Delia Smith | |
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 Smith (right) with her husband | |
| Born | Delia Ann Smith (1941-06-18)18 June 1941 (age 84) |
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Delia Ann SmithCH CBE (born 18 June 1941) is an Englishcook and television presenter, known for teaching basiccookery skills in a direct style. One of the best-known celebrity chefs inBritish popular culture, Smith has influenced viewers to become more culinarily adventurous.[1][2] She is also notable for her role as Honorary Life President (with her husbandMichael Wynn-Jones)[3] ofNorwich City, where she was previously the Joint Majority Shareholder alongside Wynn-Jones from 1998 to 2024.[4]
Born to Harold Bartlett Smith (1920–1999), an EnglishRAFradio operator and tool salesman, and a Welsh mother, Etty Jones Lewis (1919–2020),[5] inWoking,Surrey, her parents divorced when she was 15 years old and her brother was aged 7.[6][7] Smith attendedBexleyheath School, leaving at the age of 16 without any qualifications.[8][9] Her first job was as a hairdresser; she also worked as a shop assistant and in a travel agency.[10][11]
In 1962 at age 21, she started work in a small restaurant inPaddington, washing dishes before moving on to waitressing, then helping with the cooking. She started reading English cookery books in theReading Room at theBritish Museum, trying out the recipes on aHarley Street family with whom she was living. Her next job was at Carlton Studios in London, where she prepared food for studio photography.
In 1969 Smith was taken on as the cookery writer for theDaily Mirror's newly launched magazine. Their deputy editor wasMichael Wynn-Jones, whom she later married. Her first piece featuredkipperpâté, beef in beer andcheesecake. She baked the cake that was used on the cover ofThe Rolling Stones' albumLet It Bleed,[12] which she later recalled was in response to a request that was for "a gaudy cake" that had to look "really horrible."[13] In 1972 Smith started a column in theEvening Standard. She later defected to the rivalEvening News, but she returned tothe Standard when that newspaper bought outthe News. She wrote for both for 12 years; later she wrote a column for theRadio Times until 1986.
Smith's first television appearances came in the early 1970s, as resident cook onBBC East's regional magazine programmeLook East, shown onBBC One acrossEast Anglia. Following this, she was offered her own cookery television show,Family Fare which ran between 1973 and 1975.
Smith became a recognisable figure amongst young people in the 1970s and early 1980s when she was an occasional guest on the BBC's Saturday morning children's programmeMulticoloured Swap Shop, giving basic cooking demonstrations.
In Taiwan, Smith was compared to Taiwanese chefFu Pei-mei, and she was called the "Fu Pei-mei of England".[14]
Her 1995 bookDelia Smith's The Winter Collection sold 2 million copies in hardback, becoming the fifth biggest-selling book of the 1990s.[15]
In 2003 Smith announced her retirement from television. However, she returned for an eponymous six-part series airing on the BBC in Spring 2008. The accompanying book, an update of her 1971 best-sellerHow to Cheat at Cooking, was published in February 2008, again becoming a best-seller.
