Tom Parker Bowles

This British surname is barrelled, being made up of multiple names. It should be written as Parker Bowles, not Bowles.

Tom Parker Bowles
Parker Bowles in 2024
Born	Thomas Henry Charles Parker Bowles (1974-12-18) 18 December 1974 (age 50) Westminster, London, England
Occupation(s)	Food writer,[1] food critic[2]
Spouse	Sara Buys ​ ​ (m. 2005; div. 2022)​
Children	2
Parents	Andrew Parker Bowles Camilla Shand
Relatives	Laura Lopes (sister)

Thomas Henry Charles Parker Bowles (born 18 December 1974)^[3][4] is a British food writer and food critic. Parker Bowles is the author of nine cookbooks and, in 2010, won the Guild of Food Writers 2010 award for his writings on British food. He is known for his appearances as a judge in numerous television food series and for his reviews of restaurant meals around the UK and overseas for GQ, Esquire, and The Mail on Sunday.

Parker Bowles is the son of Queen Camilla and Andrew Parker Bowles. His stepfather and godfather^[5][4] is King Charles III.

Early life and education

Tom Parker Bowles was born on 18 December 1974 in London. He grew up in Wiltshire at Bolehyde Manor in Allington, near Chippenham, and later at Middlewick House, near Corsham.^[6] He and his sister Laura were raised as Roman Catholics.^[7] Both their father and their paternal grandmother, Dame Ann Parker Bowles, were Catholic. Like his father, he is in distant remainder to the Earldom of Macclesfield.

Parker Bowles was educated at Summer Fields School in Oxford.^[8] In the 1980s, he and his sister attended Heywood Preparatory School in Corsham.^[9] He later attended Eton College and Worcester College, Oxford. Parker Bowles states that immediately after leaving school, he fell in love with food writing, and cites his mother's cooking skills and recipes as his inspiration.^{[10][11][12][13]}

Career

From 1997 until 2000, Parker Bowles was a junior publicist for Dennis Davidson Associates, a public relations firm. In 1999 there were newspaper reports that he took cocaine at the Cannes Film Festival.^[14][15] In 2001, he became Tatler's food columnist.^[16][17]

Since 2002 he has been a food writer, critic and broadcaster. He is a restaurant critic of The Mail on Sunday and food editor of Esquire.^[18] He is also a contributing editor to Condé Nast Traveller (UK and US), and Departures (US), as well as a regular contributor to Country Life, Harpers Bazaar and Town and Country.^[19][20] He was a contributor to Gordon Ramsay's food magazine television show The F Word.^[21]

From 2007 to 2010 he co-presented Market Kitchen on Good Food Channel, alongside Matthew Fort and Matt Tebbutt, and presented LBC Radio's Food and Drink Programme for a year.^[22] He was a judge on the ITV Food series Food Glorious Food and Channel 9 Australian cooking series The Hot Plate.^[23][24] In 2017, he was judge, alongside Matt Moran and Anna Polyviou on Series 1 of Family Food Fight (Channel 9 Australia) and filmed series two of Family Food Fight, which was broadcast in late 2018. He is also one of the regular critics on MasterChef (BBC 1). In 2014, Parker Bowles was named as one of the Top 10 most followed UK restaurant critics on Twitter.^[25]

Cookbooks

Parker Bowles's first book, published in 2004, was E Is For Eating – An Alphabet of Greed.^[26] His next, The Year of Eating Dangerously: A Global Adventure in Search of Culinary Extremes, was published by Ebury in 2007.^[27] AbeBooks named the book as one of The 50 Best Food Memoirs.^[28] His third, Full English: A Journey Through the British and Their Food was published in 2009^[29] and won the Guild of Food Writers 2010 award for best work on British food.^[30] His next book, Let's Eat: Recipes From My Kitchen Notebook, is a compendium of his favourite recipes from his childhood, collected from around the world, and written with the amateur cook in mind. The book was published by St. Martin's Press and was released in 2012.^[13][31] In October 2014, he launched his fifth book titled Let's Eat Meat: Recipes for Prime Cuts, Cheap Bits and Glorious Scraps of Meat,^[32][33] which was published by Pavilion.^[34] His seventh book, Fortnum and Mason – Christmas and Other Winter Feasts (4th Estate) was released in October 2018.^[35] Cooking and the Crown: Royal Recipes from Queen Victoria to King Charles III was released in October 2024.^[36]

