This week on The Burnt Chef Journal, Kris is joined by Simon Blake OBE, Chief Executive Officer for Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) England.

Kris and Simon shared a panel discussion just over a year ago and have remained in contact since.

Simon is an incredibly passionate and experienced individual, who is making fantastic changes when it comes to the subject of mental health and wellbeing, and our conversations around it.

Kris is joined this week by Michael Cecchi-Azzolina.

Michael is a well experienced hospitality professional who manned the front rooms of the New York's hottest and most in demand restaurants. Serving guests such as Tennnessee Williams and Dustin Hoffman. He's really seen it all from the days serving shots of whiskey and cleaning out ashtrays for mobster family members to owning his new restaurant in Manhatten, New York.

Check out Michael's new book "Your table is ready": https://nypost.com/2022/11/26/tales-from-the-table-a-new-york-city-maitre-d-tells-all/ 

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250281982/yourtableisready

Matthew Whitfield has extensive experience working in a number of Michelin-starred restaurants, including Eleven Madison Park in New York, and as head chef at the award-winning three AA Rosette Terrace Restaurant at The Montagu Arms in Brockenhurst.

Previously sous chef at three-Michelin starred Eleven Madison Park in New York, voted ‘Best Restaurant in the World’ in 2017, Whitfield is not short of experience in creating world-class cuisine. From 2014 to 2017, he was head chef at the one-Michelin starred restaurant at The Driftwood Hotel in Cornwall, and before that sous chef at two-Michelin starred Seagrill Restaurant in Brussels.

A 2017 Roux Scholarship finalist, Whitfield’s extensive career includes training at two-Michelin starred The Vineyard in Stockcross; and he held the position of junior sous chef at Marco Pierre White’s Yew Tree Inn in Berkshire. He also previously worked at The Montagu Arms between 2006 and 2007 as demi chef de partie, and from 2009 to 2013, rising up to junior sous chef.

Kris caught up with the experienced chef to hear all about his culinary history, influences, and, most recently, the impact that working furiously in high stressed environments has had on his health but more poignantly his outlook and perspective.

Introducing Jasper Wellbeing by Shane Cooke.

This week's guest on the The Burnt Chef Journal podcast is Kris' long term friend, Shane Cooke.

Shane is a Spiritual Wellness & Life Coach and helps people who are feeling stressed, anxious, lost and stuck to reclaim their health and happiness. To reignite their purpose and passion, then step into the next chapter of their life feeling fresh, focused, motivated and abundant.

Shane believes you can achieve absolutely anything in life given the right guidance and coaching and he is here to support you on that path. It’s an inside out approach.

To find out more, head to the Jasper Wellbeing website: https://jasperwellbeing.com

This week's episode sees our guest host Jim Taylor with guest speaker Tyler Williams.

Jim Taylor is a Burnt Chef Project Ambassador based in Canada and his goals are focused on doing what he can to improve the overall state of the hospitality industry after having grown up in it and witnessing firsthand the challenges it and the people working in it face.

Jim's guest this week is Tyler Williams, the Director of Brand Experience (AKA "fun-gineer") at Zappos, after growing up in Alaska and moving to Vegas originally to pursue a career in music.

Tyler and Jim discuss how important it is for each company to have an appropriate culture specific to their industry.

Thank you Jim for another great episode!

This week on The Burnt Chef Journal, Kris is joined by Jonathan Howell, the Executive Chef for Sommerro House in Oslo, Norway.

This week's episode is the second episode 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 joined The Burnt Chef Journal as a guest host to launch her 6 episode mini-series focussed on speaking with guests who can delve deeper into mental health and wellbeing.

Hulya's guest this week is Sjoukje Gummels.

Sjoukje Gummels is a Shamanic Practitioner and a mother of two. She works with energy healing disciplines such as Reiki, Regression Therapy and Shamanic Healing. Sjoukje has trained with world-renowned teachers in Shamanism in the West: Sandra Ingerman Imelda Almqvist and Joan Parisi Wilcox. Sjoukje offers guided meditation classes for healing and self-revelation. Offering people a safe space to release, relax and re-energise.

In a slight change to our usual episodes - CEO/Founder of the Burnt Chef Project wishes our loyal listeners a Merry Christmas and takes the opportunity to share a mindfulness audio track that he has found useful over the last year. 

It's a busy time of the year and often our senses can get overloaded. Hopefully this short 5 minute audio track will help you feel grounded and guide you into a calmer space.

The clip starts at 1 minute 24 seconds.

Thank you for your continued support over 2022 and we look forward to providing you with more stigma busting content in 2023.

Thank you to Psychology Tools for the audio clip.