Great British Menu's Andi Oliver's famous daughter, pop star past and celebrity best friend

She's become a familiar face to millions of viewers on the hit BBC Two cooking show

Chef, writer, restaurateur and TV judge Andi Oliver is now a familiar face to millions of viewers as presenter of BBC show Great British Menu.

She's said she "can’t remember a time when I wasn’t cooking for people" - and it's a passion that has taken her from the early days in her family kitchen to owning her own restaurant and sharing her recipes with readers and TV audiences.

Great British Menu underwent a change of format a couple of years ago, introducing a presenter in its fifteenth series to oversee proceedings. The role went to comedian Susan Calman but she was replaced by Andi the following year.

Read on to find out more about Andi's life and career.

Life in Suffolk and Cyprus

Andi spent her early years in Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk. Her mother is a teacher and her father was in the RAF, meaning the family also spent some time living in Cyprus.

She has spoken of happy memories of weekly family roast dinners, telling the Evening Standard: “They were a real thing for us. They’d be working during the week but at weekends we’d all cook together. It was our proper family time, a time of conviviality, where we all actually had time to enjoy the complete madness of the family."

She was learning to cook cauliflower cheese at the age of nine and joked she was "that odd kid" who started having dinner parties at the age of 12. She recalls: "I was obsessed with recreating pictures from books - like ones by Marguerite Patten."

When the family lived in Cyprus, a young Andi picked up "a lot of the flavours and ingredients that I cook with today". She said: "Today I serve platters of grilled seafood which is definitely something I got from Cyprus. I just remember going to the rocks to watch the fishermen catch fish and feeling so excited about connecting the grilling of the seafood over the charcoals to what those fishermen were doing."

Early stardom and pop star best friend

Andi was a vocalist in post-punk band Rip Rig + Panic alongside her best friend, Neneh Cherry. Also in the group were Mark Springer, Gareth Sager, Bruce Smith and her brother Sean Oliver.

They had some commercial success but split in 1983. Andi then developed a varied career working in broadcasting - and her interest in food soon came to the forefront.

Andi presented hit cult show Badaas TV with Ice T and the award-winning documentary Crazy Sexy Cool and for six years covered Glastonbury for the BBC as well as fronting various other BBC festivals. She spent three years presenting an afternoon show on GLR and presented music show The Selector for eight years.

While developing her TV and radio career Andi was also busy in the kitchen, running restaurant The Moveable Feast for four years. She had her own kitchen at pub The Jackdaw and Star and launched her award winning restaurant Andi’s – in 2016. Another food project, Wadadli Kitchen, launched in 2020, showcases Caribbean home cooking.

In 2006 she presented The Truth About Food for the BBC and in 2007 she and Neneh Cherry hosted BBC2 cooking series, Neneh and Andi Dish It Up. She's also contributed to Radio 4’s The Kitchen Cabinet and Truth About Food.

A tragic loss

Andi's initial steps in radio came after a family tragedy. After her brother Sean died at just 27 from sickle cell anaemia, she began volunteering at a hospice for people diagnosed with HIV and Aids.

One of Andi’s co-workers asked if she wanted to appear on a radio show and she told the Radio Times: "I was a punk – you said ‘yes’ to what you thought was fun. So, I started doing a radio show. I learned to drive the desk on air. In my first week, I took the whole of the BBC off air for about a minute."

Opening up to The Guardian in 2020, Andi said that food was also a coping mechanism to deal with her grief. She said: "I just cooked and cooked after my brother died from sickle cell anaemia.

"Trays and trays of chickens to last each week, because we didn’t know how else to fill up this big existential gap. And I kept worrying about things – like that there wasn’t enough gravy around, so cooked vats and vats of it, just adding things for days to the giant stockpot.

"I think I spiralled for years after he died. When people are in trauma they need the love of food."

Pop star best friend

Andi and Neneh first met after Sean - who was in the band with Neneh before Andi joined - was in a car crash. Neneh has recalled: "I used to go and read to him in Middlesex Hospital. One day Andrea just appeared. It was love at first sight. As soon as we saw each other, it felt like, "Where the hell have you been?" It was like we'd always known each other."

And Andi told the Independent: "I walked in and Sean went, "This is Neneh." We kind of went, "Ah, hi! It's you!" We just met and fell in love. It was like I knew her already.

"Now I don't even smoke, but we went in the hallway and shared a fag, and by the time we got back we decided we were going to sing together. Everyone was like, "Yeah, right," but about six months later we were on the road together in Rip, Rig and Panic. It really was like some huge weird romance."

Andi has spoken fondly of the good times she's shared with Neneh, joking: "We have so much fun it makes other people sick" - and food was always in the mix. She has said: "We used to have massive parties and cook 20 kilos of chicken wings when my best friend Neneh Cherry and I were really young.

"Most teenagers just want to drink cider and get drunk, which we also wanted to do, but we couldn’t have a party without making food. And then we had kids quite young, so we started cooking for our families."

New role on Great British Menu

Andi previously made a number of appearances on Great British Menu as a judge and admitted to Delicious magazine that she was nervous about making the switch to host. But she said: "I’m so glad I’ve done it. My relationship with the chefs is different. I already used to be a bit maternal with them.

"Now that I go through the whole week with them, by Friday evening I’m literally lying on the floor with exhaustion because my nerves are completely frayed!"

Love of reading and Ru Paul

In her spare time, Andi is an avid reader, saying books represent a "world of comfort" to her - and she also now hosts TV's Sky Arts Book Club.

When it comes to watching TV, she's also shared that she is "obsessed" with Ru Paul's Drag Race, often having it on in the kitchen when she's cooking. She said: "I love that it’s political too, encouraging people to vote and talking about rights. It’s thought provoking and reminds you to be kind and live with love."

Personal life and famous daughter

Andi met her partner Garfield Hacknett while working at a bar in Shoreditch, London. He was a music manager and they bonded over a shared love for food. In her book The Pepperpot Diaries, Andi describes him as "the kindest man I know and my partner in life and all things".

Her daughter is Miquita Oliver, who has followed in Andi's footsteps by pursuing a career in TV and radio, including on MTV, T4 and Channel 4 show Popworld. Mum and daughter have appeared together in Celebrity Gogglebox and hosted podcast Stirring It Up.

Opening up to Vogue about their mother-daughter bond, Andi said: "I was on my own with Miquita for the first 10 years of her life, which creates an unshakeable bond. We were a poor, single-parent family who relied on each other every day.

"Even when she was little, we had an emotional infrastructure or framework we provided each other with to ensure we got through it together."

Great British Menu is on BBC Two and catch up on iPlayer