Episode 54: Elizabeth | Kaizen House

For this episode we spoke to Elizabeth, co-founder of Kaizen House. We discuss Elizabeth’s extensive experience within the food industry - from starting out and working up to head chef roles to designing residencies, pop-ups and restaurants within Kaizen House.

We discuss the different elements of Kaizen House which includes restaurants, pop-ups, residences and a YouTube channel. The business is led by the Japanese philosophy Kaizen, which encapsulates the idea of striving for continuous improvement. Within this episode, we talk about the kind of challenges Elizabeth faced whilst working as a chef and we explore how Kaizen House are working to have a positive impact through their projects, creating more enjoyable and accessible places to work. It was really exciting to hear about their latest project, Mei Mei, a Singaporean restaurant in the new Borough Market Kitchen. Elizabeth tells us about the concept for the restaurant and how she is drawing on her background, travels and architectural studies to bring a new and creative restaurant to this illustrious space.

We talk about following your passion, Elizabeth started out in the study of architecture but later chose to enrol at culinary school and work her way up through the kitchen positions to head chef. We discuss how working within head chef roles at Neil’s Smokehouse and Pidgin shaped her cooking and it’s interesting to hear how she is able to apply the skills learnt at university to designing restaurant spaces but also managing the many different aspects of the business.

Explore all things Kaizen House @kaizen_house on Instagram, website kaizenhouse.co.uk , YouTube and find Elizabeth @the_modernchef

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