
WHO IS ON THE PANEL?
With a symposium of panel talks chaired by food writer Xanthe Clay,
FŌDA aims to shed light on some of the big issues around food today - from health to regenerative farming.
Expert speakers in the symposium line-up include Margot Henderson, The Newt, Our Farm by Simon Rogan, Roger Saul, Gurdeep Loyal, Max La Manna, Tom Herbert, Kalpna Woolf, Yeo Valley and Cornish Sea Salt, with more yet to be announced.
Discussing the effect of salt in our cooking and in our bodies. Cornish Salt (salt company), Ash Ranpura (Neuroscientist) will also be discussing the effects of salt on the brain and Gurdeep Loyal (Food Writer) and Josh Eggleton (Chef) will discuss how salt flavours food.
Debating and debunking different types of fat, including animal, seed, and dairy. Margot Henderson (Three Horseshoes), Tom Calver (Westcombe Dairy) and Kalpna Woolf (High Sheriff of Bristol, Founder of 91 Ways and Food Writer) are confirmed for this panel.
Farming without chemicals - Regenerative and organic farming. Yeo Valley, Liam Fitzpatrick (Head Chef from Simon Rogan’s Our Farm), David Rowley, (Head Grower at The Newt) will be on the panel with Roger Saul (Sharpham Park) hosting this panel.
Showcasing food community action groups to discuss their work. Emma Hopkins (Mother’s Manifesto) and Max La Manna (Chef and Author), Eleni Morus (Bristol North West Food Bank) are confirmed.
SALT
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Josh Eggleton (Chef and Owner, The Pony Chew Valley)
Josh Eggleton is a celebrated Bristol chef who rose to fame running a Michelin-starred pub with his sister Holly. Inspired by family, he champions sustainable, locally sourced British cuisine. With multiple acclaimed restaurants, including The Pony Chew Valley and Root, he’s also active in community projects and ethical food initiatives.
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Philip Tanswell (Cornish Salt)
Philip Tanswell, "the original Salt Geek," is a leading expert at Cornish Sea Salt with unrivalled knowledge of sea salt production and culinary applications. Cornish Sea Salt hand-harvests premium sea salt from Cornwall's Celtic Sea waters, creating salt that's 30% lower in sodium with up to 82 trace minerals. Available across major UK retailers and 35+ countries internationally, their products are trusted by Michelin-starred chefs and home cooks alike.
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Ash Ranpura (Neuroscientist)
Dr. Ash Ranpura is a neurologist and cognitive neuroscientist with over 25 years in brain research. He holds degrees from Yale University and completed Ph.D. research at Queen Square, London. A prominent science communicator, he's hosted radio programmes for BBC Radio 4 and NPR, co-founded Café Scientifique in London, and co-authored How to be Human: The Manual with Ruby Wax and Buddhist monk Gelong Thubten, exploring meditation's effects on the brain.
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Gurdeep Loyal (Food Writer)
Gurdeep Loyal is an award-winning food and travel writer with over 20 years' industry experience at Innocent Drinks, Harrods Food Halls, and M&S Food, where he was Head of Future Food Trends. He's author of 'Flavour Heroes' and winner of the Jane Grigson Trust Award for his debut cookbook 'Mother Tongue'. A monthly trends columnist for Olive Magazine and regular on BBC's Saturday Kitchen, he's written for Delicious Magazine, Condé Nast Traveller, and The Independent.
FAT
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Margot Henderson
The lauded Kiwi-born chef and cookery writer Margot Henderson brings her culinary chops (Rochelle Canteen in Shoreditch, The Eagle in Farringdon, The French House in Soho) to Somerset, with the newly launched The Three Horseshoes in Batcombe (just outside Bruton), a 17th century pub with rooms and an unpretentious field-to-fork, nose-to-tail menu.
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Kalpna Woolf
Kalpna Woolf is an award-winning food writer, entrepreneur and charity campaigner who combines her Indian heritage with expertise gained from managing BBC food programmes with Nigella, Nigel Slater, Rick Stein and the Hairy Bikers. Author of Spice Diet and Eat Share Love, she's a respected festival chef, food writer and seasoned awards judge who has received numerous accolades including The Guild of Food Writers Inspiration Award and BBC's Food and Farming Food Hero Award. In 2015 she launched charity 91 Ways, which uses food to bring diverse communities together, break down barriers and build common ground across cultural divides.
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Tom Calver (Westcombe Dairy)
Tom Calver is a passionate cheese-maker from a Somerset family with cheese-making heritage dating back to the 1890s. Combining traditional methods with innovation, he has invested in a spring water-cooled cellar and commissioned the UK's first cheese brushing robot, "Tina the Turner," to ensure quality and consistency. Tom is committed to sustainability and reducing the dairy's carbon footprint while preserving traditional cheese-making artistry. His expertise and dedication to using the finest ingredients have earned him a respected position in the cheese-making community.
ACID
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Yeo Valley
Yeo Valley is a British family-owned organic dairy company founded by Roger and Mary Mead in 1961 when they purchased Holt Farm in Somerset with 35 cows. Now the UK's largest organic business with over 1,600 employees and producing over 2,000 tonnes of yogurt weekly, Yeo Valley became the third largest yogurt brand in the UK by 2020. The company has championed regenerative organic farming for thirty years, working in harmony with the land to produce over 150 organic products including their famous creamy yogurts, milk, and wholesome soups. Mary Mead was awarded an OBE for services to sustainable dairy farming, and the company has received multiple Queen's Awards for Sustainable Development.
