Nigella Lucy Lawson (born 6 January 1960) is an English food writer, journalist and broadcaster. Lawson was born to Nigel Lawson, a former Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Vanessa Salmon, whose family owned the Lyons Corner House empire. After graduating from the University of Oxford, Lawson started to work as a book reviewer and restaurant critic, later becoming the deputy literary editor of The Sunday Times in 1986. She then embarked upon a career as a freelance journalist, writing for a number of newspapers and .