Xanthe Clay

Xanthe Clay misspent her youth backpacking round Arabia, China and South America, eating and drinking her way through the good (mezze, ceviche and dim sum) the bad (camel tripe) and the downright dangerous (bootleg pisco sours). Back in the UK, she worked as a bookseller specialising in cookery books, and when the bookshop chain folded she spent her redundancy money training to be a chef. She worked as a chef and caterer in the West Country before starting the Readers' Recipe column for the Telegraph. Since then she has worked on both food and cookery features for Weekend Telegraph.