Henrietta Green

Food writer, broadcaster and consultant Henrietta Green is widely acknowledged as the country's leading expert on Britain's small speciality food producers.

Her reputation is deservedly won, from many years of hard graft, travelling the length and breadth of the British Isles to seek out, meet and catalogue the varied specialist food producers that Britain has to offer.

The results of Henrietta's labours were published in the best selling book - HENRIETTA GREEN'S GOOD FOOD LOVERS' GUIDE TO BRITAIN. This book has won Henrietta numerous awards - including the Michael Smith/Macallans/Guild of Food Writers Awards for the writer who made the greatest contribution to British food, an Andre Simon special award and a shortlist for the Glenfiddich Book of the Year. A revised and updated version followed in 1996.

The precursor to this book was the lesser known, but equally respected, directory for the food trade - British Food Finds. Published in 1987, this also won the Andre Simon award.

In 1997 HENRIETTA GREEN'S FOOD LOVERS' CHRISTMAS was published. This was also nominated for a Michael Smith Award.

In 2001 HENRIETTA GREEN'S FARMERS' MARKET COOKBOOK was published which won the special Jury Award in the Gourmand Cookbook Awards.

In recognition of her work, Henrietta was awarded by HRH The Prince of Wales, the prestigious BBC Radio 4 Food Programme award, Campaigner Educator 2000.

As well as running her successful Food Lovers' Fairs and Markets, Henrietta also works as a consultant to Waitrose, The Dorchester and Les Routiers and sits on the steering committee for the National Association of Farmers Markets and the advisory panel for the Countryside Agency "Eat the View".

Henrietta broadcasts for BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 5 Live, contributing regularly to The Food Programme, Woman's Hour and Going Places. Her own BBC Radio 4 series, Meeting for the Meal, won critical acclaim. She is Local and Regional Food Editor to BBC Good Food Magazine and runs the website www.foodloversbritain.com voted the best website for information on food producers by The Sunday Times.

Well known as a champion of the small, local food producer, Henrietta Green describes her excitement as she attended the very first farmers' market at Bath in 1998. "No-one could have resisted", she writes in the introduction to Farmers' Market Cookbook: "the choice was vast, the quality unquestionable; everything seemed glisteningly fresh, brimming over with robust, proffering a traceable pedigree and sold by vigorously committed stall holders".

Since that epoch-making day, the movement has proliferated to the point where there are now apparently over 250 such markets.

As well as being an excellent collection of seasonal recipes, this book incorporates much information about the working lives of direct-selling farmers, most of whom have seen their profits and satisfaction increase, and a strongly argued case for the intelligent regulation of the market system.

But the whole point of farmers' markets is the quality of the food and Henrietta Green provides excellent ideas for what to do with it when you get it home, be it honey, game, beef, vegetables, bread or cheese. She gives a fine recipe for roast loin of veal, for example--how wonderful to think that one can eat veal now with a clear conscience. A wild mushroom and garlic pizza is another eye-catcher, as is lamb shanks with port.

Although the recipes are seasonal, most are provided with modifications to fit different parts of the year. All very expert, appetising and inspirational; and likely to make you feel a better person. As Henrietta Green says, farmers' markets may not save the planet, but they make it a better place to live.