Briony May Williams

Last updated
Briony May Williams
Born1984or1985(age 37–38)
Occupation(s)Television baker and presenter
Years active2018–present
Known for

Briony May Williams (born 1984or1985) is a British celebrity chef and presenter. She appeared on series 9 of The Great British Bake Off in 2018, finishing fourth. She presents the cooking show Food Unwrapped and the reality housing show Escape to the Country , and writes recipe columns for BristolLife and the supermarket Asda's Good Living.

Contents

Personal life

Williams is from Bristol, England. [1] She was born with a physical birth defect in her left hand, which stops at her wrist—she calls it her "little hand". [2] [3] Williams said that her family did not use the word disability due to stigma around the term. [2] [4] She had some specialised equipment, such as a recorder provided by the disability charity Reach that could be played one-handed, but learned to complete tasks like tying her shoelaces unaided. [4] Williams attended an all-girls secondary school. [4] Since her early 20s, she has experienced depression. [3]

After studying Spanish and French at Durham University, she became a secondary school teacher in the same subjects, qualifying with a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) from the University of Bristol. [5] [6] She met her husband Steve, a software engineer, online around 2010. [4] Williams baked with her mother and grandmother as a child, but began taking it seriously in 2013, after she was diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) and had to take time off work. [2] [4] She used YouTube tutorials, such as the ones by Cupcake Jemma, to gain baking knowledge. [4] During this period, she also took up running. [3] She had a daughter a couple of years later, and baked with her as a young child. [4] In 2017, she joined a local running community, This Mum Runs, and ran the Great Bristol Half Marathon that year. [3]

The Great British Bake Off

In 2018, Williams was a contestant on the ninth series of The Great British Bake Off, a television baking competition. She earned the weekly Star Baker accolade in Pastry Week after baking a pie themed around Alice in Wonderland . Eliminated in the semi-final, she finished fourth of 12. [1] In 2019, she appeared on the Christmas special The Great Christmas Bake Off , winning the episode. [4]

Williams told Bake Off producers that she did not want different accommodations due to her limb difference; after appearing on the show, she became more comfortable using the term disabled. [2] [4] At her request, her disability was not mentioned on the show. [7] She later told Disability Horizons that it should "just be natural" to see disabled actors and presenters and that they should not be limited to disability-related topics. [4] She found the production process—with filming at the weekend and practicing bakes during the week—very intense, and credited exercise with giving her the energy to progress far through the series. [3] She said she "had no energy left" after the semi-final and suffered a chest infection that weekend. [4]

Post-Bake Off career

Williams is a presenter of Food Unwrapped for Channel 4. [2] The series sees her travelling to research food and drink. She secured the role after being approached by producers, as the show was looking to expand its presenter line-up. In 2020, production was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic; she had been due to visit Austria in the week that the first UK lockdown came into force. [4] Williams also presents Escape to the Country , a daytime reality programme about purchasing a house. [8]

Williams has a recipe column in her local magazine BristolLife and the supermarket Asda's magazine Good Living. She has also made a number of other television appearances on children's shows, cooking shows, talk shows, panel shows and game shows. [4]

Charity work

Williams has served as an ambassador for the disability charities Reach and Paul's Place, the mental health charity Bristol Mind, and volunteered for Comic Relief and the disability sports event Superhero Series. [3] [9] She completed a 5 km run for Sport Relief. [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carol Vorderman</span> Welsh media personality

Carol Jean Vorderman is a Welsh broadcaster, media personality and author. Her career began in 1982 when she joined the Channel 4 game show Countdown, appearing on the show with Richard Whiteley from 1982 until his death in 2005, and subsequently with Des Lynam and Des O'Connor, before leaving in 2008.

Emma Vallencey Freud is an English broadcaster and cultural commentator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sue Perkins</span> British actress and comedian

Susan Elizabeth Perkins is an English actress, broadcaster, comedian, presenter and writer. Originally coming to prominence through her comedy partnership with Mel Giedroyc in Mel and Sue, she has since become best known as a radio broadcaster and television presenter, notably of The Great British Bake Off (2010–2016), Insert Name Here (2016–2019) and Just a Minute on BBC Radio 4.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mel Giedroyc</span> British actress and comedian (born 1968)

Melanie Clare Sophie Giedroyc is an English actress, comedian and television presenter. With Sue Perkins, she has co-hosted series including Light Lunch for Channel 4, The Great British Bake Off for the BBC and chat show Mel and Sue for ITV. In early 2017 Giedroyc co-presented the BBC show Let It Shine. Since 2015 she has held a number of commentating roles for the Eurovision Song Contest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bara brith</span> Welsh tea bread

Bara brith is a traditional Welsh tea bread flavoured with tea, dried fruits and spices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Berry</span> English food writer and television presenter (born 1935)

Dame Mary Rosa Alleyne Hunnings is an English food writer, chef, baker and television presenter. After being encouraged in domestic science classes at school, she studied catering at college. She then moved to France at the age of 22 to study at Le Cordon Bleu culinary school, before working in a number of cooking-related jobs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prue Leith</span> South African chef living in the UK (born 1940)

Dame Prudence Margaret Leith, is a South African restaurateur, television presenter/broadcaster, cookery writer and novelist.