Business ventures

In November 2011, Parker Bowles, along with food writer Matthew Fort and farmer Rupert Ponsonby, launched a pork scratchings snack named Mr. Trotter's Great British Pork Crackling.^[37] Following good reviews and successful sales of the snack,^[38][39][40] they launched a beer brand in 2013 named Mr Trotter's Chestnut Ale, which was produced in partnership with The Lancaster Brewing Company and is considered to be the first chestnut beer made in the UK.^[39][41] Mr. Trotter's has since begun expanding, creating different types of products.^[42]

Personal life

On 10 September 2005, after five years of dating, Parker Bowles married Sara Buys, an associate editor of Harpers & Queen magazine and senior editor of British Town & Country magazine.^[43] The wedding took place at St. Nicholas' Anglican Church in Rotherfield Greys, Oxfordshire.^[44][45] His cousin Ben Elliot was his best man.^[46] The couple had daughter Lola in 2007 and son Frederick in 2010.^[47] Parker Bowles and Buys separated in 2018 and their divorce was finalised in 2022.^[48]

In 2019, Parker Bowles started dating former journalist Alice Procope (née Horton), the granddaughter of the 2nd Viscount Ingleby and estranged wife of Robert Procope, grandson of Sir Robert Wigram, 8th Baronet.^[49] On 17 March 2021, Procope died in her home, seven months after being diagnosed with cancer.^[49]

On 6 May 2023, his son Freddy Parker Bowles was one of the Pages of Honour to Queen Camilla at her coronation.^[50]

Publications

• E is for Eating: An Alphabet of Greed. (2004). Long Barn Books. ISBN 978-1902421100
• The Year of Eating Dangerously: A Global Adventure in Search of Culinary Extremes (2007). Ebury. ISBN 978-0091904913
• Full English: A Journey Through the British and Their Food. (2009). Ebury. ISBN 978-0091926687
• Let's Eat: Recipes from My Kitchen Notebook. (2012). St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-1250014337
• Let's Eat Meat: Recipes for Prime Cuts, Cheap Bits and Glorious Scraps of Meat. (2014). Pavilion. ISBN 978-1909108318
• The Cook Book: Fortnum & Mason. (2016). Harper Collins. ISBN 978-0008199364
• Fortnum and Mason: Christmas and Other Winter Feasts. (2018). Fourth Estate Ltd ISBN 978-0008305017
• Fortnum & Mason: Time for Tea. (2021). Fourth Estate Ltd ISBN 978-0008387105
• Cooking and the Crown: Royal recipes from Queen Victoria to King Charles III. (2024). Aster ISBN 978-1783256068