In 2010 she appeared in a five-episode series,Delia through the Decades, with each episode exploring a new decade of her cooking.[16] Also in 2010, Smith andHeston Blumenthal were signed up to appear in a series of 40 commercials on British television for the supermarket chainWaitrose.[17]
In February 2013 she announced that she had retired from television cookery programmes, and would concentrate on offering her recipes online.[18]
Smith has twice been the guest forBBC Radio 4'sDesert Island Discs: first on 5 June 1982, when her choices included "The Sound of Silence" byPaul Simon and "Llef" byRhos Male Voice Choir, and again on Christmas Eve 2023, when her choices included "This Woman's Work" byKate Bush and "Happy" byPharrell Williams.[19]
It has been claimed that Smith's television seriesDelia's How to Cook led to a 10% rise inegg sales in Britain and her use of ingredients such as frozen mash and tinned minced beef and onions, or utensils such as anomelette pan, could cause sell-outs overnight.[20] This phenomenon, dubbed the "Delia effect", was most recently seen in 2008, after her bookHow to Cheat at Cooking was published. Her fame (and her relatively uncommon name) has meant that her first name has become sufficient to identify her to the public and the "Delia effect" has become a commonly used phrase to describe a run on a previously poor-selling product as a result of a high-profile recommendation.[21]
From 1993 to 1998 Smith worked as a consultant forSainsbury's. In May 1993 she and her husbandMichael Wynn-Jones launched New Crane Publishing to publish Sainsbury's Magazine; the company also published several of Smith's books forBBC Worldwide. Although Smith and Wynn-Jones sold New Crane Publishing in 2005, Smith continues to be a consultant for Seven Publishing which now publishes the magazine.[citation needed]
In the 2023 episode ofDesert Island Discs, hosted byLauren Lavern, Smith said her husbandMichael Wynn-Jones introduced her to the "beautiful" game offootball.[22]
Smith has developed other business interests outside of her culinary ventures, notably a majority shareholding of 53%[23] in the football teamNorwich City, with her husband. Both Smith and Wynn-Jones were season ticket holders at Norwich and were invited to invest in the club, which had fallen on hard times. She has had a significant impact on improving matchday catering standards and food revenues, only stepping back from day-to-day responsibilities on reaching the age of 70.[24][25]
In February 2005, Smith attracted attention during the half-time break of a home match againstManchester City. At the time Norwich were fighting an ultimately unsuccessful battle against relegation from thePremier League, and to rally the crowd, Smith grabbed the microphone from the club announcer on the pitch and said: "A message for the best football supporters in the world: we need a12th man here. Where are you? Where are you? Let's be 'avin' you! Come on!" Norwich lost the match 3–2.[26] Smith denied suggestions in the media that she had been drunk while delivering the speech though she did concede that "maybe in the heat of the moment I didn't choose the best words".[27][28]
In 2008, it was reported that Smith had rejected an offer from Norfolk-born billionairePeter Cullum, who wished to invest £20 million in the club, but wanted Smith and the other shareholders to relinquish their holdings. Both Smith and Cullum denied this offer had been made, with Smith telling the football club's AGM that she and her husband would be "very happy to stand aside" as majority shareholders if someone came along with an offer to buy them out.[citation needed]
In August 2011, Smith announced that, anticipating her 70th birthday, she was stepping down from her catering role at Norwich City'sCarrow Road football ground: "It is now time for a fresh approach and a younger team who, I am confident, will take the business even further."[29]
Smith & Wynn-Jones's twenty-eight years of involvement with Norwich City came to an end on 23 October 2024, when the club's other shareholders approved a deal that allowed Norfolk Holdings, a business group led by the American businessmanMark Attanasio that previously purchased a 40.4% stake in the club in April 2024, to increase their stake in the club to 85% and take majority control, with Smith and Wynn-Jones's shares decreasing to 10%. As part of the deal, Smith and Wynn-Jones also agreed to stand down from their roles as club directors and become honorary life presidents of the club.[30]
Already anOfficer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), Smith was appointedCommander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the2009 Birthday Honours, "in recognition of ... [her] contribution to television cookery and recipe writing".[31]
In 1996, Smith was awarded an honorary degree by theUniversity of Nottingham, a fellowship fromSt Mary's University College (a college of theUniversity of Surrey) and a Fellowship from theRoyal Television Society. In 1999 she received an honorary degree from theUniversity of East Anglia and in 2000, a fellowship fromLiverpool John Moores University.[citation needed]
In 2012 Smith was among theBritish cultural icons selected by artistSir Peter Blake to appear in a new version of his most famous artwork – the Beatles'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover – to celebrate the British cultural figures of the last six decades.[32]
She was appointedMember of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in the2017 Birthday Honours for services to cookery.[33]
Smith was baptised in theChurch of England, and attended aMethodistSunday School, aCongregationalistBrownie group and later a Church of England youth group. At the age of twenty-two, she converted toCatholicism. Her first two short religious books,A Feast for Lent (1983) andA Feast for Advent (1983), are readings and reflections for these seasons. In 1988 she wrote a longer book on prayer,A Journey into God.[citation needed]
Smith became friends with the Catholic art historianSister Wendy Beckett, selecting Beckett's book,100 Best-loved Paintings, in her second appearance onDesert Island Discs broadcast in December 2023, four decades apart from her first invitation, in 1982.[6][7]
In 2012 Smith criticisedatheism, stating that "militant neo-atheists and devout secularists are busting a gut to drive us [religious people] off the radar and try to convince us that we hardly exist."[34]
