A multi-award-winning food editor with experience spanning decades, I work with a wide range of publishers, publications, and brands. I provide editorial services (content strategy, copy and line editing, ghostwriting, proofreading, consultancy). I also write food features and develop recipes for most major food publishers in the UK. 

I am a founder and the editor of Pit, an independent, boundary-pushing food magazine for which I won BSME Editor of the Year (2020) and The Guild of Food Writers Awards for Best Magazine (2023, 2025). 

I’m a voracious reader and a former academic with a PhD in Psychological Medicine, which means I bring a unique combination of scholarly attention to detail and considered thinking, combined with a lighthearted, finger-on-the-pulse style. I enjoy editing the words of others as much as writing my own, combining my editorial and scholarly skillsets to refine copy through conscientious review while maintaining a keen eye for style and readability.

A seasoned recipe developer, my work has appeared in most UK food publications. I write the weekly newsletter Flavour Nuggets, a Substack Bestseller, and have authored two cookery books with Hardie Grant: BBQ Days, BBQ Nights and Live Fire, which was shortlisted for the Guild of Food Writers Specialist Cookery Book of the Year 2023.

Whether it’s editing, writing, recipe development, testing, ghosting or consultancy, I can help. Get in touch!

helen.gravy@gmail.com
My agent is Kay Peddle at Colwill & Peddle.

Testimonials

'Helen is engaged, attentive and communicative, and even better, a source of constant enthusiasm, no matter how tricky the project or how tight the deadline' – Eve Marleau - Senior Commissioning Editor, Quadrille
'About flavour as much as it’s about barbecuing...a book absolutely packed with ideas' – Diana Henry on Live Fire
'Graves’ creative ideas and attention to every aspect of the barbecue (including those all-essential drinks and nibbles) make this book a summer essential' – Ottolenghi on BBQ Days, BBQ Nights
'Helen’s cooking style is quite extraordinary. I know very few people who can combine that kind of firecracker creativity with the ability to produce dish after dish to make you issue small moans of desire. Her talent for food is, literally and figuratively, on fire.’ – Marina O'Loughlin
'The book of the summer' – The Observer on BBQ Days, BBQ Nights