“I gave up eating outdoors in London in the 1990s, when it became impossible to eat at an outside table without a small gang of buskers turning up to play a rousing chorus of 'La Bamba' on their accordions while you waved off hornets with the menu.”

English columnist, broadcaster and author

Grace Dent is an English columnist, broadcaster, and author, known for her work as a restaurant critic. She has written about food and dining for major British newspapers and television. She is a restaurant critic for The Guardian and, from 2011 to 2017, wrote a restaurant column for the Evening Standard. Since 2025, she has co-presented the BBC series MasterChef.