The Burnt Chef Journal

Mike Jennings - 20 Years of Experience in 1 Hour

This week's guest is Mike, the founder of The Hospitality Hut.
After one of the most challenging years of his life, 2020 taught Mike some viable lessons, both personally & professionally.

He was working for a top restaurant group, 16 hours a day, missing out on family life, when the penny dropped… working in hospitality should not be this difficult.

He is a Michelin trained Executive chef with over 20 years’ experience working with some of the most prolific chefs in the UK to owning his own Michelin recommended restaurant.

 

Roberta Hall - Let‘s Make Hospitality Better

Edinburgh born Roberta is a newcomer to the competition who is determined to represent her home country.

Roberta started out aged 16 doing work experience and hasn’t looked back since. She has worked for one of Scotland’s best chefs, Michelin starred Tom Kitchin, at The Kitchin and then moved to Castle Terrace with Dominic Jack.

 

She is Chef Owner of The Little Chartroom in Edinburgh which she runs with her husband who manages front of house. Roberta’s style of cooking is traditional Scottish in style influenced by French techniques.

 

She talks to The Burnt Chef Project about her time within hospitality. We cover the good, the bad and the ugly and what lessons can be learnt from our experiences in order to make our profession even better!

Celia Gaze - Llama's, Bow Ties, BCORP and Stress!

Celia Gaze, what can we say? This is an insightful chat with an amazing individual who has worked across different sectors including as a Director for the NHS, has written a book "Why Put a Bow Tie on a Llama?, and randomly found her way to establishing a wedding venue focused on wellbeing and stress reduction (with the odd llama thrown in!).

 

Celia is a true leader in the field of wellbeing and has unique personal experiences to draw on which fuels her desire for change within both her organisation and the greater hospitality profession.

 

There is something for everyone in this episode!

Kim Ratcharoen - Economics to Ramsay

This weeks guest is Kim Ratcharoen who joins us on the podcast to talk reflectively about her journey into hospitality having studied Economics until the age of 25 before deciding that hospitality was where she wanted to concentrate her energy, passion and forge a career. 

 

Kim soon found her way to Gordon Ramsay's Restaurant on Hospitality Road under the mentorship of Matt Abé where she spent 6 years honing her skills both on the pass and in her leadership abilities. 

 

It was great to have Kim's perspective of things and I hope that you enjoy this weeks episode.

Leigh Evans - Raw and Unfiltered

This weeks guest is Leigh Evans. I am lucky enough to have followed Leigh's career since he became an Acorn Award winner back in 2013. He joins us on The Burnt Chef Journal podcast to talk about his journey through hospitality and how from a young age working in his family's pub he fell in love with the hospitality industry.

 

Leigh has always been a driven individual but in this episode he talks about his unfiltered experiences and reflects on the cost of aiming for notoriety.

 

Thanks for coming on the podcast Leigh and we hope to have you back soon!

FINK - Challenging Mental Health Stigma through Food

Fink are a social enterprise street food and events and caterer who are on a mission to break down mental health stigma, one bite at a time. 
 
Through epic food experiences, their mission is to blow the mental health conversation wide open and encourage our customers to be more conscious of their own mental wellbeing.
 
By providing information, supporting services and raising awareness they are promoting positive mental health attitudes and encouraging people to make positive steps to improve their own mental health. 

Masaki Sugisaki - Exploring Japanese Culture and Wellbeing

This weeks guest is Japanese chef Masaki Sugisaki who joins us to talk about his experiences of training to be a chef in a Japanese restaurant in Japan and how the culture was a lot tougher than in European kitchens. 

 

The conversation with Masaki was both insightful and inspiring as we explore the subject of resilience, mental health, leadership, music and Japanese cuisine. 

 

Thanks to Masaki for joining us this week and we look forward to seeing you all again next week. 

 

Emeka Frederick - Profound and Positive!

This weeks guest is Emeka. He co-founded Chuku's - the world's first Nigerian tapas restaurant.

His goal is to positively change the way the world thinks about Africa and help retell the story of this beautiful continent as well as inspire creativity and entrepreneurship.

An amazing guest this week and one you shouldn't miss!

Ross (Cotswold Chef) - Nutrition, Wellbeing and Me

This weeks episode sees our guest Ross join us to talk about his personal experience of hospitality and what the subject of wellbeing means to him.

 

Ross, CNC's one man band, is a trained nutrition coach and professional chef.
Having worked in high end and Michelin starred kitchens for a lot of his chef career, Ross' passion for food shows through in how his dishes look and taste, and his attention to detail.
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Being a keen sportsman has led Ross to become more and more interested in nutrition and how it affects training, so much so he has trained with NASM* to become a Nutrition Coach.

Joar Svensson - Sports Performance Psychology

This weeks guest is Joar Svensson from Ascension who joins me to talk about all things performance psychology, effective communication, motivation and mental health. 

 

This is an episode that you can't miss. There were so many take away points from this episode and as an added BONUS to our listeners we will be hosting a FREE motivation workshop with Joar on Friday 2nd July. You can register for this event by going to our Eventbrite page here: Register Here