The Burnt Chef Journal

In this deeply moving episode, Lauren and Jo open up about their personal experiences with trauma and how it led them to use alcohol as a coping mechanism. Lauren shares her story of facing overwhelming events that left her feeling isolated, driving her to seek solace in alcohol. Jo recounts her own battle with unresolved trauma and the role alcohol played in her life as a way to manage her intens...

✨ Hospitality Highlights ✨ On 10th May, Kris Hall and Cara Houchen were joined by guest speakers for another live episode of Hospitality Highlights! Our guest speakers were: ⭐ Kelly Higginson, CEO of Restaurants Canada ⭐ Paulo De Tarso, Restaurateur and TedTalk Speaker   Listen in as we discuss the support the hospitality industry gets in western speaking countries from their government, and w...

✨ Hospitality Highlights ✨ On 3rd May, Kris Hall and Cara Houchen were joined by guest speakers for another live episode of Hospitality Highlights!   Our guest speakers were: ⭐ Andy Tait (CMgr FCMI, MBA), Director of Quality of Performance Learning Group ⭐ Marguerite Keogh, Head Chef at Five Fields   Listen in as we talk apprenticeships, levy funding, and the challenges businesses face accessi...

This week's guest on The Burnt Chef Journal is Jeremy Dixon! Jeremy has dedicated the past 15 years of his career to the speciality foodservice industry, and is currently at the helm of Ochil Foods, a business that was originally established by his parents 35 years ago. Together with David Laing, Jeremy strives to continue and expand upon their legacy to serve Scotland’s chef. In addition to his p...

The Burnt Chef Project founder, Kris Hall, and co-host Cara Houchen were joined by guest speakers: ⭐ Bianca Tavella, Founder and CEO of Fair Shot ⭐ Lisa Hobbs, CEO of Etymon Projects   Listen in as they discuss Rishi Sunak's worries of "benefits becoming a lifestyle choice", and whether the industry does enough to encourage those with disabilities or health issues into the sector. 💭   Hospitali...

The Burnt Chef Project founder, Kris Hall, and co-host Cara Houchen were joined by guest speakers: ⭐ Kate Nicholls OBE, CEO of UKHospitality ⭐ Mex Ibrahim, Founder of Women In The Food Industry Listen in as they discuss the rise of the minimum wage and the impact this may have on the hospitality industry. 💭   Hospitality highlights is recorded live every Friday at 9:30am BST across LinkedIn and...

This week, our guest host Hulya is joined by Naureen Ahmed. Naureen is a seasoned hospitality professional, a fervent community builder, an engaging storyteller, and the visionary founder of ‘Inspiring Women in Hospitality’. With a life journey that saw her living in four different countries by the age of 10, Naureen's path to the hospitality industry felt predestined. Her academic pursuits led he...

This episode of Hospitality Highlights is hosted by Cara Houchen, and was joined by guest speakers: ⭐ Carissa Teeling, Head of People at House Made Hospitality ⭐ Rebekah Billingsley, Marketing Director of Planday Tune in as the team discuss Planday's campaign The Single Biggest Shift, and whether planning rotas ahead can create happier and healthier teams, who are more likely to stay in the indu...

On 5th April, our Hospitality Highlights hosts, Kris Hall and Cara Houchen, were joined by: ⭐ Sally Abe of The Pem ⭐ Hrishikesh Desai of Farlam Hall   Listen in as we discuss whether robots can replace people in hospitality.💭   Watch live every Friday across LinkedIn and Facebook!

This week on The Burnt Chef Journal, Kris Hall is joined by Liz Burley, a highly experienced employment lawyer who can advise on the whole range of HR and employment law issues. Liz advises both employers and employees on contentious and non-contentious matters and believes that seeing things from both sides of the same coin makes her a better advisor for all her clients. She is particularly skill...

On 22nd March 2024, Kris Hall and Cara Houchen of The Burnt Chef Project were joined by guest speakers: ⭐ Gavin Young, Group Culinary Director of Thomas Franks Ltd ⭐ Kevin Steele, Head of Culinary - Midlands of Thomas Franks ⭐ Mark McCulloch, Founder of Hospitality Rising UK   Enjoy this episode as we discuss the impact of swapping CVs for trial shifts. 💭

On March 15th, The Burnt Chef Project Founder & CEO, Kris Hall, was joined by Scott Duncan, Managing Director of Unox , and Aktar Islam, Chef Owner of Opheem . Listen in as they discuss whether they feel they get enough sleep or not? 💭

This week on The Burnt Chef Journal, Kris Hall is joined by Stevie Belshaw. A hospitality professional who suffered a brain injury, fractured vertebrae, broken ribs, punctured lung, and a bleed in his spinal cord after colliding with a lorry on his way to work, whilst working in Sydney during his gap year.   Following the incident, Stevie spent the next 6 months learning how to do everything again...

