Georgina Hayden | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1982 Tufnell Park, London, England |
| Alma mater | University of Leeds |
| Website | georginahayden |
Georgina Hayden (born 1982) is an English chef, food writer and stylist, and television personality. She has authored four cookbooks and received a number of accolades, including a Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Award. On television, she appears in the programmes Saturday Kitchen on BBC One and Sunday Brunch on Channel 4. [1]
Hayden was born and spent her early childhood in the flat above her Greek Cypriot paternal grandparents' taverna Dirlandas in Tufnell Park, North London before moving "down the road". [2] Her maternal grandparents, also from Cyprus, ran a deli in Seven Sisters. [3] Hayden studied Art History and Fine Art at the University of Leeds. [4]
Hayden began her career as a food assistant and contributing to food magazines. She became inspired to pursue food styling and was scouted at a photoshoot to work for Jamie Oliver's team, which she did for 12 years. [5] In the aftermath of her son's stillbirth, Hayden turned to cooking, creating meal plans to "ease" herself and her husband through their grief. [6] This routine formed the basis of her debut cookbook Stirring Slowly: Recipes to restore & revive, which was published in June 2015 via Square Peg (a Penguin Books UK imprint). [7] [8] Oliver provided the book's foreword. [6]
In January 2019, Hayden joined Delicious Magazine as a columnist. [9] That same year, she reunited with Square Peg for the publication of her second cookbook Taverna: Recipes from a Cypriot Kitchen. In 2020, Hayden began making regular appearances on the BBC One programme Saturday Kitchen as well as the Channel 4 programme Sunday Brunch . [10] [11] For her contributions to Delicious and Waitrose's in-house pFood Magazine, Hayden won the Recipe Writing Award at the 2020 Guild of Food Writers (GFW) Awards [12] [13] and was named Cookery Writer of the Year at the 2021 Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Awards respectively. [14]
Via Bloomsbury Publishing, Hayden's third cookbook Nistisima: The secret to delicious vegan cooking from the Mediterranean and beyond was published in 2022. The title translates to Lenten, inspired by the plant-based dishes eaten amid fasting periods on the Eastern Orthodox calendar, [15] [16] though the cookbook is aimed at a general audience. Nistisima became a Sunday Times bestseller and won Best New Cook Book at the Observer Food Monthly (OFM) Awards. [17] Also in 2022, Hayden was a judge on Oliver's Channel 4 competition The Great Cookbook Challenge. [18]
Hayden's fourth cookbook Greekish: Everyday recipes with Greek roots followed in 2024, [19] [20] also via Bloomsbury Publishing. Greekish was shortlisted for a British Book Award [21] in the Book of the Year: Non-Fiction Lifestyle and Illustrated category and named one of the top 10 food and drink books of 2024 by The Times . [22]
Hayden lives in North London with her husband Pete and their two daughters (born 2017 and 2020). [23] The couple also had a stillborn son in 2014. [24]