Following a series of articles Grigson wrote for her column in "The Observer", she published "Food With the Famous" in 1979, a look at the food eaten by various figures through history. The critic for "Kirkus Reviews" thought "Grigson's leisurely quotation-studded essays are almost too tantalizing; eventually one begins to miss the factual data (accounts of recipe-adaptations, etc.)" while the reviewer for the "Birmingham Daily Post" described it as "a charming book about food, rather than a cookery book". From late 1979 to 1980 the chef Anne Willan wrote "French Cookery School", a sixteen-part series in "The Observer". The series was collated into a book, "The Observer French Cookery School", with Grigson adding information on French cuisine.