Andi Oliver

Andrea Oliver (born 26 May 1963) is a British chef, television and radio broadcaster, and singer. She is notable for her appearances on the BBC TV cooking show Great British Menu.

Oliver was born born 26 May 1963,^[1] in Paddington, London to Antiguan parents,^[2] spent a few years in Kent and Cyprus and was brought up in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, from the age of 10.^[3] Her father served in the Royal Air Force and was based at RAF Honington; her mother taught at a primary school in the town.^[4]

Oliver is a former member of the band Rip Rig + Panic^[5] who appeared in an episode of Series 1 of The Young Ones. She used to co-host alongside Ice-T, the Channel 4 television show Baadasss TV,^[6] and for a time worked at BBC Radio London.^[6] She has also participated in the BBC's coverage of the Glastonbury Festival.^[6]

For four years she ran a successful ephemeral restaurant, The Moveable Feast. After being creative director of The Birdcage pub on London's Colombia Road, she launched her own restaurant at The Jackdaw and Star, a renovated pub in the heart of Homerton. She opened her award-winning restaurant, Andi's, in 2016, and in 2020 created her newest food project entitled Wadadli Kitchen.^[7]

She is best known for her appearances on the BBC TV cooking show Great British Menu.^[8][9] She is the author of the book The Pepperpot Diaries: Stories From My Caribbean Table, published in 2023.^[1]

After 1983, Andi became involved in Kalimba, an African-inspired band. In 1990 she joined forces with her brother, forming the Mighty Hog.^[10]

In April 2007, she began presenting a six-part cookery show, Neneh and Andi Dish it Up, with her friend Neneh Cherry for BBC2.^[10]

• Host of Truth About Food
• Host of The Selector, a radio show for the British Council
• Host of BBC Four first-ever Radio 3 World Music Awards
• Took part in the charity performance of The Vagina Monologues at the Royal Albert Hall
• Took part in the Changing Cityscapes series for the BBC.^[11]
• In 2009 Oliver took part in BBC flagship drama No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, set in Botswana.
• In summer 2012, she was a guest judge on the TV show Food Glorious Food, presented by Carol Vorderman during the Harrogate Regional Heats, first broadcast on 27 February 2013.
• In summer 2014, she opened her own kitchen, Sugarshack.
• Regular panelist on The Kitchen Cabinet on BBC Radio 4 alongside Jay Rayner, Henry Dimbleby and Angela Hartnett
• Co-hosts Food Networks The Big Eat alongside Andy Bates and Ching He Huang
• Co-host of BBC's Christmas Kitchen with Matt Tebbutt – December 2016
• Took part in Eight Go Rallying: The Road To Saigon in 2018 with her daughter Miquita Oliver. They drove a 1959 Morris Minor.^[12]
• Replaced Prue Leith as permanent judge on Great British Menu with Matthew Fort and Oliver Peyton, but then stepped away from the judge role and replaced Susan Calman as presenter^[13][14]
• 2022, documentary, The Caribbean with Andi and Miquita.^[15]
• 2024, host of culinary series, Andi Oliver's Fabulous Feast.^[16]

Oliver has a daughter, television presenter Miquita Oliver, from a previous relationship with Robin Baillie, a Scottish art history teacher.^[17][18] Her brother Sean died in 1990 of sickle cell anaemia aged 27.^[19] She lives in Wanstead, East London with her partner Garfield Hackett.^[20]

Andi is allergic to shellfish.^[21]

• The Pepperpot Diaries: Stories From My Caribbean Table, photography by Robert Billington (DK, 27 April 2023), ISBN 9780241560211

• Andi Oliver page at BBC.
• David Ellis, "Andi Oliver on new restaurant Wadadli: We're everything and everyone, and that's what we want to celebrate", Evening Standard, 5 August 2021.