Awards, grants and prizes

The OFS Young Chef Grants

The Friends of the Oxford Symposium annually sponsor the OFS Young Chef Grants, designed to bring several early career food professionals to experience both the academic and practical guises of the Symposium. Past recipients have hailed from Argentina, Canada, Germany, India, Ireland, Kenya, South Africa, Turkey, Ukraine, the US as well the UK.

The grant covers full attendance at the Symposium at St Catherine’s, where Young Chefs attend many of the Symposium’s academic sessions, plus a stipend towards travel costs. The Young Chefs also spend part of their time working alongside our guests chefs and St Catz Head Chef Tim Kelsey. Our guest chefs represent a dazzling array of culinary trailblazers and have  included Asma Khan, Raymond Blanc, Fergus Henderson, Allegra McEvedy, Henry Harris, Shaun Hill, Aglaia Kremezi, Rowley Leigh, Trine Hahnemann, Jacob Kenedy, Jeremy Lee, and Olia Hercules.

The Young Chefs design and execute the Sunday lunch, culminating in one of the Symposium’s culinary highlights, mentored by the guest chefs and inspired by the Symposium theme.

Who is eligible

OFS Young Chef Grants are awarded to culinary professionals with not more than ten years in the industry.

How to apply

The application period for 2025 is now closed.

Financial Support Grants

The Friends of the Symposium offer a number of discretionary grants to help those with accepted paper proposals to attend the event and present their paper who would otherwise be unable to do so.

Who is eligible

Anybody can apply, including students without institutional support, unaffiliated scholars as well as campaigners and activists without sufficient funding.

How to apply

Our budget is limited, so please provide a brief paragraph for the reasons why you need our assistance, how much assistance you require and why you are unable to raise funds from elsewhere (150 words max). Grant awards will be distributed on the basis of need by the Symposium. Evidence of need may be requested. The deadline for this application is April 15, the address is info@oxfordsymposium.org.uk and please put Support Grant in the subject header; we will let you know about our decision no later than April 30.

The Sophie Coe Prize in Food History

The Sophie Coe Prize is the longest-running and most generous prize for writing in food history in the English language, given once a year for an essay or article of up to 10,000 words on any aspect of the history of food. First awarded in 1995, the fund that administers the prize was founded in memory of Sophie Coe, the eminent food historian who died in 1994. The winner is chosen every year by an anonymous panel of distinguished judges and awarded at the Oxford Symposium on Food & Cookery to the author of an original, informative article or essay on some aspect of food history that embodies new research or provides new insights. Read winning essays from previous years at The Sophie Coe Prize website.

Who is eligible

For full details of the prize, its conditions, entry information and contact details, please visit the Sophie Coe Prize website.

The award

£1,500 prize presented at the Symposium each year.

How to apply

Details of how to enter can be found here.