Biographical details of Delia

Published on November 14, 2024. the author The Delia Online team

Delia was born in Woking, Surrey and grew up in Kent.

She left school at the age of 16 without any O-levels. She first tried her hand at hairdressing, was a saleswoman and worked in a travel agency. At 21, having decided to learn how to cook – perhaps partly to impress her new boyfriend – she started working at a small restaurant in Paddington called The Singing Chef.

Her first job was washing dishes, then a waitress, and finally she was allowed to help cook. She began to wonder why, if French cooking was so good, English was so terrible. So she began reading English cookery books in the British Museum reading room, testing recipes on the Harley Street family she was living with at the time.

In 1969, Delia was hired as a food writer for the new Daily Mirror magazine. Their deputy editor was Michael Wynn Jones, whom she later married. This year she also baked the cake that was used on the cover Album The Rolling Stones Let It Bleed.

Her first cookbook (1971) was HOW TO BATH WHEN COOKING. The following year she began a column in the Evening Standard, which she was to write for 12 years. She later wrote a successful column for the Radio Times until 1986.

In 1973 Delia began her television career presenting a new series for BBC 1 called Family Fare with accompanying booklets which ran until 1975. During this time she wrote RECIPES FROM COUNTRY INNS AND RESTAURANTS (1973) and STANDARD DINNER COOKBOOK (1974). ). Three more booklets were published between 1975 and 1977 in connection with her Look East series on BBC television. FRUGAL FOOD (1976) and DELIA SMITH’S BOOK OF CAKES (1977) followed.

Realizing that her aim was to teach people how to cook, take them back to the basics and cover all the classic techniques, Delia approached BBC Further Education with the idea for their first televised cookery course. Accompanying books were needed to explain not only how, but also why things happen. The first of these books, DELIA SMITH COOKING CLASS: PART ONE was published in 1978, followed by PART TWO (1979) and PART THREE (1981). This was the beginning of the publishing phenomenon. Then there were four different omnibus editions of these three books, which have now sold 6 million copies over 45 years.

In 1985, Delia wrote a book that her readers had been clamoring for for some time – a collection of recipes for one person called ALONE IS FUN! It became a BBC television series Pebble Mill, repeated six years later in 1991, the book has sold over 650,000 copies and has been translated into German, Swedish and Italian.

Delia returned to television in 1990, this time to help us tackle the daunting task of cooking for Christmas. The book from the DELHI SMITH CHRISTMAS series has sold more than 1,500,000 copies.

The 1990s proved extremely successful for Delia. DELIA SMITH SUMMER COLLECTIONpublished in May 1993 and accompanied by a 10-episode BBC2 television series, it broke all previous records. To date, the book has sold more than 1,600,000 copies. In the fall of 1995 DELIA SMITH’S WINTER COLLECTION was published alongside a 12-part BBC2 television series. It sold 2,300,000 copies, making it the fastest-selling book in history at the time. It also appeared in America.

October 1998 saw the release of another bestseller, HOW TO COOK DELIA: BOOK ONE, and a 10-part BBC 2 television series, in which Delia returned to the roots of cooking, restoring our reverence for basic ingredients and uses. their. BOOK ONE sold over 1,830,000 copies. HOW TO COOK DELHI: BOOK TWO, published in December 1999, has sold 1.4 million copies. HOW DELIA COOKS: BOOK THREE, published in December 2001, has sold over 700,000 copies to date.

A year later, in response to numerous requests to collect her vegetarian recipes in one volume, DELIA VEGETARIAN COLLECTION new recipes were published to reflect the changes in modern cooking. More than 400,000 copies were sold.

Delia decided to repeat this theme with The DELIA COLLECTION, a series of inexpensive books, each dedicated to a single ingredient or type of dish. The first four: SOUP, CHICKEN, CHOCOLATE and FISH were published in autumn 2003. ITALIAN and PORK left in 2004, BAKING in September 2005 PUDDINGS in February 2006.

DELHI’S GARDEN, written with Gay Search, was published in Fall 2004. Inspired by her new garden in Suffolk, Delia wanted to create a book that would tell people more than just how to grow their own fruit and vegetables every month. month, and how to incorporate them into seasonal recipes.

DELIA SHIFTING WHILE COOKING was published in the spring of 2008 by Ebury Press and became the fastest-selling title in Random House history. Six related programs appeared on BBC2.

In the same year, Hodder & Stoughton introduced DELIA’S CHEAP FOODa new, updated edition of her previous FRUGAL FOOD. All proceeds go to CAFOD.

