Camilla Stephens

A career in food was much more tempting than school for Camilla Stephens, who left halfway through her A-levels to attend Leiths. She spent the next few years working with their catering company and at Justin de Blank, before joining Good Housekeeping magazine. After three years of food writing and editing, she went travelling in America for six months, fell in love with coffee and, back in the UK, developed the food range for the Seattle Coffee Company and Starbucks. In 2001 she went freelance and two years later, inspired by companies like Innocent and Green and Black’s, set up Higgidy, making handmade pies near her home in West Sussex. Her home-cooking philosophy and her use of kitchen cupboard ingredients is at the heart of the Higgidy kitchen and of all the recipes she creates.