Tributes pour in as food critic Richard Vines dies aged 71

Tributes have been pouring in following the death of renowned food critic Richard Vines.

Richard was a writer and broadcaster with more than four decades of experience in the industry. He has sadly passed away, aged 71.

A big chunk of Richard’s career, 25 years, was spent at Bloomberg, most of which as chief food critic.

 

 

 

 

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Prior to his route into journalism, Richard started out as a train announcer at Oxford Station, working for British Rail.

He wrote dance reviews for student newspapers whilst at the London School of Economics, which proved his first tentative steps into the writing industry.

Richard then studied journalism studies at Cardiff University, going on to train as a journalist at the Morning Telegrapher in Sheffield.

Spells as a freelancer for the Daily Mirror in Manchester followed, before joining The Times, on the foreign desk.

Richard spent time living in Beijing and Hong Kong, writing for publications such as The Asian Wall Street Journal and South China Morning Post. During that time he interviewed political leaders such as Nelson Mandela and Lee Kuan Yew.

A return to London came in 1995, when Richard joined Bloomberg. Almost a decade later, in 2004, he found a job within the company as a restaurant critic, becoming chief food critic in 2008, which he maintained before retiring in 2021.

Richard went on to team up with good friend Pierre Koffmann, running a website and restaurant review column together.

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