Henry Dimbleby

Dimbleby began his career with Michelin-starred chef Bruno Loubet, before joining The Daily Telegraph as a food columnist.[6]

Later, he was a regular cookery columnist for The Guardian,[7] and has appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Kitchen Cabinet and BBC One’s Saturday Kitchen.

Dimbleby worked for management consultants Bain & Co for seven years from 1995 to 2002.

During his time at Bain, Dimbleby met John Vincent, and together they formulated the idea of Leon Restaurants.[8] Leon Restaurants was subsequently co-founded by Vincent and Dimbleby with chef Allegra McEvedy.[9][10][11][12]

Dimbleby co-founded the Sustainable Restaurants Association in 2009, and The London Union, which controls some of London’s biggest street food markets.

In 2013, Dimbleby and John Vincent were invited to write a report on school meals. The pair instead created a collaboration and co-authored the Government backed School Food Plan, which set out to transform what children eat in schools and how they learn about food. Vincent and Dimbleby visited over 60 schools, eating as many school meals as they could and speaking to everyone involved, from headteachers to caterers and – most importantly – the children. They found that, while some of the best schools were great at weaving food education into school life, there was still a lot of work to be done. At the time, 57% of children weren't eating school meals at all, and only 1% of packed lunches met the nutritional standards that apply to school food.

The plan they created contains 17 separate and detailed recommendations on what should be done. As a result of the plan, the government now provides free school lunches to all infants in years Reception, 1 & 2. In addition, practical cooking and nutrition is now part of the National Curriculum for 4- to 14-year-olds, and two major food flagships have been launched across Lambeth and Croydon.[13][14] On 25 November 2015, the government's spending review confirmed that free infant school meals would be safe from national spending cuts.[15]

In July 2020 the National Food Strategy, Part One,[16] was published, which Dimbleby led.[17] This proposed actions to help disadvantaged children and to promote environmental and animal welfare standards. The recommendations for disadvantaged children were supported by Marcus Rashford in his 2020 covid-related campaign.[18]