September Profile: Heidi Savage

I grew up in rural Norfolk, my dad a gamekeeper, surrounded by dogs, food, shooting, farming, wildlife and the countryside. I don't think I appreciated at the time quite how much that upbringing would shape my career.

My career hasn't followed a particularly conventional route. After working professionally in food, I moved into education and completed my degree in English Literature and History followed by post graduate teacher training, I then went on to teach History and Food & Nutrition. At first those might seem like completely different careers, but looking back, there is a very clear thread running through them: food, people and education.

In August 2026, those different parts of my career came together when I joined the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) as Head of Wild Food.

My role is about looking at the bigger picture of wild food in the UK. I work across education, conservation, the game sector, food and hospitality, looking at everything from what happens in the field through to how wild game ultimately reaches someone's plate.

One of the things I am particularly interested in is the disconnect that can exist between the countryside and the consumer. We have incredibly nutritious, sustainable wild food available in Britain, yet for many people game still feels unfamiliar or inaccessible.

I want to help change that.

A significant part of my work is building relationships across the whole supply chain, with estates, shoots, game dealers, processors, chefs, retailers, educators and government, and understanding where the barriers are. That might mean looking at how game is handled after it has been shot, exploring traceability and distribution, developing educational resources, or finding better ways of introducing people to game for the first time.

Education is particularly important to me. Having been a teacher, I know how powerful early experiences with food can be. I want young people to understand where food actually comes from, to have the confidence to prepare it and to recognise that British wild food has a place alongside the ingredients they encounter every day.

Being a woman working across shooting, conservation and the wider rural sector is something I'm very conscious of. These have traditionally been male-dominated spaces, but that is changing. I think there is enormous value in bringing people into the sector who have different professional backgrounds and different ways of looking at longstanding challenges.

I didn't arrive at BASC through the traditional route. I'm a wife, mum, a teacher and someone who grew up immersed in rural life. Rather than seeing those different experiences as unrelated, I've realised they're probably my greatest strength.

Ultimately, I want more people to eat and value British wild food.

For me, this role feels a little like coming full circle. I grew up surrounded by the countryside and by food that had a very obvious connection to the landscape around us. After a career that has taken me through professional kitchens and classrooms, I've found myself back at that starting point, only now I have the opportunity to help other people make that connection too.