The Burnt Chef Journal

Harriet Mansell - The Soul Chef (Mental Health Awareness Week Special)

Harriet took an unconventional route into the industry. After studying Politics and History at university, she thereafter retrained to be a chef.

 

She took her first 'proper' kitchen job with fellow south west chef Mark Hix in London before going to culinary school and went on to intern at the prestigious Noma (2*) in Denmark, followed by a couple of Michelin kitchens in London and then into the super yacht industry where she worked as a private chef for high profile clients. Harriet has opened a pop-up restaurant, Robin Wylde, in Lyme Regis where her cuisine is based around the seasons, local produce and foraging.

 

Harriet gives her raw and unfiltered experience of life on a yacht as Sole Chef as well as the lessons she learnt during her time away. 

Stuart Ralston - Swapping Ego for Exercise (Mental Health Awareness Week Special)

Stuart has worked in some very prestigious places including Restaurant Gordon Ramsay (2*) in New York, and for VIP clientele at the exclusive Sandy Lane luxury resort in Barbados.

 

Seven years ago Stuart opened modern Scottish restaurant Aizle, meaning a burning coal or spark in Scots. It is Michelin guide recommended, and in 2019 was rated the 5th Best Fine Dining Restaurant in the UK, and number one in Scotland that year from Tripadvisor.

 

Stuart obviously has a great deal of experience working at a high level but in this raw interview we talk about his own experiences with mental and physical health issues as a result of stress but also reflect on some pretty major life changes as a result of his experiences.

Chistian Stevenson aka DJ BBQ - Where do I begin?! (Mental Health Awareness Week Special)

DJBBQ is a trail blazing barbecue cook with a tribe of dedicated fans on his DJBBQ Youtube channel and across social media. His first DJBBQ cookbook (Penguin), released in 2014 sold over 70,000 copies and still resides in the Amazon top 10 BBQ books. His second book Fire Food (Quadrille) was released in April 2018 and was an instant success. 2019 heralds the release of his third book, ‘The Burger Book’.

 

While cooking always takes centre stage, the DJBBQ experience encompasses food, fun and a lust for life at its core, or as Christian likes to call it, Catertainment. The DJBBQ live catering experience can be found at all the major UK festivals including The Big Feastival, Grilltopia, Camp Bestival, The Big Grill, Jimmy’s Sausage & Beer Festival and On Blackheath. Christian has also cooked at numerous Food festivals such as Taste London and the BBC Good Food Show. He has curated the Cutting Room stage at Meatopia London since its inception, hosting the live stage and interviewing world renowned chefs such as Francis Mallmann, Niklas Ekstedt and Yotam Ottolenghi.

 

He joins us at The Burnt Chef Project to talk about all things from snowboarding with Kylie Minogue, running a large catering business, working with Jamie Oliver and much much more. Strap yourself in because this episode is wild!

Dru Jaeger - Club Soda talks Mindful Drinking

This week's guest is Dru Jaeger who is co-founder of the growingly popular non-profit Club Soda. 

 

Club Soda helps individuals to live well by being more mindful about drinking. Whether it's cutting down, taking a break from alcohol or stop drinking, it's a fantastic community funded by The Drinks Trust full of amazing resources and support. 

 

For more information about Club Soda head over to: Welcome to Club Soda (joinclubsoda.com)

Tommy Heaney - Don't Rush!

This weeks guest is Tommy Heaney. Chef Patron of Heaneys Restaurant in Cardiff and has featured twice on Great British Menu.

 

Tommy’s first kitchen experience came at the age of just 14, working in his uncle’s restaurant in America. On his return he spent some time working under Tony Hughes at La Mon House Hotel in Belfast before travelling to Australia and spending time at a high end restaurant there. He has since trained under the biggest names in the culinary world including Great British Menu veteran Richard Corrigan, David Everitt-Matthias, Ollie Dabbous and Nacho Manzano at Casa Marcial in Spain.

 

His views on his career in hospitality and advice to others was refreshing and very useful. A great episode that we hope you enjoy!

Simon The Butcher - Proud of a 36 Hour Shift?

This week's guest is Simon The Butcher who is Captain of the GB Butchery Team as well as owner of Surrey Hills Butcher and Deli.

 

He comes on the Burnt Chef Journal to talk about his experience of long hours and high stress and the impact that this has had on his mental and physical health. 

 

Simon talks openly about his experience with counselling and we discuss how terms such as "Man Up" are causing damage to the industry and individuals.   

Oli Marlow - Gaining Worldwide Experience

This weeks guest is Oli Marlow.

 

30-year old Oli did his apprentice at Chewton Glen in Hampshire and then went on to work in world renowned restaurants such as The Fat Duck (3*), Eleven Madison Park (3*), and Maaemo (3*) in Oslo.

 

For over four years Oli has been working for Banquet winner and veteran Simon Rogan and is the Exec chef for Aulis London, an eight seater chef’s table dining experience, and Roganic London (1*) which closed in December 2020 due to the pandemic and is scheduled to reopen later this year. He is also the Exec Chef for Roganic Hong Kong (1*) which won its first Michelin star in January 2021 and Aulis Hong Kong.

Geoff McDonald - Where is the 'Health' in Health & Safety?

This weeks incredible guest is Geoff McDonald. He has hosted a TED talk twice on the subject of mental health and is a business transformation advisor having worked with many FTSE 100 companies.

 

Having experienced an incredible career at Unilever Geoff talks about the turning point in his life when he experienced a mental illness and the journey that he was led on to begin to tackle the stigma of mental health and even convened a meeting at No10 with David Cameron to address his role on mental health.

 

An inspiring and insightful conversation and one not to be missed!

 

For more information about the who, what and why's of The Burnt Chef Project please head over to www.theburntchefproject.com

 

Candice Brown - After Great British Bake Off

This weeks guest is the amazing Candice Brown who has been a long time supporter of the Burnt Chef Project and even managed to get featured in The Sun, The Daily Mail and The Mirror wearing a Burnt Chef F**K Stigma Tee!

 

This week's conversation has been a long time coming and is as raw and unfiltered as you would expect from these podcasts.

Candice talks about her journey into baking and how that landed her a winning spot on GBBO, to becoming the proud owner of The Green Man in Eversholt and her experiences of managing her mental health and coping with mental illness. 

 

For more information about The Burnt Chef Project or to help support us by purchasing some merchandise please head over to www.theburntchefproject.com

Bea Schulz - Meet an Ambassador

This weeks guest is Bea Schulz who is one of our longest serving Burnt Chef ambassadors and is currently based in Germany.

 

She joins us to talk to about her own experience of mental illness including how and when it first occurred as well as how she manages it. Bea is also a qualified nutritionist and gives us an amazing insight into the synergies between our mental and physical health 

 

Head over to our website and check out our growing number of Ambassadors using this link here: www.theburntchefproject.com/ambassadors

 

Visit our shop and support the work that we do here: www.theburntchefproject.com/shop

 

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