Chefs at Christmas

How present are you in the kitchen today, chef? Are you spending most of your time connected to the task you’re performing and the food your preparing? Or are you focussed on a past event or a future service? Because you make best

If you want to reach a goal, you must ‘see the reaching’ in your own mind before you actually arrive at your goal – Zig Ziglar During this season we can reach a point where each day or service blurs into

This month we face more disruption than usual to our daily rhythms, so it’s important to do what we can to ground ourselves. One of the best ways to do that is to connect with the season (I mean winter,

Success is the doing, not the getting; in the trying, not the triumph – Zig Ziglar It’s just the nature of our work – we can get so focussed on the details that we sometimes forget the bigger picture. But

For the past two years, I’ve run the Chefs at Christmas campaign during the busy season. Once again, Love Letters to Chefs will accompany you for the next five weeks with simple suggestions on how you can take care of yourself.

Outside San Sebastian on the Camino del Norte, a gentleman serves pilgrims with a rest-stop outside his home. When he asked me where my ‘fathers’ came from, I was sure he had mistranslated padres and had actually meant to enquire of my parents’

The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention – Oscar Wilde Let’s not deny it: kindness has to take root in our kitchens. And it’s not because being kind makes you look good. We’re all fighting the

Here’s a question for you today: do you accept help when it is offered to you? Saying yes to a helping hand isn’t about appearing weak or being vulnerable. What comes through instead is your humility: that you’re humble enough to acknowledge

Be thankful for problems. If they were less difficult, someone with less ability might have your job – Jim Lovell You’ve no doubt conquered many difficulties through this busy period. And no doubt, each challenge has stretched you, pulled you

It’s strange how powerful setting an intention can be. My word for last year was Integrity, and through sometimes painful processes, I recovered all these parts of me that I had long disowned, whether out of fear or a need for security.