Simon Hopkinson was born and raised in Lancashire. From his first restaurant job at age seventeen, La Normandie restaurant, where he worked under the tutelage of Yves Champeau, he then moved to London to set up Bibendum (right) in Kensington with Sir Terence Conran, which he left to pursue his food writing. He has written an award-winning column for the Independent since 1995. He lives in London.
