Henry Dimbleby

Henry Richard Melville Dimbleby MBE (born May 1970)[1] is a British businessman and cookery writer who is a co-founder of Leon Restaurants and the Sustainable Restaurant Association. He was appointed lead non-executive board member of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in March 2018.[2] He is a son of BBC broadcaster David Dimbleby and of Josceline Dimbleby.

Henry Dimbleby

MBE
Dimbleby (right) with his Leon Restaurants co-founder, John Vincent
Born
Henry Richard Melville Dimbleby

May 1970 (age 53)
NationalityBritish
EducationEton College
Alma materUniversity of Oxford
Occupation(s)Cookery writer and businessman
Known forCo-founder of Leon Restaurants
Co-founder of the Sustainable Restaurant Association
Board member ofLeon Restaurants
SpouseMima
Children3
Parent(s)David Dimbleby
Josceline Dimbleby
RelativesDimbleby family
WebsiteHenryDimbleby.com

Early life

Dimbleby was born to broadcaster David Dimbleby and cookery writer Josceline Dimbleby in May 1970. His sister Kate Dimbleby is a cabaret singer. He was educated at Eton College, where he was a Newcastle scholar and a contemporary of Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg.[3] Later, he attended the University of Oxford where he read Physics and Philosophy.[4] In 1984, he played Tom Dudgeon in the TV series Swallows and Amazons Forever![5]

Career

Cookery writing

Dimbleby's first job was as a commis chef 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 The Kitchen Cabinet and BBC One's Saturday Kitchen.

Management consultancy

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

Restaurant entrepreneurship

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.

School meals

In 2013, Dimbleby and John Vincent were invited to write a report on school meals in the United Kingdom. They produced the School Food Plan, which made 17 recommendations to improve the quality of school meals and food education. As a result of the plan, the government now provides free school lunches to all infants in years Reception, 1 and 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 stated that free infant school meals would be safe from national spending cuts.[15]

National Food Strategy

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]

Recognition

Vincent and Dimbleby were appointed MBEs in the 2015 Birthday Honours for their work on the School Food Plan.[19][20]

In 2017, Dimbleby received the Sustainable Restaurant Association's Raymond Blanc Sustainability Hero award along with Vincent.[21]

Personal life

Dimbleby is married to Jemima Lewis, a journalist.[22] They have three children[23] and live in Hackney, east London.[24]

Bibliography
  • The School Food Plan (2013)
  • Dimbleby, Henry; Lewis, Jemima (23 March 2023). Ravenous: How to Get Ourselves and Our Planet Into Shape. United Kingdom: Profile Books. ISBN 9781800816510.

References
  1. "LEON RESTAURANTS LIMITED - Officers (free information from Companies House)". Beta.companieshouse.gov.uk. Retrieved 19 May 2016.
  2. "Henry Dimbleby". gov.uk. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
  3. Hughes, Laura (18 December 2015). "Video: Jacob Rees-Mogg takes down David Dimbleby after attempts to mock his Eton education". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 18 December 2015. Retrieved 19 May 2016.
  4. Denham, Annabel (9 June 2014). "Kings of Leon: Meet fast food entrepreneurs Henry Dimbleby and John Vincent". City AM. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
  5. Henry Dimbleby at IMDb
  6. "Henry Dimbleby". NOEL GAY. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
  7. "Henry Dimbleby". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 May 2016.
  8. "JavaScript is disabled in your browser". Thecaterer.com. Retrieved 19 May 2016.
  9. Evans, Simon (16 August 2009). "Henry Dimbleby: nine restaurants and growing". The Independent. London. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  10. "John Vincent, co-founder, Leon Restaurants". Marketing. 25 September 2013. Retrieved 5 October 2013.
  11. Bordell, Tom; Jaffer, Mehdi. "If God owned McDonald's..." London: The Gateway. Archived from the original on 26 October 2011. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  12. "Food chefs: Allegra McEvedy". London: BBC website. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  13. Bremner, Myles. "School Food Plan". schoolfoodplan.com. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
  14. Ping, Andrew (1 January 2015). "New rules for healthy school dinners". BBC News. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
  15. Treanor, Jill; Mason, Rowena (25 November 2015). "Autumn statement and spending review – the key points at a glance". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
  16. https://www.nationalfoodstrategy.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/NFS-Part-One-SP-CP.pdf
  17. "Like Marcus Rashford, Henry Dimbleby wants to fight food poverty — and he has Government's ear". 8 September 2020.
  18. "Marcus Rashford outlines three new initiatives to combat child poverty in letter to No10". September 2020.
  19. Burns, Judith (12 June 2015). "MBE honour for school food plan restaurateurs". BBC News. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
  20. United Kingdom: "No. 61256". The London Gazette (Supplement). 12 June 2015. p. B18.
  21. "The winners of the SRA Food Made Good Awards 2017". Foodism. 5 October 2017. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  22. "Like Marcus Rashford, Henry Dimbleby wants to fight food poverty — and he has Government's ear". 8 September 2020.
  23. Dimbleby, Henry (1 March 2012). "Henry Dimbleby's Diary". Evening Standard. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
  24. "Like Marcus Rashford, Henry Dimbleby wants to fight food poverty — and he has Government's ear". 8 September 2020.
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