Henry Dimbleby
Henry Richard Melville Dimbleby (born May 1970) 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. He is the son of veteran BBC broadcaster David Dimbleby and Josceline Dimbleby. 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. Later, he attended the University of Oxford where he read Physics and Philosophy. In 1984, he played Tom Dudgeon in the TV series "Swallows and Amazons Forever!" 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. Later, he was a regular cookery columnist for "The Guardian", 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. Leon Restaurants was subsequently co-founded by Vincent and Dimbleby with chef Allegra McEvedy. Dimbleby co-founded the Sustainable Restaurants Association in 2009, and The London Union, which controls some of London’s biggest street food markets. Campaigning. School meals. In 2013, Dimbleby and John Vincent were invited to write a report on school meals in the United Kingdom. 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 were not 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. On 25 November 2015, the government's spending review confirmed that free infant school meals would be safe from national spending cuts. National Food Strategy. In July 2020 the National Food Strategy, Part  One, was published, which Dimbleby led. 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. Recognition. Vincent and Dimbleby were awarded MBEs in the 2015 Birthday Honours for their work on the School Food Plan. In 2017, Dimbleby received the Sustainable Restaurant Association's Raymond Blanc Sustainability Hero award along with Vincent. Personal life. Dimbleby is married to Jemima Lewis, a journalist. They have three children and live in Hackney, London.