Clarissa Dickson Wright was no stranger to good food as a child. She was born into a home where eating caviar and pheasant shooting were the norm and pigeons were flown in from Cairo for supper.

She went to University College London to study law and was called to the Bar at 21 practising successfully as a barrister for several years, before settling on cooking as her true calling.

She ran her own catering business, cooked on a yacht in the Caribbean and served 60 meals a day at her London luncheon club.

Clarissa became one of only two women in England to become a Guild Butcher (the other is the Queen Mother). She is also the first woman to be Rector at the University of Aberdeen.
She rode into fame in the sidecar of Jennifer Paterson’s Two Fat Ladies and she was often seen as the slightly saner sidekick. However, Clarissa refused to make another series after her co-star’s death in 1998.

She then filmed Clarissa and the Countryman with lifelong friend sheep farmer Sir Johnny Scott to pay homage to rural Britain, sharing their passion for field sports and traditional country activities.

There’s no denying she’s a survivor and her ability to talk on almost any subject along with her down-to-earth philosophy and straight-forwardness makes her a natural star. She has published six books on food and cookery, and it’s a sure thing that food will always be part of this lady’s life!