About
It started with one table
The Long Table is a food and culture conference run by a small team in Bristol. Every year we put the people who grow, catch, cook and write about food around one table.
The founder’s story
Why one long table
I grew up eating at tables where nobody was in charge and everybody was fed. When I started cooking for a living, I missed that. Conferences felt the same: a stage, a queue for coffee, and nobody talking to the people who actually grew the food.
So in 2024 we borrowed a warehouse on the harbour, built one table out of scaffold boards and invited two hundred people. The growers sat next to the chefs. The writers washed up. It ran four hours late.
Four years on, the table is longer, but the idea is the same. Come hungry, sit next to someone new, and leave with a phone full of numbers.
Ruth Adeyemi
Founder, The Long Table
How the table grew
2024
One night, 200 guests at one table in a harbour warehouse.
2025
Two days, 380 guests, and our first workshops.
2026
Three days, 520 guests, three rooms and three long suppers.
2027
This year: 600 seats, 40 speakers and a bigger kitchen.
What we believe
Everyone eats the same meal
Speakers, volunteers and guests sit at the same table and share the same supper.
Pay growers first
Farmers, fishers and bakers are paid before anyone else, at a fair price.
Leave room at the table
One in ten seats is free for students, cooks in training and community groups.
The team
Ruth Adeyemi
Founder
Started the table in 2024 and still sets it.
Iris Calloway
Programme
Finds the speakers and keeps the days running on time.
Lupe Marín
Kitchen
Runs the kitchen for 600 and feeds the volunteers first.
Owen Pryce
Operations
Rooms, tickets, bikes, ferries and everything in between.