Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Hugh Christopher Edmund Fearnley-Whittingstall (born 14 January 1965) is an English celebrity chef, television personality, journalist, food writer, and campaigner on food and environmental issues.

Fearnley-Whittingstall hosted the River Cottage series on the UK television channel Channel 4, in which audiences observe his efforts to become a self-reliant, downshifted farmer in rural England; Fearnley-Whittingstall feeds himself, his family and friends with locally produced and sourced fruits, vegetables, fish, eggs, and meat.

He has also become a campaigner on issues related to food production and the environment, such as fisheries management and animal welfare.

Fearnley-Whittingstall's initial television exposure was on A Cook on the Wild Side (1995), an exploration of earthy cuisine.

His next series was TV Dinners (1996), in one episode of which he notoriously flambéed and puréed a human placenta to then serve as pâté.

In 1997, Fearnley-Whittingstall moved into River Cottage, a former game-keeper's lodge in the grounds of Slape Manor in Netherbury, Dorset, UK, which he had previously used as a weekend and holiday home.

The lodge became the setting for three Channel 4 series: Escape to River Cottage, Return to River Cottage, and River Cottage Forever, all directed by Garry John Hughes.

He has become a supporter of the organic movement.

In 2002, he presented the six-episode series Treats from the Edwardian Country House.

Fearnley-Whittingstall established River Cottage HQ in Dorset in 2004, and the operation is now based at Park Farm near Axminster in Devon.

An organic smallholding, HQ is also the hub for a broad range of courses and events, and home to the River Cottage Cookery School.

Fearnley-Whittingstall continues to teach and host events there on a regular basis.

Fearnley-Whittingstall was born in Hampstead, London, to Robert Fearnley-Whittingstall, of a landed gentry family formerly of Watford and Hawkswick, Hertfordshire, and gardener and writer Jane Margaret, daughter of Colonel John Hawdon Lascelles OBE, of the King's Royal Rifle Corps.

He was brought up in Gloucestershire.

He was educated at Summer Fields School, Eton College, and St Peter's College, Oxford, where he read philosophy and psychology.

After a temporary relocation to Africa, where Fearnley-Whittingstall was considering a career in wildlife conservation, he returned to England and became a sous chef at the River Café in London.

He has since said that "being messy" and "lacking discipline", though, made him unsuitable for working in the River Café kitchen, but that he regards his time there as a period that helped shape his current career.

Following his time at the River Café, Fearnley-Whittingstall commenced freelance journalism and was published in Punch, the Evening Standard, and The Sunday Times.

In 2004, Beyond River Cottage followed Fearnley-Whittingstall's progress as he set up a new business, River Cottage H.Q., on a 44 acre property close to Dottery (near Bridport), Dorset, with his family.

Underpinning his new enterprise is the selling of the produce cultivated on his property at the local marketplace, and audiences bear witness to the host's experiences as a produce seller, while also intermittently receiving the recipe lessons traditionally seen on food shows.

The series concludes with a Christmas special in which a feast is brought together, consisting of a 10-bird roast using Fearnley-Whittingstall's own geese and ducks.

In 2005, a series called The View from River Cottage was produced using extracts from the four previous series, accompanied by newly recorded narration.

This was followed by River Cottage Road Trip special that consisted of two newly produced one-hour instalments.

During 2006, Fearnley-Whittingstall moved River Cottage HQ from the original barn near Bridport to its new premises, Park Farm, a 66 acre farm near Uplyme on the West Dorset/East Devon border.

A new series called The River Cottage Treatment was filmed there and was broadcast on Channel 4 in November 2006.

This premise of this series involved guests described as "urban-dwellers, fast-food lovers, and convenient food-mongers" to spend a week with the host on the new property, the guests being required to undertake farm duties and to eat according to the River Cottage philosophy.

In 2007, Fearnley-Whittingstall presented, River Cottage: Gone Fishing, a short series that is the concept's 10th overall, in which he examines some of the lesser-known fish to be caught around the British Isles.

From 2008, he filmed magazine-style food programmes, produced at River Cottage HQ, based on the seasonal themes.

River Cottage Spring ran from 28 May 2008 to 25 June 2008 on Channel 4, and in one of the episodes, Fearnley-Whittingstall demonstrated his "holistic" approach to cooking by teaching a vegetarian how to slaughter, prepare, and cook lamb.

In late 2008, River Cottage Autumn was broadcast from 16 October to 6 November 2008.

In one of the autumnal episodes, Fearnley-Whittingstall, together with his friend, John, embarks on a mission to catch crustaceans at a nearby beach with the use of pots.

The pair seek to catch prawns, crabs and lobsters, in addition to the blue velvet swimming crab that is commonly found at the particular coastal location where they are based.

On 19 October 2009, a new series of four episodes aired on Channel 4: River Cottage – Winter's on the Way.

In one of the episodes from the winter series, Fearnley-Whittingstall captures, prepares, and cooks rabbits that he finds on his property and introduces viewers to salsify; according to the host, salsify was popular during the Victorian era.

In September 2010, a new series of River Cottage episodes, entitled River Cottage Every Day, commenced.

The series encouraged viewers to cook from scratch more frequently and was accompanied by a book of the same name.

In autumn 2011, a new series, River Cottage Veg, was launched and is based on Fearnley-Whittingstall's developed awareness regarding the problematic way in which meat is produced and consumed in the modern era.

During the series, the food activist addresses the challenge that he defines in the series' first episode: "A whole summer without flesh".

Fearnley-Whittingstall explains further: "In the weeks ahead, I'll be expanding my vegetable horizons, seeking out new flavours and textures, and cooking up a whole raft of vegetable dishes with the same excitement and gusto that I've always bestowed on meat and fish."

A new series of River Cottage, entitled Hugh's Three Good Things, aired on Channel 4 in December 2012.