<i>The Great British Bake Off</i> British television baking competition

The Great British Bake Off is a British television baking competition, produced by Love Productions, in which a group of amateur bakers compete against each other in a series of rounds, attempting to impress two judges with their baking skills. One contestant is eliminated in each round, and the winner is selected from the contestants who reach the final. The first episode was aired on 17 August 2010, with its first four series broadcast on BBC Two, until its growing popularity led the BBC to move it to BBC One for the next three series. After its seventh series, Love Productions signed a three-year deal with Channel 4 to produce the series for the broadcaster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Hollywood</span> English baker and chef

Paul John Hollywood is an English celebrity chef and television presenter, widely known as a judge on The Great British Bake Off since 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Josie Gibson</span> English television personality

Josephine Diane Shirley Gibson is an English television personality. In 2010, she won the eleventh series of the reality show Big Brother, and later that year, she appeared on Ultimate Big Brother. In 2011, she was a regular guest host on the Channel 5 magazine series OK! TV. Since 2019, Gibson has been a regular segment presenter and announcer for ITV's This Morning, as well as a relief co-presenter from 2021.

<i>How to Cheat at Cooking</i> 2008 book by Delia Smith

How to Cheat at Cooking is a cookbook by television chef Delia Smith, published in 2008 by Ebury Publishing. It was her first book following her How To Cook series, and had a television series based on the same recipes on BBC Two. Following publication, Smith was criticised by other chefs due to the use of certain ingredients such as canned minced lamb, and by nutritionists because of the level of salt in some of the recipes. The book increased the sales of several products, described as the "Delia Effect", and has been credited with an increase in the sales of tinned meat over the following two years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruby Tandoh</span> British baker

Ruby Alice Tandoh is a British baker, columnist, author, and former model. She was runner-up on series four of BBC's The Great British Bake Off in 2013 and has written four cookbooks. Her 2021 Cook as You Are was named to several best-of lists. Her sometimes strident online debates with much of the UK food world have also drawn attention.

Katie Marie Quilton is an English television presenter and journalist. She is best known for presenting a number of Channel 4 television series, including Food Unwrapped since 2012.

Food Unwrapped is a British television series broadcast by Channel 4 featuring Jimmy Doherty, Kate Quilton, Matt Tebbutt, Helen Lawal, Amanda Byram, Andi Oliver, Briony May Williams and John Whaite. The show is based on the original Dutch series "Food CIA", devised by Dahl TV and licensed by Warner Bros. International Television Production Ltd. There have been 23 series and a number of special episodes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nadiya Hussain</span> British baker and writer

Nadiya Jamir Hussain is a British Muslim television chef, author and television presenter. She rose to fame after winning the sixth series of BBC's The Great British Bake Off in 2015. Since winning, she has signed contracts with the BBC to host the documentary The Chronicles of Nadiya and TV cookery series Nadiya's British Food Adventure and Nadiya's Family Favourites; co-presented The Big Family Cooking Showdown; and has become a regular contributor on The One Show.

Kiran Jethwa born August 22, 1976, in Nairobi, is a Kenyan-born celebrity chef, restaurateur, and entrepreneur. He is the host and presenter of the TV show, Tales From The Bush Larder which focuses on the culinary culture of Africa. Since 2016, Jethwa has co-presented Food Unwrapped on Channel 4.

Kim-Joy is a British baker and cookbook writer. She became one of two runners-up in the ninth series (2018) of The Great British Bake Off and won Bake Off's New Year 2022 special. She has written three cookbooks and is known for creating decorative baked goods often featuring whimsical themes and cute renderings of animals.

References

  1. 1 2 Gill, James (24 October 2018). "Who is Briony Williams? Meet the Great British Bake Off 2018 contestant". Radio Times . Retrieved 29 July 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Lewis, Anna (18 August 2021). "Bake Off's Briony Williams: 'If There's Something I Can't Do, It's Up To Me To Find My Own Way Of Doing It'". Delish.com . Retrieved 29 July 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Tomas, Fiona (27 August 2021). "'We don't talk about disability and exercise unless we're talking about Paralympians'". The Daily Telegraph . Retrieved 29 July 2022.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Purcell, Emma (24 July 2020). "Briony May Williams: Bake Off semi-finalist and TV presenter who lives with a 'little hand'". Disability Horizons. Retrieved 29 July 2022.
  5. ↑ "Bristol GBBO Star, Briony Williams, announced as Great Bristol 10k University Ambassador!". University of Bristol . 4 February 2020. Retrieved 20 September 2023.
  6. ↑ "Food Unwrapped S9 Presenter Bios: Briony May Williams". Channel 4 . 26 November 2019. Retrieved 20 September 2023.
  7. ↑ Young, Sarah (12 November 2018). "Great British Bake Off's Briony Williams explains why she chose not to mention her disability on the show". The Independent . Retrieved 29 July 2022.
  8. ↑ "Briony May Williams". Royal Television Society . Retrieved 29 July 2022.
  9. 1 2 "Briony May Williams". Andrew Roach Talent. Retrieved 29 July 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.