I’m Jenny Ridgwell, an author of over 70 books about food. Most are textbooks for schools – part of a secret world of food writing, not lauded in newspapers and magazines, or shown in bestseller lists, but I’ve sold over 1 million copies so somebody out there must have read them!
I Taught Them To Cook is a memoir of teaching home economics in an east London comprehensive in the 1970s which led to a commission to write my first book Finding Out About Food for OUP in 1980 which sold 120,000 copies. A surprise for the publisher and me when she unearthed the data!
I taught home economics/food technology in London comprehensive schools for 20 years, wrote textbooks for Heinemann, and GCSE textbooks for Food and Nutrition. In 1989 I set up Ridgwell Press to publish food textbooks and train food teachers around the country in the curriculum.
I was a chief examiner and worked for O level, GCSE and A level.
My online Nutrition Program is used by thousands of students around the world to analyse recipes, diets and meals.
Jenny Ridgwell 