UK bakers: fancy £1,500?

Dough for women in food. Credit: Canva

Published: Monday 12 October 2026

Les Dames d’Escoffier London (LDE London) is offering grants of up to £1500 each to women across the UK who are developing their careers, skills or businesses in food, beverage, hospitality and related fields.

Applications close on 20 November 2026. You can find full details, eligibility criteria and the application form on the LDE London website.

Take me to the details

This year's programme will make up to five grants, each of up to £1500. LDE London says: 'The grants are deliberately practical and flexible. They can support anything from training and professional development to equipment, conference attendance, business promotion or expansion: essentially, a clearly defined next step that could make a meaningful difference to someone’s career or business.

Alongside the funding, successful applicants will also have the option of tailored mentoring from members of LDE London, drawing on the experience and expertise within the network.

'We want to get these grants into the hands of talented women who can really make use of them. We’re particularly keen to ensure the opportunity reaches women who may not already know LDE London or have access to established industry networks.'

If you have any questions or comments, you can get in touch with LDE London.

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Chris Young
Campaign Coordinator
Real Bread Campaign

Chris Young has coordinated the Real Bread Campaign since March 2009. In addition to lobbying for an Honest Crust Act of better loaf composition, labelling and marketing laws in the UK; he created and runs initiatives including: Sourdough September; Real Bread Week; Real Bread For All; Together We Rise, promoting therapeutic/social benefits of bread making; No Loaf Lost surplus reduction guidance; and Lessons in Loaf for schools. He’s the author of the Knead to Know…more microbakery handbook, Slow Dough: Real Bread recipe book and Bake Your Lawn grow-a-loaf guidebook; and edits True Loaf magazine.

From 2014-18, Chris also coordinated Sustain's London Food Link network, which included editing The Jellied Eel magazine and helping to launch and run the Urban Food Awards with the Mayor of London’s office. Chris has pulled on his judge’s wig for BOOM Awards, The Cateys, The Great Taste Awards, The Scottish Bread Championship and The World Bread Awards. In 2017, The School of Artisan Food honoured Chris with its first Fellowship, and in 2025 he was named joint Person of The Year by Slow Food in The UK.

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