Food Unwrapped S9 Presenter Bios: Andi Oliver

26 November 2019

Award winning TV Chef and Broadcaster Andi Oliver enjoys a rich & varied career with food and music being at the forefront throughout.

Andi is a regular face on screen – On the BBC she is one of the judges of the Great British Menu, can be seen hosting and cooking on Saturday Kitchen and popping up on The One Show to host the Pub Wars strand.  This year saw Andi host Beat the Chef, a game show with a cooking challenge at its heart.  Outside of the realm of food Andi Hosted Jazz 365 for BBC4 and both took part in Road To Saigon for BBC2 and hosted The Cheltenham Literature Festival for Sky Arts, with her daughter Miquita Oliver.

On air Andi is a regular panel member on BBC Radio 4’s The Kitchen Cabinet alongside Jay Rayner and a regular contributor to Radio 4’s Award winning ‘The Food Programme’. In 2018 she followed in the footsteps of Yotam Ottolenghi & Giorgio Locatelli and was appointed Head judge alongside Sheila Dillon for the prestigious BBC Food & Farming awards.

Andi rose to fame fronting the band Rip Rig and Panic with Neneh Cherry in 1981 she went onto work in TV in the 90’s, debuting on Backstage at The Brits. She then went on to present the hit cult show Badaas TV with Ice T and the award winning documentary Crazy Sexy Cool. For 6 years Andi covered Glastonbury for the BBC as well as fronting various other BBC festivals.

During this period Andi hosted a hugely popular afternoon show on GLR for three years and presented The Selector for 8 years, a show for The British Council, broadcast in over 15 different countries. In 2005, with Andi at the helm, it won a Silver Sony Award for best weekly music show.

In 2006 she presented The Truth About Food for the BBC and in 2007 she and Neneh Cherry hosted BBC2 cooking series, Neneh and Andi Dish It Up.

During her career, Andi was invited to perform a piece for a gala performance of the Vagina Monologues at The Royal Albert Hall with amongst others , Isabella Rossellini, Maureen Lipman & Meera Syal, which led to a 3 month West End run with Michelle Gomez,Samantha Bond & Linda Robson. She was featured in the 1st series of The Number One Ladies Detective Agency and is soon to be seen in a cameo in the upcoming film written by Caitlin Moran – How To Build A Girl.

Andi was (and is) in the kitchen throughout all of this, perfecting her skill, and for 4 years she ran a successful ephemeral restaurant – The Moveable Feast. After being creative director of The Birdcage she launched her own kitchen at The Jackdaw and Star, a renovated pub in the heart of Homerton. She launched her award winning restaurant – Andi’s – in 2016 & is set to launch her new food project – Wadadli Kitchen – Real Caribbean Home Cooking – in 2020.