Giles Coren

Giles Robin Patrick Coren (born 29 July 1969) is a British columnist, food writer, and television and radio presenter.

Coren is credited by inventor James Dyson as the co-author of his autobiography published in 1997.

He has been a restaurant critic for The Times newspaper since 2002, and was named Food and Drink Writer of the Year at the British Press Awards in 2005.

Coren was born in Paddington, London, the only son of Anne (née Kasriel) and English journalist and humourist Alan Coren.

His father had been brought up in an Orthodox Jewish household, but his own upbringing was less Orthodox.

He is the elder brother of journalist Victoria Coren Mitchell, and also related to the Canadian journalist Michael Coren.

Coren was educated at The Hall School, an independent boys' junior school in Hampstead, London, and at Westminster School, an independent boys' senior school in Central London, followed by Keble College at the University of Oxford, where he was awarded a first-class degree in English.

Coren has been a restaurant critic for The Times since 2002, having previously been restaurant critic for Tatler magazine and The Independent on Sunday.

He was named "Food And Drink Writer of the Year" at the 2005 British Press Awards and in 2016 was named Restaurant Writer of the Year at the Fortnum and Mason Awards.

As well as his restaurant work, he also contributes a regular column to The Times, the subjects of which range from personal life to politics.

Under the pseudonym Professor Gideon Garter he wrote The Intellectual's Guide to Fashion for The Sunday Times.

According to a paper published in Journalism Practice by Dr. Peter English and Dr. David Fleischman, Coren is "a sharp, witty columnist who can write with tongue in cheek".

According to an English study, the average grade in Coren's reviews in The Times was 6.86.

Coren claims his average score is actually 6.3, but should be 5; however, he produces "no more than half a dozen really bad" reviews a year.

Coren has contributed articles to publications including Tatler and GQ.

In 2005, he published his first novel, Winkler, reviewed in the New Statesman and The Independent.

One section of the novel won the Literary Review's "Bad Sex in Fiction Award".

In 2005, Coren appeared as a regular correspondent on Gordon Ramsay's The F Word.

In June 2006, he presented a programme on More4, entitled Tax the Fat, about clinical obesity and the cost it presents to the NHS.

Also in 2006, Coren presented the film and DVD review programme Movie Lounge.

With comedian Sue Perkins, Coren co-starred in a series of documentaries known as The Supersizers....

He co-presented the Channel 4 series Animal Farm with Dr Olivia Judson in March 2007.

Around the same time, he appeared in a series of television commercials advertising Birds Eye frozen foods.

In the first, Edwardian Supersize Me (BBC Four, 2007), the two spent a week on the diet of a wealthy Edwardian (i.e. pre-WWI) couple.

The second series (The Supersizers Go...) broadcast in May 2008 on BBC Two.

The 2009 series, The Supersizers Eat..., covered the cuisine of the 1980s, the 1950s, 1920s, the French Revolution, Medieval culture, and ancient Rome.

Coren has also written two non-fiction books: the first, Anger Management (For Beginners), a compilation of columns he had written for The Times, which was published in 2010; and his second, How To Eat Out, which was published in 2012.

Coren is the editor of the dining guide Truth, Love & Clean Cutlery: A Guide to the Truly Good Restaurants and Food Experiences of the UK.

In 2012, Coren presented Our Food on the BBC, travelling the country talking about various local foods.

In 2013, he presented Passover - Why is this night different? for BBC1 and co-presented (alongside Alexander Armstrong) 12 Drinks of Christmas for the same channel.

In November 2014, he joined Time Out as a columnist, writing weekly on city life.

In 2014, Coren ventured to North America.

First, he filmed Pressure Cooker, a cooking competition show co-hosted by Anne-Marie Withenshaw and Chuck Hughes, produced by Jamie Oliver’s Fresh One Productions and Bristow Global Media, and broadcast on Canada's W Network and the US FYI Network.

Coren followed that up with Million Dollar Critic for BBC America, which premiered on 22 January 2015 directly after Gordon Ramsay's New Kitchen Nightmares.

In 2015, Coren began a new BBC series, co-presented with social historian Polly Russell.

Back in Time for Dinner, six-hour-long programmes broadcast from March 2015 Back in Time for Dinner achieved a BAFTA nomination in the 'Features' category.

Back in Time for Christmas (Christmas food) and Back in Time for the Weekend (leisure activities) followed.

Eat to Live Forever was shown in March 2015.

In 2016, Coren filmed Back in Time for Brixton and Further Back in Time for Dinner and the two were released in 2016 and 2017 respectively.

In 2016, Coren fronted the one-off documentary My Failed Novel for Sky Arts.