The name Ella Mills doesn’t tend to appear alongside the chefs and food writers regularly credited with changing the face of British food. She isn’t granted the “activist” label often given to Jamie Oliver or Henry Dimbleby; she wouldn’t get credit for overhauling our store cupboards like Ottolenghi. It’s tempting to think it might be because she’s a woman.
Or perhaps because she hails from the much maligned cohort of 2010s influencers who created the . But if you look in your cupboards, your handbag, or your children’s lunchboxes, the chances are you will find something direct from the Mills handbook. A bag of dates and a jar of almond butter? A classic Millsian snack.
The ingredients for a lentil bolognese? One of her most popular recipes. An apple and raisin oat bar tucked in your bag? A sure sign you are a fully paid up member of the club. This week, twelve years after she first told us we should be eating more kale, Mills and her husband Matthew (son of the late MP , who died of a brain tumour in 2018) sold their company to Swiss food company Hero for an undisclosed sum.
The couple, who were the majority shareholders, are expected to make millions of pounds from the deal. Since she first started blogging, back in 2012, about the plant based diet which had helped her heal after a bout of serious illness, Mills has ridden waves of negative press, brutal trolling and personal struggles. She’s also gone from being the beautiful, posh wellness girl to quietl.