Nigella Lawson  

English born journalist and food writer Nigella Lawson is most known for her wildly popular cookbooks and her equally successful cooking shows. She is, however, renowned and often lampooned for her overly vivacious and flirtation personality. Critics of Lawson say she plays upon this to help sell her various products.

Nigella Lucy Lawson was born January 6, 1960 in London, England. Her father was Nigel Lawson, a politician and part of Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet, and her mother was Vanessa Salmon, a wealthy socialite.

Moving nine times before the age of eighteen, Lawson’s school years were marked by frequent interruption. She eventually went on to graduate from Oxford University where she majored in medieval and modern languages.

Lawson’s career kicked off around 1985 when she was writing both book reviews and a recurring restaurant related column in The Spectator. Just one year later, she had landed a position as deputy literary editor at The Sunday Times. Not long after, her personal success was matched by her professional success when she met John Diamond. The two would later marry in 1992. They had two children before Diamond’s untimely death in 2001.

Her freelance writing career warranted her various jobs, and her career was leaning increasingly toward food. To that end, she wrote for Gourmet and Bon Appetit as well as serving as the co-host on Nigel Slater’s Real Food Show.

It was apparently Diamond’s idea for Lawson to write a cook book. Although Lawson hesitated at first due to emotional complications (cooking was something she had always done with her mother, who was recently deceased), she eventually wrote How to Eat in 1998. After its success, the follow-up came with How to be a Domestic Goddess. In 2001, she was named “Author of the Year” over the likes of J K Rowling.

Lawson’s name was quickly becoming associated with the best in cookery, and this helped land her first television series, Nigella Bites. And the hits just kept coming. She also hosted Forever Summer with Nigella and even made her way across the pond for a slew of US television appearances. These included Ellen: The Ellen DeGeneres Show and The Tony Danza Show. Hitting the more traditional talk show circuit, she also appeared on Late Night with Conan O Brien, Late Show with David Letterman, and the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Her various efforts culminated in 2005 when she began a new show entitled Nigella. But viewers and critics were quickly turned off by the celebrity guest format, and it was cancelled. Her next endeavor was Nigella Feasts, however, and this was met with positive attention. Her other show, Nigella’s Christmas Kitchen was met with similarly positive reviews.

Most recently, she launched a series entitled Nigella Express, which was broken into thirteen segments. After a promising reception in England, the Food Network also picked up the series.

Her line of cookware, known as “Living Kitchen,” is also an extremely profitable endeavor for her.

In her personal life, Lawson suffered the loss of her first husband to throat cancer in 2001. She remarried in 2003 to Charles Saatchi. They have no children and are still currently together.

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