Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

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Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Born	January 14, 1965 (1965-01-14) (age 43)
Nationality	British
Occupation	Chef and TV presenter

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (born 14 January 1965) is a British celebrity chef, television presenter and "real food" campaigner, known for his back-to-basics philosophy.^[1]^[2]

1 Biography
2 Television shows
3 Chicken Out! campaign
4 Other projects
5 Books
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Biography

His mother is gardener and writer Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall. Born in London and brought up in Gloucestershire, Fearnley-Whittingstall first became interested in cookery as a young child but chose to study at St Peter's College, Oxford after attending Eton College, and began his career with conservation work in Africa in preference to commencing a career as a young chef.

After returning from Africa he spent a brief period as a sous-chef at River Café, but was made redundant, something which Fearnley-Whittingstall has attributed to his "being messy" and "lacking discipline". However, he regards it an event that has since helped shape his current career.^[3]. He then worked as a freelance journalist, with pieces published in Punch, the Evening Standard and The Sunday Times.^[4] In 1994 Macmillan published his Cuisine Bon Marché, which contained recipes and guidance on a wide range of food commonly found in British markets.

He is married with two sons and a daughter.

[edit] Television shows

On television, Fearnley-Whittingstall's reputation is that of a eccentric chef. 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".^[4] 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^[5] and "much enjoyed by the baby's family and friends".^[4]

In 1997 he moved into River Cottage in Dorset, which he had previously used 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 Fearnley-Whittingstall's progress as he sets up a new business, 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. This was followed by The River Cottage Road Trip, consisting of two brand new one-hour shows. 2005 also saw Fearnley-Whittingstall appear on the first series of Channel 4's The F-Word, advising Gordon Ramsay on the rearing of turkeys at his London home. These were subsequently eaten in the last episode of the series. Further appearances on The F-Word in 2006 and 2007 involved Fearnley-Whittingstall advising Ramsay on the rearing of pigs and lambs respectively, again with their being eaten in the last episodes of the series.

During 2006 Fearnley-Whittingstall moved River Cottage HQ from the original farm to its new premises at Park Farm, near the village of Musbury on the Dorset/Devon border.^[6] A new series called The River Cottage Treatment was filmed there and was broadcast on Channel 4 in November 2006.^[7]

In 2007, Fearnley-Whittingstall presented the short series River Cottage: Gone Fishing, which examined some of the lesser-known fish to be caught around the British Isles.

At the start of 2008, Fearnley-Whittingstall--along with Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay--was featured in Channel 4's Big Food Fight season. His contribution to the season was Hugh's Chicken Run, shown over three consecutive nights, in which he created three chicken farms in Axminster (one intensive, one commercial free range, and a community farm project staffed by volunteers), culminating in a "Chicken Out!" campaign to encourage the eating of free-range chicken.

Fearnley-Whittingstall is to present a magazine-style food programme produced at River Cottage HQ, River Cottage Spring, starting on the 28th May 2008 on Channel 4.

[edit] Chicken Out! campaign

Fearnley-Whittingstall has presented three one-hour shows detailing how Broiler Hens are reared for their meat in just 39 days. This compares to Free Range Hens which live for at least 75 days in more humane and natural surroundings. Fearnley-Whittingstall is currently trying to get people to become more aware of food production through his Chicken Out campaign.

In an interview in Jan 2008, Fearnley-Whittingstall extended the call to hospitality and food service operators:

“It’s one thing to challenge individual consumers to give up intensively reared chicken but it’s also an issue where anyone in the business of selling chicken has to take a stand... in some cases I know chefs, not naming names, at the very high-end sector who are not using free-range birds. Some of them are on the road to Michelin stars.” ^[8]

[edit] Other projects

He has helped develop Stinger,^[9] a nettle-flavoured ale, with the Hall and Woodhouse brewery.

Fearnley-Whittingstall's most recent project was the conversion of an old inn in Axminster to an organic produce shop and canteen which opened in September 2007.

[edit] Books

The chef has also written the best-selling cookery books The River Cottage Cookbook, The River Cottage Year and The River Cottage Meat Book which details his philosophy of organic husbandry whilst also covering many aspects of selecting, preparing and cooking meat. His latest book (to accompany the TV series) is The River Cottage Fish Book. He has written articles for The Guardian and The Observer since 2001.^[10] A collection of his short articles was published in October 2006 under the title Hugh Fearlessly Eats It All: Dispatches from the Gastronomic Frontline.