Henry Dimbleby MBE is a British businessman, co-author of the School Food Plan in 2013 and author of the National Food Strategy, the government-commissioned independent review of the food system.
In Conversation Live, Royal Society of Medicine
In a conversation with Professor Henrietta Bowden-Jones OBE, he talks about his book Ravenous: How to get ourselves and our planet into shape.
Published in March 2023, this analysis of the food system – how it is malfunctioning, and what to do about it – builds on the work he did in the independent National Food Strategy, described by Prue Leith as “the best government document that’s ever come out”.
Dimbleby is the co-founder and former CEO of Leon Restaurants. He also co-founded the Sustainable Restaurant Association and the charity Chefs in Schools, which brings restaurant chefs into school kitchens. In 2013, he co-authored The School Food Plan, a blueprint for the government setting out actions to transform what children eat in schools and how they learn about food. It resulted in the introduction of free school meals for all children up to the age of eight and cooking lessons being made obligatory for all children up to 14.
From 2018 to 2023, Dimbleby was the lead non-executive board member of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, serving under Michael Gove, Theresa Villiers, George Eustice, Ranil Jayawardene and Therese Coffey. He has also advised the Labour Party on how to improve the sustainability and security of the food system.
Henry previously worked as a Strategy Consultant at Bain & Company, where he worked with businesses on strategy, performance improvement and organisational design. Before that, he worked as a journalist at The Daily Telegraph and a chef at the Michelin-starred Four Seasons Inn on the Park.