On 8th March 2024, International Women's Day, we were joined by guest speakers, Ruth Hansom, Chef Owner of Hansom Restaurant, and Justine Murphy, Founder and CEO of mymuybueno.   Enjoy this episode as they discuss "what do women really want from the industry and themselves?" 💭

Kris Hall and Cara Houchen from The Burnt Chef Project are joined by guest speakers each week as they discuss headlines which impact our industry! On Friday, 1st March at 9:30am across LinkedIn and Facebook, Kris and Cara were joined by Will Gennard, Managing Director of Talent Hive and Anna Haugh, Owner of Myrtle Restaurant. Talent Hive were the headline sponsor for The Burnt Chef Awards, and bot...

On The Burnt Chef Journal this week, Kris is joined by Dr Sian Edwards, Head of Training and Delivery for Platfform Wellbeing. Sian has a background in psychology and has worked across a number of sectors, including Clinical, Forensic, and Sport Psychology. Her specialism is mental health in performance environments, and her PhD explored the mental health experiences of high-performing athletes an...

This conversation was dominated by Neuro-diversity. Nadine talks about how she manages with it and she suggests ways to cope on a busy schedule. Neurodiversity is a popular term that's used to describe differences in the way people's brains work. The idea is that there's no “correct” way for the brain to work. Instead, there is a wide range of ways that people perceive and respond to the world, an...

Compassion Fatigue a type of burnout that occurs when we experience prolonged exposure to the suffering and trauma of others.   This week’s episode is from our guest host series. Hulya interviews... Hulya is a Burnt Chef Project Ambassador and has over 20 years hospitality experience as a professional chef, teacher, mentor, apprenticeship leader, business owner, consultant and coach. Hulya has joi...

In this episode, Dr Reiner Kraft discusses the importance of becoming more aware of both the mind and the body to increase body awareness. He explains this as a foundational principle for making upgrades to both the mind and the body, emphasizing that limited awareness keeps people trapped in their thought activity without reflection. This lack of awareness, he suggests, is a significant barrier f...

TW: Gun Violence This week on The Burnt Chef Journal we are joined by Fabian Martinez from Wisconsin, who shares his very unique story of being impacted by a shooting within the restaurant he worked. Fabian talks about how this has affected his overall mental health, and the steps he has taken to try and recover from this horrendous event. This is a sensitive topic, so if you feel comfortable list...

Kris Hall, Michelle Righini and Adam Simmonds discuss drug misuse in hospitality - the openness in which drugs are used to excess, the acceptance, the ‘rock and roll’ image of the chef and the dangerous culture that these attitudes over time has created. Adam recently shared his own experiences of drug addiction on Shell’s podcast We Recover Loudly and it became the most downloaded episode of seas...

The much anticipated episode of The Burnt Chef Journal is out now! Joining Founder, Kris Hall, is Dr Sarah Gilchrist FBASES. Dr Sarah Gilchrist FBASES, spent over 20 years working in the high performance sport industry, latterly as a Technical Lead for the UK Sports Institute (formerly the English Institute of Sport) and Senior Physiologist with British Rowing. Her doctorate specialised in sleep a...

This episode of The Burnt Chef Journal was recorded live at Commercial Kitchen when Kris Hall was joined by Anna Haugh.   Anna started her career at Derry Clarke's Dublin restaurant and has since worked for  Gualtiero Marchesi, Shane Osborn, and Phil Howard.    Anna has also become a familiar face on television, having acted as a guest judge on Gordon Ramsay's Hells Kitchen, starred as part of the...

Joining Kris Hall this week is James Sharman. James reached out to us with an interesting proposal, discussing how we start to address the resource crisis in hospitality. James is an English Chef & Economist and owns three restaurants in Asia. His time in economics has unearthed an alternative explanation for the global staff shortage plaguing hospitality, and he is certain that this informati...

This episode of The Burnt Chef Journal was recorded live at Commercial Kitchen when Kris Hall was joined by Chef Tom Shepherd. Tom was born in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham and trained locally. His work experience includes time as Development Chef at 2 Michelin Star Sat Bains in Nottingham, prior to that he was Sous Chef to Michael Wignall at Surrey’s 2 Michelin Star restaurant, The Latymer and Hea...