References

1. "Tom Parker Bowles Profile". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
2. "Tom Parker Bowles, British food critic and son of duchess, shares travel tales". Palm Beach Daily News. 23 March 2011. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
3. Hallemann, Caroline (6 November 2022). "Meet the Children of Camilla". townandcountrymag. Retrieved 28 November 2022.
4. "HRH The Duchess of Cornwall". princeofwales.gov.uk. Retrieved 25 November 2022.
5. Weaver, Hilary (15 November 2020). "The True Story of Princess Anne & Andrew Parker Bowles' Relationship". Elle. Retrieved 30 September 2022.
6. Armstrong, Julie (2 June 2013). "Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason welcomes Camilla back to her old home ground". gazetteandherald.co.uk. Retrieved 7 September 2014.
7. "Why postponing Royal wedding is right thing to do". The Scotsman. 5 April 2005. Retrieved 28 December 2011.
8. Lynn Barber (1 October 2006). "Eating like a king". The Observer. Retrieved 30 November 2014.
9. "Camilla goes back to school in Corsham". Wiltshire Times. 25 November 2011. Retrieved 24 October 2014.
10. "'My uni diet was like The Young Ones,' says Tom Parker Bowles". Evening Standard. 12 September 2013. Retrieved 24 October 2014.
11. "Tom's appetite for his work is key ingredient". Yorkshire Post. Retrieved 24 October 2014.
12. Cassandra Jardine (18 October 2006). "I felt for my mother and Sir". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 31 October 2014.
13. Jake Wallis, Simons (5 July 2012). "Eating out with Tom Parker Bowles". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 21 July 2012.
14. "Charles ticks off godson over drugs". BBC News. 17 May 1999. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
15. Donnelly, Rachel (20 May 1999). "Charles tries to shield Camilla after her son admits using cocaine". The Irish Times. Retrieved 26 February 2023.
16. People reported the name of the PR firm where Parker Bowles was employed from 1997–2000. This was done in Volume 51, Issue 20, dated 31 May 1999. Another source, Royalty Database, translates a Spanish language article in the Clarin website, and reports the name of the PR firm as simply being "DDA." This article was originally published in the same timeframe as the People article and provides, essentially, the same "news" and information.
17. Nigel Slater (10 June 2001). "Food and Drink: Top nosh, not too posh". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 November 2014.
18. "Tom Parker Bowles hearts Soho". Esquire Magazine. Archived from the original on 17 July 2012.
19. Sophie Maden (16 September 2011). "Pomp targets wealthy visitors with Chinese section". mediaweek.co.uk. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
20. "Tom Parker-Bowles". four-magazine.com. 24 March 2014. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
21. "The F Word". Amazon. Retrieved 20 December 2018.
22. "Tom Parker Bowles". Leading Britain Conversation. Archived from the original on 2 January 2014.
23. "Tom Parker Bowles". ITV. Archived from the original on 3 March 2013. Retrieved 30 July 2013.
24. "Hot Plate: Tom Parker Bowles flies in for Channel Nine's reality TV cooking series". Herald Sun. 15 March 2015. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
25. "Top 10 most followed UK restaurant critics on Twitter 2014". Retrieved 23 November 2018.
26. Bowles, Tom Parker. E is for Eating: An Alphabet of Greed. ASIN 1902421108.
27. Bowles, Tom Parker. The Year of Eating Dangerously: A Global Adventure in Search of Culinary Extremes. ASIN 0091904900.
28. "The 50 Best Food Memoirs". abebooks.com. Retrieved 25 October 2014.
29. Bowles, Tom Parker. Full English: A Journey Through the British and Their Food. ASIN 0091926688.
30. "Guild Awards Winners 2010". gfw.co.uk. Retrieved 22 July 2012.
31. Bowles, Tom Parker. Let's Eat: Recipes from My Kitchen Notebook. ASIN 1862059306.
32. "Fortnum & Mason". Twitter. Retrieved 22 October 2014.
33. "Tom Parker Bowles Launches New Book 'Let's Eat Meat' At Fortnum & Mason's Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon". Getty images. Retrieved 22 October 2014.
34. "Tom Parker Bowles: My life in travel". The Daily Telegraph. 24 October 2014. Retrieved 24 October 2014.
35. Tom Parker Bowles (2018). Fortnum & Mason: Christmas & Other Winter Feasts. HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 978-0-00-830502-4.
36. Tom Parker Bowles (2024). Cooking and the Crown: Royal Recipes from Queen Victoria to King Charles III. Ten Speed Press. ISBN 978-0593835555.
37. "The History of Mr. Trotter". mrtrotter.com. Archived from the original on 25 July 2012. Retrieved 23 November 2014.
38. "Stop the cheese! I bring you Mr Trotter's Pork Crackling, Crisps & Ale". 17 April 2014. Archived from the original on 13 December 2014. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
39. "Mr. trotter's to launch beer". thedrinksbusiness.com. 19 April 2013. Retrieved 23 November 2014.
40. "Food and drink highlights of 2011". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 23 November 2014.
41. "Lancaster Brewery debuts chestnut beer for Mr Trotters, food writers and beer guru". retailtimes.co.uk. Retrieved 23 November 2014.
42. "Mr. Trotter's adds Potato crisps to range". 27 September 2013. Retrieved 23 November 2014.
43. Ellie Pithers (16 August 2014). "Sara Parker Bowles on not being a slave to fashion". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 14 November 2014.
44. "Tom Parker Bowles and Sara Buys". About.com. Archived from the original on 10 July 2014.
45. "Royal weddings in history". UK Vogue. April 2011. Retrieved 30 November 2014.
46. "Camilla overjoyed at the society wedding of her millionaire nephew Ben Elliot". Hello!. 13 September 2011. Retrieved 22 October 2014.
47. Prince, Rosa (14 January 2012). "Tom Parker Bowles talks posh pork scratchings". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 22 July 2012.
48. Perry, Simon (29 October 2024). "Queen Camilla's Son Tom Parker Bowles Hasn't Been to a Royal Family Christmas Yet 'for Various Reasons' (Exclusive)". People. Retrieved 25 December 2024.
49. Kristine Tarbert (28 March 2021). "Tom Parker Bowles devastated after death of girlfriend". Yahoo! Lifestyle. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
50. "Coronation order of service in full". BBC News. 5 May 2023. Retrieved 6 May 2023.

External links

• Tom Parker Bowles at IMDb