Vanessa Kimbell

GROUNDBREAKING ACTIVIST Vanessa Kimbell has been a key figure in influencing bakers globally to approach bread through the lens of health as part of a social justice movement for over 20 years. Vanessa has worked with bakers such as Micheal James, Richard Hart, Gabriele Bonci and Emmanuel Hadjiandreou. Her work is acknowledged as groundbreaking and has contributed to reforms in the baking industry. Many of the issues she has written about and techniques she has shared around diversity in bread and nourishment are now being addressed by industrial bakeries and used by both domestic and artisan bakers. Vanessa runs The Sourdough School in Northamptonshire, where she heads up a multi-disciplinary team of healthcare professionals. She specialises in the relationship between how bread impacts both the gut microbiome and mental health. Vanessa's work has been influential in the fields of organizing, leadership development, and social movements, training hundreds of bakers around the globe; she has helped to shape the way that bakers approach bread through sharing research whilst playing a central role in building online, communities and social movements for bread that nourishes as a food and environmental activist. Vanessa has been part of a wider movement for many years, working with activists, including Mott Green making “the first carbon-neutral trans-Atlantic mass chocolate delivery". Chantal Coady OBE - Lifelong food activist and Captain Arjen van der Veen, one of the founders of the Fair Transport movement HISTORY Vanessa's journey began when she started baking sourdough almost 40 years ago, as a young girl at the age of 11, working in a village bakery in South West France. She is renowned for her specialist knowledge and understanding of the nutrition and digestibility of bread. Day-to-day, she teaches various courses at the award-winning Sourdough School, specializing in bread for health. These courses cover topics such as bread and mental health, blood sugar balance, IBS, and baking for individuals with wheat intolerance. The Digestion & Nutrition of Bread Diploma for healthcare professionals was accredited by the Royal College of General Practitioners in 2019. Her courses have been named among the top three courses in the UK by the Times top 10 in the UK by the Telegraph and the Evening Standard. Vanessa is also a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4's Food Programme and is acknowledged around the world as "The Queen of Sourdough" by The Telegraph. You can learn directly from her in The Sourdough Club, where she teaches Baking as Lifestyle Medicine, or at The Sourdough School, other in person or online, as she teaches BALM - baking a lifestyle medicine - an evidence-based approach to baking, eating and sharing bread for better physical and mental health. QUOTES ABOUT VANESSA "Vanessa's work on sourdough and the gut microbiome is changing the way we think of food, health, and baking." – Professor Tim Spector, King's College London. Vanessa's recipes will have you "wanting to scuttle off into the kitchen." – Nigella Lawson. "She's an enthusiast, a delighter in life's most civilized pleasure, and a grown-up who's retained a child-like wonder at the mysteries of the world." – Sheila Dillon, BBC Radio 4 Food Programme "Vanessa won't just teach you to make sourdough bread; she will blow you away with how you can incorporate it into your everyday baking." – Baker & Author Dan Lepard More info: www.sourdough.co.uk & www.thesourdoughclub.com Instagram: @SourdoughClub @SourdoughSchool @vanessakimbell