In March 2009, BBC Books published DELIA’S COMPLETE HOW TO COOKcollected edition “HOW TO COOK DELIYA”, books 1, 2 and 3.

DELIA MERRY CHRISTMASwas published by Ebury Press (October 2009). She created a 1-hour Christmas special that captivated nearly 4 million viewers.

In 2013 Delia published a new edition of her 1977 CAKE BOOK entitled DELIA’S CAKESwhich coincided with the launch of her online cooking school, the first semester of which was dedicated to cakes.

Her cookbooks have sold over 21.5 million copies in the UK.

The word “Delia” is defined in the 2001 Collins English Dictionary as “the recipes or cooking style of British cookery writer Delia Smith. Delia’s dish.”

In January 2010, the BBC aired five half-hour programs, Delia Through the Decades, which looked at her 40-year career and how she influenced the nation’s eating habits.

In 1986, Delia compiled the FOOD AID cookbook as her contribution to the Band Aid charity. In 1997, she created DELIA’S RED NOSE COLLECTION for Comic Relief, which raised over £1,250,000 for the charity. Again, in 2001, at the urging of Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, she wrote DELIA’S CHOCOLATE COLLECTION for Comic Relief. The booklet, which accompanied a five-episode series of hilarious television shorts, became an instant bestseller.

Delia is also known for her spiritual books. She had a diverse church background. Baptized in the Church of England, she attended a Methodist Sunday school, a Brownie Congregationalist group, and later a Church of England youth group. At the age of 22, she decided to become a Catholic and began studying. Her first two short religious books, LENT (1983) and ADVENT (1983), are readings and reflections for these seasons. In 1988, Delia took on a much bigger challenge – to write a full-fledged book about prayer – JOURNEY TO GOD. These books are still actively sold, and all proceeds go to various charities. (All three titles were sold to American publishers.)

It is known that Delia’s other great passion is football and she has supported Norwich City Football Club since 1969. In November 1996, she and her Michael became directors of the club. In 1999, she founded Delia’s Canary Catering. There are restaurants as well as bars, lounges and meeting rooms where Delia’s meals are served all year round for companies, the general public and of course football fans. In the autumn of 2024, Delia and Michael stepped down as directors of NCFC and became life presidents of the club.

From 1993 to 1998, she worked as a behind-the-scenes consultant for Sainsbury’s. In May 1993, she and her husband, Michael Wynn Jones, founded New Crane Publishing, which published Sainsbury’s magazine. Delia was a consulting director and provided her own recipes. The official audience of Sainsbury’s magazine was 3.4 million people. In 2005, Delia and Michael sold New Crane Publishing.

In March 2010, Delia teamed up with Waitrose to produce 31 television adverts.

In March 2001, Delia realized its long-held dream of being in direct contact with its readers when Delia Online was launched. An archive of over 1400 recipes, Cooking school videoinstructions, bakeware and equipment, ingredient information, a Q&A column and regular updates on what’s in season and where to find the best produce. Delia offers a growing online archive of over 45 years of work.

She won the 1990 British Book Award for Bestseller for DELIA SMITH’S CHRISTMAS, the 1991 British Book Award for Lifetime Achievement, and the 1996 British Book Award for Book of the Year for DELIA SMITH’S WINTER GATHERING.

In 1996, Delia received an honorary degree from the University of Nottingham, a scholarship to St Mary’s College (College of the University of Surrey). In the same year, she entered the Hall of Fame of the Royal Television Society. In 1999, she received an honorary degree from the University of East Anglia, and in 2000 she was awarded a scholarship to Liverpool John Moores University. In 2013, Delia was presented with a special BAFTA award for her outstanding contribution to television cookery and services to broadcasting.

In 2017, Delia was awarded a CH in the Queen’s Birthday Honors List, joining 64 other Companions of Honour. This follows her CBE in 2009 and her OBE in 1995.

Find out more about the prestigious Delia Award here

In March 2022, Delia published her book You are important: a human decision

Delia has received a prestigious award from the Food Writers Guild Lifetime Achievement Award at the 25th awards ceremony in June 2023. The award was presented in recognition of her imagination and creativity, her commitment to good, honest food and her uncompromising attention to detail.

In October, Delia became the first winner of The OFM Icon Award. Learn more here.

In August 2024, to mark the 50th anniversary of The Sunday Times Bestseller List, they compiled a special list of the 100 best-selling books, based on how many weeks a title spent in the top ten. Delia appeared three timesfor the complete cooking course, the Delia summer collection and the illustrated cooking course.

This page was last updated on November 14, 2024