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Arthur Potts Dawson

Arthur Potts Dawson is a United Nations Advocacy Chef and sustainability expert. The classically trained chef and outstanding eco speaker is known as ‘the original green chef’ as described by Jamie Oliver. Now a Manifesto Chef for the World Food Programme too Arthur spends much of his time travelling all over the world both with work and for speaking.

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About Arthur Potts Dawson

Arthur Potts-Dawson has now been creating extraordinary cuisine and running restaurants for nearly 30 years. A fine speaker, media pundit, TV chef, author and entrepreneur, Arthur is dedicated to encouraging sustainability. He is also passionate about sharing his expertise about green living, delivering sustainability workshops and educating diners, students and audiences with informative and well-grounded menus speeches.

Biography

Arthur Potts Dawson trained with the Roux brothers. Subsequently, he went on to work alongside industry ‘greats’ including Rose Gray & Ruth Rodgers at The River Cafe, Rowley Leigh at Kensington Place, Hugh Fernley-Wittingstall and Pierre Khoffman.

Asked to relaunch Cecconi’s restaurant in Mayfair, Arthur Potts Dawson also worked as executive head chef for Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen Restaurant.

In 2006, Arthur Potts Dawson created two restaurants described as ‘sustainably aware urban restaurants’, Acorn House and the Water House. Passionate about the variety of food on offer in towns and cities, he created a menu of ‘Modern London’ cuisine for Acorn House, which exemplified the diversity of the city in which he was born.

Arthur wrote his first book ‘The Acorn House Cookbook’ in 2008 and taught 10 young ‘trainees’ a year in sustainable catering at Acorn House. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts and represented England as Ambassador Chef at Terra Madre in Turin, Italy.

His 2009 restaurant project was an organic ‘pop-up’ called Mrs Paisley’s Lashings, with all profits going to organic education projects in schools around London.

The People’s Supermarket

Many will remember Arthur as the inspiration behind ‘The People’s Supermarket’ https://www.thepeoplessupermarket.org/, which is a not-for-profit co-operative social enterprise opened in June 2010.  The subject of a 4 part Channel 4 documentary in 2011, it has a unique business model, with its members/owners working voluntarily. The aim is to keep costs low and good food cheap.

‘The People’s Kitchen’, within the supermarket, is also producing delicious food for sale in the supermarket.

Arthur has made numerous other TV appearances and was a regular guest chef on ‘Saturday Cooks’.  He also wrote for the Guardian food/travel section and has worked on three shows for BBC Radio 4’s food programme.

Head Chef at OmVed Gardens in London and a World Food Programme Advocate Chef, Arthur continually explores how food relates to personal potential and the bigger ecological issues of our world.

He now spends much of his time travelling the world looking at all aspects of food sustainability, helping implement programmes to help those struggling. And in some cases, helping starving communities become self-sufficient.

The Chef’s Manifesto

The Chef’s Manifesto, within which Arthur plays an integral part, was set up by the SDG2 Advocacy Hub.  It facilitates a community of 640+ chefs from 77 countries, equipped with a simple set of actions to drive progress against the food issues that matter most to them. They believe chefs can be powerful advocates for a better food future to inspire people to make changes in their kitchens and communities. Thus empowering them to call on governments and companies to also play their part.

Arthur teaches Wing Chun Kung Fu, which he has practised for over 20 years and has two children.

Finally, Arthur has a variety of speeches which discuss the many aspects, hurdles and successes of food sustainability.  Looking at some of the problems communities face in terms of their impact on the environment, he explains how people can change this for the better. He also shares stories of his work on the many projects which drive him.

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Testimonials

"Arthur Potts Dawson opened our Kerry Foodservice Conference with great energy and passion about our topic of the day; Shaping Sustainable Nutrition in Foodservice. Arthurs background in championing Sustainability through his award-winning restaurants and partnerships with The World Food Programme lended to an impactful speech uncovering industry challenges and opportunities. His focus on food resiliency, rehabilitation of the natural world and sustainable innovation resonated very well with our audience of foodservice experts and industry leaders.  Thank you Arthur for joining us."

Kerry Foodservice

"It was an absolute dream to work with Arthur Potts Dawson for a series of celebratory dinners with our client. He not only inspired the curated menu with his own advocacy around sustainable and seasonal ingredients, but created them from his own inspiration from the clients brand and product. The mix of this created an evening of discovery for each guest and the result and feedback has been glowing! Finished with a bespoke recipe booklet for guests to take home and relive the delicious meal at home. It was truly a collaborative culinary experience and we would love to work with Arthur again in the future!"

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