Prue Leith founded the Leith's group (including Leith’s School of Food and Wine, the Michelin Star restaurant, Leith’s, and a catering company with contracts for the Orient Express Train, the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre and the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, in total employing 500 people. She has been Chair of the environmental charity, Forum for the Future, the RSA, Ashridge Management College, 3E’s Enterprises (a not-for profit turning round failing schools) and the School Food Trust, tasked with the reform of school catering. She chaired Focus on Food, the Soil Association’s partner in the Food for Life initiative in schools, and has been a board member of British Rail, Safeway, Halifax, Whitbread, Woolworths, Omega and Belmond Hotels. A prolific food writer, she has also published a memoir, Relish, and five novels (with a sixth, The Food of Love, published on 17thSeptember) and is a judge on BBC’s Great British Menu.