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 cooking in an east London comprehensive in the 1970s which led to OUP commissioning my first book Finding Out About Food in 1980 which sold 120,000 copies. A surprise for the publisher and me when she unearthed the data!
Cream Horns and Vol au Vents is a followup story of my teaching – by public demand.
These are some of the 70 books that I’ve written.
I taught food education in London comprehensive schools for 20 years, wrote textbooks for OUP, Heinemann, Pearson – GCSE textbooks for Food and Nutrition.
In 1989 I set up Ridgwell Press to produce food and textiles resources and train teachers around the country in the ever challenging 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.
