Word (Series 1) advising Gordon Ramsay on the rearing of turkeys at Gordon's London home. These were subsequently eaten in the last episode of the series. Further appearances on The F-Word (Series 2) in 2006 involved Hugh this time advising Gordon on the rearing of two pigs which were again eaten in the last episode of the series.

During 2006 Hugh moved River Cottage HQ from the original farm to its new premises at Park Farm on the Dorset/Devon border.^[3] A new series called The River Cottage Treatment was then filmed there and aired on Channel 4 in November 2006.^[4]

The chef has subsequently gone on to write best selling cookery books: The River Cottage Cookbook, The River Cottage Year and The River Cottage Meat Book. He also writes an article for The Observer Food Magazine each month. A collection of his short articles was published in October 2006 under the title Hugh Fearlessly Eats It All: Dispatches from the Gastronomic Frontline.