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David Rowley (Head Grower at The Newt)
David Rowley serves as Head Grower at The Newt in Somerset, where he oversees the cultivation and management of the estate's magnificent gardens and productive growing areas. The Newt is a luxury country estate with magnificent gardens and spa hotel in Somerset, known for its innovative design and garden-fresh produce. The estate's Somerset gardens have been shaped by successive enthusiasts over the last 200 years and are described as "beautiful and useful," serving as both a feast for the eyes and stomach. The Newt goes beyond traditional horticulture, creating products deeply rooted in regional heritage and craftsmanship, including award-winning ciders made from traditional apple varieties grown on the estate.
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Liam Fitzpatrick (Head Chef, Our Farm)
Liam Fitzpatrick is Head Chef of Our Farm with nearly a decade's experience working for the Simon Rogan Group, defining his culinary style through utilising the wide range of naturally occurring herbs and produce synonymous with the UK. At Our Farm, Liam specialises in preserving surplus produce for Simon Rogan's restaurants and leads informative tours alongside alfresco feasting lunches, demonstrating preservation techniques and cooking signature dishes metres from where ingredients are grown. Our Farm was established by Simon Rogan in 2011 to ensure access to quality seasonal ingredients and has since tripled in size, supplying his acclaimed Lake District restaurants including three Michelin-starred L'Enclume, Rogan & Co, Henrock and Aulis Cartmel, cementing Rogan as a pioneer of the farm-to-fork movement in the UK.
SWEET
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Max La Manna
Max is a chef, author and food campaigner on a mission to shake up the way we cook and eat. Known for his bold, low-waste approach and no-fuss recipes, Max has built a global following of nearly 2 million fans across social media.
His debut cookbook More Plants Less Waste won Most Sustainable Cookbook at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, and his latest title was crowned World’s Best Vegan Cookbook in 2023. Max has hosted BBC Earth’s Regeneration Food, appeared on BBC Saturday Kitchen, BBC Breakfast, Food Network and Channel 4’s Steph’s Packed Lunch, and been featured in Vogue, Vice, and The Guardian.
Named Digital Creator of the Year by Fortnum & Mason, and Top 30 chef changing the future of food, Max’s work proves that doing good for the planet starts with what’s on your plate
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Emma Hopkins (Mother's Manifesto)
Emma Hopkins is co-founder of Mother's Manifesto, an activist group campaigning against food insecurity and climate crisis. She has led multiple hunger strikes, including a six-day strike on Mother's Day 2023 and another in 2024, to call for action on food poverty in the UK and globally. Her activism has resulted in Parliamentary meetings, widespread media coverage appearing in 22 newspapers in a single day, and government commitments to key demands including a true living wage and ending new oil and gas licences. Through Mother's Manifesto, Emma continues to campaign for social security that guarantees life's essentials and debt cancellation for the world's poorest nations.
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Eleni Morus (Community Organiser, Bristol North West Food Bank)
Eleni is an Organiser working with Bristol’s food banks to mobilise communities to campaign on issues driving food insecurity in the city.
Her current campaign focuses on influencing decision makers to make sure that Universal Credit supports people to be able to afford life’s essentials.
She works to platform underrepresented voices in the city through a variety of actions including lobbying decision makers, organising creative campaigning actions, storytelling spaces and community events.
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Josh Eggleton (Chef and Owner, The Pony Chew Valley)
Josh Eggleton is a celebrated Bristol chef who rose to fame running a Michelin-starred pub with his sister Holly. Inspired by family, he champions sustainable, locally sourced British cuisine. With multiple acclaimed restaurants, including The Pony Chew Valley and Root, he’s also active in community projects and ethical food initiatives.
OUR HOSTS
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Xanthe Clay (Telegraph writer / Guild of Food Writers)
Xanthe Clay is a food writer, chef, and columnist for The Telegraph. She has over 25 years of experience in the field and has written extensively on various culinary topics. Her work includes restaurant reviews, taste tests, and explorations of topical issues like ultra-processed foods and sustainability. She also has a background as a chef and caterer, and has authored five cookbooks.
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Roger Saul (Sharpham Park)
Founder of the iconic British fashion brand Mulberry, Roger Saul turned a £500 start-up into a global lifestyle Designer brand before moving into hospitality with the Michelin-starred Charlton House hotel and spa. In 2003, he purchased Sharpham Park, a 300-acre estate near Glastonbury, and transformed it into a pioneering model of organic regenerative, mixed farming. Under his stewardship, it became the UK’s leading producer of the ancient grain spelt, supplied to major retailers and restaurants. Today, Roger champions British-grown organic walnuts – recognised as a Future 50 Food – while continuing to advocate for biodiversity, future food security, and organic regenerative agriculture as essential to our planet’s future.
WHY YOU NEED TO BE THERE…
Meet, Sample and Buy from Local Producers
27th & 28th September 2025. Arnolfini, Bristol
Learn from our panel of experts, sharing their wealth of knowledge.