Ruth Watson owned and ran the award-winning Hintlesham Hall and then, in 1990, one of the first 'gastropubs'. Asked by Delia Smith to be a contributing food editor on Sainsbury's Magazine, she went on to win the Glenfiddich Magazine Cookery Writer of the Year award twice.

Her first book, The Really Helpful Cookbook, went into a third reprint within a month. She writes regularly for BBC Good Food magazine, and has also featured in Jamie Oliver's Channel 4 series, Jamie's Kitchen. Her latest venture. the Crown and Castle inn at Orford, has received glowing write-ups in the regional press.