John Gregory-Smith

Welcome to my very professional about me page. I work in several different areas, but all based around lovely food. I’m a chef and I specialise in Middle Eastern and North African cuisine. Today it’s taken me out of the kitchen and I work as a TV presenter, content creator and best-selling author (fancy!).
For someone who could barely string a sentence together on paper as a student, I have gone on to write seven cookbooks, including best selling Saffron in the Souks, Orange Blossom and Honey and Turkish Delights. My latest book, Fast Feasts is out in April 2022. I have written for newspapers and magazines all over the world, and until recently had a Saturday Supper Club column in the Telegraph. Sadly, the Sunday mag Stella was axed so my column went to the mighty Diana Henry. I can’t be livid about that. To my old English teacher – haha, I did it!
I work as a TV presenter, appearing regularly on C4’s Sunday Brunch and ITV’s This Morning. I have also popped up on various shows on ITV and BBC, and even a few in Australia and America. It’s always a joy.
More recently, I have morphed into a content creator, filming recipe videos for my social channels – Instagram 100K followers and TikTok 80K, both @johngs. I started recording cooking videos during the pandemic. Travel was off the table and all my contracts disappeared so I needed a new project to focus on, a story I’m sure many of you can relate to. Bloody freelancing! I developed everyday easy recipes with a Middle Eastern twist, or anything with pasta and chocolate and now do that pretty much full time. I love it and you guys seem to as well.
That’s me x JGS
My books

Turkish delights
Vibrant Turkish recipes, from the Bosporus to the Black Sea.

Mighty spice express
Speedy street food made easy.

Mighty spice
A whirlwind tour of cooking with spices.