Fiona Sims is a food, drink and travel writer with 30 years experience of writing for the UK's top newspapers and magazines.
She started her career in food and drink at Taste magazine, then moved to Inside Hotels magazine as deputy editor, followed by leading hospitality magazine now website The Caterer as interiors & drinks editor, before going freelance. She now divides her time between her home office in London (a hut at the end of her garden), pretending to work in her other home on the Isle of Wight, and travelling the globe.
* has written for many different magazines and newspapers, including The Times, The Telegraph, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Delicious, Food & Travel, Sphere, Bentley magazine, Elite Traveler, National Geographic Food, Decanter and The Caterer.
* has extensive editing and commissioning experience, both editorial and commercial, from five years editing Island Visitor magazine, a consumer lifestyle magazine for the Isle of Wight, content editor posts on luxury food brand websites, such as Maille, plus editing books for other luxury brands such as Godiva chocolate and Rolls-Royce, and she edited the best-selling Illustrated Royal Weddings magazine for Illustrated London News.
* has written four books, Guide to Wine (Parragon) and Wine Made Simple (Marks & Spencer), and her first cookery book, The Boat Cookbook, was published by Bloomsbury Adlard Coles in April 2014. This was followed by The Boat Drinks Book , which was published by Bloomsbury in May 2017. The second edition of The Boat Cookbook was published in 2019.
* interviewed many of the world's top chefs, food and drink personalities and hoteliers, including Gordon Ramsay, Wolfgang Puck, Charlie Trotter, Alain Ducasse, Ferran Adrià and Elena Arzak.
* travelled to top restaurants with some of the world's most famous chefs - accompanying Heston Blumenthal on his first trip to the legendary El Bulli in Spain
* organized the UK’s first international women’s chef event with top British chef Angela Hartnett
* read about some of her jaunts in recent articles through the following links, from her quest to find the best wineries to visit in her home county of Kent for Decanter magazine, and the finest omakase in London (where the chef decides what you eat) for Club Oenologique. Then there was a particularly tough assignment on the picture-perfect Caribbean island of Nevis for Elite Traveler magazine, where she gained an understanding of the island's culture through its food (and people), and the ultimate booze cruise (sorry, wine voyage) on a superyacht sailing through the Greek islands for The Times. And if that wasn't enough, the newspaper sent her off to Cascais in Portugual to find out why Lisbon's great and good hang out here at the weekends (little clue - the sparkling seafood). While Bentley magazine (yes, the luxury car) sent her to Girona in Spain to try a legendary three Michelin-starred restaurant, and a hotel by the sea that oozed old world glamour. And talking of glamour, she also spent a few days in Puglia playing princess at Castle Elivra for Conde Nast Traveller magazine, after rounding up the best UK hotels for wine lovers for the world's best wine magazine, and the ultimate restaurant seat - at the world's best chefs' tables, for National Geographic Food. A tough job, but someone's got to do it.
fiona@fionasims.com
Twitter: @2fionas
Instagram: fionasims
Feature writing (including food-related travel features), 'opinion' and other topical columns, editing and commissioning, trendspotting, interviews with chefs and food producers, winemakers and distillers, restaurant reviews, recipe development (food & cocktails), recipe editing, matching food and wine, beer and other drinks, conducting tastings, copywriting, plus menu and wine list consultancy. Excellent contacts in the food, drink and travel world.
