18/04/2025
The British Library Food Season 2025 Events featuring Women In The Food Industry
The British Library Food Season is in the 7th year of their highly popular talks on food, all inspired by their extensive food-related collections. The season is a must-attend event for food lovers, industry professionals, and academics alike. Whether you’re passionate about food history, keen to learn from culinary pioneers, or simply eager to indulge in new tastes and trends, there’s something for everyone. The events launched on 17th April and run until early June 2025. Here we highlight some of our favourite events and are delighted to announce we have very kindly been given FREE tickets to some of the events for Women In The Food Industry newsletter subscribers.
The season launched with cookery icon Dame Prue Leith talking about her life in food with journalist Jimi Famurewa. Prue Leith is one of the most powerful voices in food in the UK. From starting a private catering company in the 1960s, to opening a cookery school, to advising government on hospital food, to judging the nation’s favourite ‘Bake Off’, Dame Prue has witnessed and contributed to radical changes in food culture across the last 60 years. The launch event was a fabulous start to the season as Prue spoke of her first ever TV appearance (cooking a risotto on fake painted hob), her top tips on trifle making (no jelly ever!), her thoughts on why Bake Off is so enduring, how she became the first woman on the chair of the British Railways Board and much more.
Our co-founder Mex Ibrahim, was lucky enough to attend the launch night, with a host of inspirational food writers and restaurateurs who had come to see Prue.
Claudia Roden, Cynthia Shanmugalingam founder of Rambutan and Mex Ibrahim – British Library Food Season 2025
Mallika Basu, Radhika Howarth, Sue Couter, Mex Ibrahim – British Library Food Season 2025
Food Stories with Itamar Srulovich and friends – Thursday 24 April 19:00
Join Honey & Co’s Itamar Srulovich for a raucous, thought-provoking, and revealing evening with a cast of some of the top voices in food as they share and read extracts of the food writing that makes them cry, laugh, shout, and most importantly, hungry. Guests include Rosamund Grant, Olia Hercules, Angela Hui, Jeremy Lee, Marie Mitchell, Cynthia Shanmugalingam, Ruby Tandoh, and Dom Taylor.
Women in the Food Industry newsletter subscribers can receive FREE tickets to above fascinating evening!
What’s The Point of a Cookbook – Monday 28 April 19:00
Acclaimed food newsletter Vittles presents a panel of cookery writers and chefs to debate the enduring appeal of the cookery book.
This year’s Vittles panel is based around the simple question: ‘What is the point of a cookbook?’ Why do we love them so much? How should they respond to the dominance of the online recipe? Is there a future for them? To answer these questions, join three outstanding recipe writers: Ozoz Sokoh, author of the newly published Chop Chop: Cooking the Food of Nigeria; the mastermind behind the bestselling The Roasting Tin series, Rukmini Iyer; and recipe maven Sophie Wyburd, whose cookbook Tucking In straddles the digital and paper worlds. They will be in conversation with food writer Ruby Tandoh.
Ozempic Nation – Friday 9 May 19:00
Ozempic and other similar drugs have dominated the headlines in the last year. Opinions on both sides are strong – on one hand claiming their power as a miracle drug to beat the obesity crisis, while on the other sounding alarms about potential negative side-effects and warning against viewing them as a quick fix.
An expert panel assesses the impacts of weight loss injections on society and our physical and mental health, looking at the huge issue from different perspectives to offer a 360 degree view.
With endocrinologist Dr Tony Goldstone of Imperial College London who researches addictive behaviours in obesity including the influence of dietary, hormonal and pharmacological interventions; Professor Christina Vogel, Director of the Centre for Food Policy and Professor of Food Policy at City University of London; columnist Zoe Williams; and chartered psychologist Kimberley Wilson whose work looks at the role of food and lifestyle in nourishing our brain and mental health.
Women in the Food Industry newsletter subscribers can receive FREE tickets to Ozempic Nation!
Inspiring Entrepeneurs – Meet The Foodies – Monday 12 May 18:30
This event brings together food business owners who have carved out their own unique spaces and are revolutionising the vibrant culinary world. From reimagining classic beans and crafting innovative ready meals, to blending diverse cultures through vegan Caribbean cuisine, West African snacks, and Mauritian restaurant experiences.
From navigating a saturated market to promoting change, our panellists will share the highs and lows of their entrepreneurial journeys, offering valuable insights and practical advice.
Meet Amelia Christie Miller, Natasha Orumbie, Marianne Olaleye, Segun Akinwoleola and Shelina Permalloo.
British Library Food Season Big Weekend – Saturday 31 May – Sunday 1 June
The Big Weekend is the climax of the British Library Food Season. The banquet of delights includes panels exploring food from Eastern Europe, China, the US and Mexico and the way that Latin American sweet treats are at the heart of community.
Amongst much else, the weekend unearths the pleasures of growing food in our gardens, the joys of kitchen tools and some of the big questions about diversity in the industry, the words we use, and the future of eating itself.
Day and weekend passes are available, which will allow you to attend any relevant session.
The following session within the Big Weekend looks well worth attending if you are a keen gardener
Gardening to Feed Body Soul & Society – Saturday 31st May 13.00
A panel of gardeners and food lovers come together to share their experiences of the power gardening for food has on their work, life, and approach to how we feed ourselves individually and as a society. They’ll be considering the impact on our social, physical, mental and cultural health that growing food can have, whatever the scale or size of the garden. Along the way will be plenty of tips for anyone looking to grow their own food in a garden.
With BBC’s MasterChef and Radio 4 The Food Programme presenter Leyla Kazim for whom gardening and growing food is the catalyst for life change and is at her ‘happiest when outside covered in mud from a day’s garden graft’; food writer and grower Kathy Slack whose new memoir The Rough Patch reveals how gardening and growing food helped her recover from depression; Claire Ratinon, the Guardian’s gardening columnist and author of How to Grow Your Dinner: Without Leaving the House and Unearthed: On race and roots, and how the soil taught me I belong; and Pam Warhurst who founded the voluntary gardening initiative, Incredible Edible, in Todmorden, West Yorkshire. Chaired by Jenny Linford, author of The Kew Gardens Cookbook and The Kew Gardens Salad Book.
The British Library Food Season runs until 10th June 2025 with a mixture of online and in person events. Tickets range from £6.50 for online tickets and up to £35 for weekend passes, with concessions available. There are 10% discounts for groups over 10 when booked in advance.
You may also like Great Women on Great British Menu 2025, The Culinary Wonder of Eastern Europe – Three Cookbook Reviews to Whet Your Appetite and Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Awards 2025 Shortlist Announced.
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