Jill Norman

Jill Norman is a British editor and food writer. She published authors such as Elizabeth David for Penguin Books and then started writing books about food herself. In 2001 she published the 564-page New Penguin Cookery Book.

Early life Jill Norman grew up in the Midlands region of England. Her father owned a large market garden and vegetable shops, so from an early age she ate well.

Education She studied French and Spanish at King's College in London.

Publishing Career After university, she joined Penguin Books as an editor. One of her responsibilities was to expand the list of food and wine books.

There was no test kitchen at Penguin Books so Jill Norman used to test out any recipes in the books she was working on which she thought sounded interesting or 'rather dodgy'.

Jill finished editing Elizabeth David's last book, Harvest of the Cold Months, a book about the Social History of Ice and Ices, after David's death. It was made up of two anthologies and unpublished work.

In 1994 André Simon Award for Elisabeth David's Harvest of the Cold Months: The Social History of Ice and Ices, which Jill Norman had edited.

In 2014 The Guild of Food Writers gave Jill Norman its Lifetime Achievement Award.

Winner 2006 James Beard Foundation Award for The Cook's Book (DK Publishing)