Tom Herbert

"Feeding change, one bite at a time."

Fresh out of baking college, Tom won Young Baker of the Year with an ambition to ‘do for bread what Rick Stein has done for fish’.

With a wealth of artisanal nous and a lively baking and business heritage, Tom's family bakery, Hobbs House, has gone on to collect numerous awards, been featured in the aforementioned Rick Stein’s Food Heroes, and also in the Independent’s top 50 food shops.

Tom is passionate about eating, sharing and making bread. With a wood-fired oven at the family’s bakery/cafe by the stream in Nailsworth, Tom regularly gives talks, demonstrations and does bread making courses.

In the past, he has judged the Golden Fork at the Great Taste Awards and was listed in the Grocer Magazine’s top 50 influential foodies.

Most recently, Tom launched The Long Table - a community interest company in Stroud, working to change the world through food. Since 2018, the team have delivered 40,000 meals through the Feeding the 5000 initiative in 2020, have provided food to NHS staff when they needed it most, as well as establishing a county-wide Freezers of Love network where people can access great, healthy food, paying what they can for it.

Tom is the author of DO Wild Baking.