Behind the scenes at delicious. magazine: meet our team!

We’re a dedicated group of people, with years of experience in food and home cooking, in all its guises – from the stories behind food, to creating and testing recipes. We call on a wider group of trusted food writers, expert photographers and food stylists too, to help bring you the best possible content – from the way it looks, to the way it tastes.

Meet the food team!

Tom Shingler, head of food
Tom has been immersed in the forefront of Britain’s food scene for over a decade, working with chefs, editing cookbooks and creating recipes that reflect everything that makes eating and drinking in the UK so exciting. Before joining Eye To Eye, he was the editor and lead photographer at Great British Chefs. Tom loves nothing more than sharing the tips, tricks, hacks and secrets found in professional kitchens with home cooks eager to take their food to the next level.

Emily Gussin, food producer
Emily is a champion of seasonality and sustainability. She started her editorial career on cake magazines before completing a Cordon Bleu diploma to train as a chef. When she’s not developing recipes for the delicious. she co-runs supper club, 10 Miles Club. She can often be found snacking on lumps of cheese while looking in the fridge.

Pollyanna Coupland, food producer
After completing an illustration degree and eight years cheffing in a variety of kitchens, Polly finally found her dream job where she’s able to combine food with creativity. She’s now spent six years recipe writing and food styling, previously at Great British Chefs before joining delicious. in 2022. She’s as passionate about a big mac and a battered sausage as much as she is about a perfectly cooked scallop and a really good chicken stock… but penne is most definitely the worst pasta shape.

So how does the delicious. food team create a recipe?

Recipes that work

Every recipe is rigorously tested by our food team, using domestic ovens and hobs so that you can be confident that they work – every. single. time.

Ingredients

We aim to use easy-to-find seasonal ingredients. We’ll always tell you where to find any unusual ingredients and/or what to substitute them with. Fresh eggs from our test kitchen are supplied by Clarence Court and our meat comes from The Ginger Pig.

Honest cooking times

All our timings include prep. Hands-on time is when you’re chopping, stirring or frying. Oven/simmering time is when you can leave the dish in the oven or on the hob.

Oven temperatures

We give fan oven and gas mark temperatures in our recipes. For conventional ovens without a fan, add 20C to the fan temperture.

Nutritional information

Our recipes are analysed for nutritional content by an expert nutritionist. They’re calculated with precision but may vary, depending on the ingredients used. Calculations include only listed ingredients.

What do our recipe symbols mean?

We ‘tag’ recipes in our magazine and on our site with a number of different symbols or words. The most common ones you’ll see are these:

Freezable. This indicates that you can freeze all or most of the recipe. Unless stated, freeze the finished dish for up to three months. Defrost and heat until piping hot.

Vegetarian, Vegan, Gluten-free and Dairy-free. These recipes are suitable for special diets provided you choose the appropriate ingredients. Many items may contain hidden animal products, gluten or dairy – always check the label.

Make-ahead. All or part of these recipes are particularly suitable for making before you want to eat them. It could be the day before, or it could be weeks before, depending on the particular recipe, so do check.

Les Dunn, managing editor, delicious.

After a film degree, numerous jobs including waiter in an Italian restaurant in Spain and a dabble in comedy, Les worked as a copywriter for Virgin Atlantic. The job involved travel, which kickstarted his lifelong goal of attempting to eat everything in the world. The employee perks helped his quest (he once flew to Shanghai for a long weekend on a freebie, mainly for the noodles) but somehow he gave it all up to re-train as a journalist. He worked on the magazine Food & Travel, conveniently combining two of his great loves, until it inconveniently went into administration – but not before he’d eaten his way around places as diverse as Lille, the Lake District and the Galapagos. As a freelancer for five years he wrote travel pieces for The Guardian and The Times, and various stuff for Men’s Health magazine, among others. In 2009 he joined delicious. where, as well as being managing editor, he oversees the (fanatically food focused) travel features. Elsewhere in the magazine and online he’s written about everything from home brewing to his disdain for soup.

Hugh Thompson, projects editor

With a vestigial Indian ancestry, Hugh grew up in the 70s with a love of spicy food – the Thompson Saturday Night Curry was a curiosity to his schoolmates. After a few years trying to get into publishing, in 1990 fate lead him to try out as a chef for Prue Leith in London (nickname The Professor). Six months later, Hugh left the kitchen to become a manager for Digby Trout restaurants at venues such as British Museum, Heal’s, London Zoo and Ashmolean Museum Café, Oxford. In 1999, in a dramatic U-turn, he went into publishing editing recipe books and travel guides for Dorling Kindersley. As well as editing books on Sushi and Spices, he travelled to Egypt, China and India working on guides. In 2008 he became a freelance magazine sub and within two years, after working on most of the UK’s food magazines, he became deputy chief sub at delicious. While at the magazine he has represented the UK at the International Pesto Awards in Genoa, cycled the first stage of the Tour de France (in Yorkshire), and won the office bake off (twice). He lives in north London and runs around a lot.

Vic Grimshaw, head of digital

Vic grew up on a working farm in northwest Lancashire, spending summer holidays picking spuds. She’s lived in Denmark and Switzerland, picking up tidbits of local food traditions, many involving cheese and pancakes. Vic has worked in digital since its infancy – around 1995, when the web was a much quieter place. Her digital food experience started with editing bbc.co.uk/food in 2004, relaunching uktvfood.co.uk in 2005, then launching bbcgoodfood.com in 2006. She spent 15 years in various roles at BBC and BBC Worldwide, helping create product strategies for a wide range of brands including BBC Good Food, Gardeners’ World, Top Gear and Lonely Planet. While editor at data vis agency Beyond Words, she worked with clients such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Facebook and the United Nations. She’s been at delicious. since 2017, overseeing all things digital with the specialised content, dev and SEO team.

Thea Everett, deputy digital editor

Born and raised in South East London, Thea has worked in digital and marketing for food and drinks brands since 2012. She spent four years living and working in Melbourne, a city with a lively food culture which sparked a love of cooking that grew into an obsession that would never leave. Back in the UK, she completed a degree in Media and English at Goldsmiths university, then worked as Social Media Manager for the kings of British cheese at Neal’s Yard Dairy, followed by a stint as a cook in a Peckham restaurant. She’s been at delicious. since 2020, looking after Twitter, the newsletter, and writing online features. Thea spends weekends and evenings cooking up recipes in her own IGTV cooking show and Substack, What’s That You’re Cooking, Thea?. Her true food love has always been and will always be curry.