The Recipe Superb

From Instagram to Netflix, there’s no shortage of  content celebrating the creative side of the culinary world.
Yet there’s precious little coverage of the dark side of the hospitality industry and, in particular, the mental health issues that many restaurant workers face.
In fact, from burnout to suicide, substance abuse to toxic masculinity, the restaurant industry may well have more problems than most.
Today, though, more and more people are trying to make a difference.
From tackling taboos about mental health to creating healthier work environments, increasing numbers of restaurateurs and activists are making employee well-being a vital ingredient of any gastronomic endeavour.
So in this episode of The Recipe — the final one of the season — we’ll hear from three such individuals:
A Dutch chef who decided to close his Spanish restaurant at the weekends so he could spend more time with his girlfriend.
A British chef who has sought to create a “psychologically safe” environment for his staff.
And the founder of a social enterprise committed to de-stigmatising  discussions about mental health issues within the hospitality industry.

Further information:

Alan Bates, Connection by Alan Bates
https://www.connectioncph.dk/
https://www.instagram.com/alan.g.bates/
https://www.instagram.com/connectioncph/
Dennis Van Tintelen, La Mar Chica
https://www.mar-chica.com/
https://www.instagram.com/chefdennis_/
https://www.instagram.com/mar_chica/
Kris Hall, The Burnt Chef Project
https://www.theburntchefproject.com/
https://www.instagram.com/theburntchefproject/

Our guest this month has been described as “hospitality personified”.

Sam Ward is the managing director of the Umbel Restaurant Group, a collection of restaurants launched by chef Simon Rogan, who’s considered one of the pioneers of the ‘farm-to-fork’ movement in the UK.

The group’s holdings include one restaurant in London, three in Hong Kong, and three in the Lake District village of Cartmel — including the group’s flagship restaurant L’Enclume, which turned 20 earlier this year.

Named the UK’s top restaurant for four years in a row by the Good Food Guide, L’Enclume won a third Michelin star in February — making it the only restaurant north of London to receive that accolade. 

Sam Ward has been integral to the Umbel restaurant group’s success. Born and raised a few miles from Cartmel, he worked at Rogan and Co — the group’s more casual eatery — in his early twenties, before moving to London and working at The Ritz hotel as a sommelier.

He returned to Cartmel in 2012 to head up L’Enclume's FOH team, helping it become a culinary destination on a par with the likes of Noma or Blue Hill at Stone Barns. Following a stint as the group’s operations manager, he became its managing director in January 2020.

Sam gives us the lowdown on his career so far, sharing what he's learned about good service from his local pub, The Ritz, and L'Enclume alike.

He also discusses Simon Rogan's expansion to Hong Kong, the group’s "nimble" response to the pandemic, the ongoing popularity of its home meal kits, and what winning a third Michelin star means for everyone at L'Enclume, as well as for its future.

Could you run a restaurant without a bin?

That was the question that an environmental activist asked chef Douglas McMaster back in 2011 — and he's been trying to answer it ever since.

Today, he's the chef-patron at restaurant Silo — the world's first zero-waste restaurant.

Located in London, Silo was born out of a desire to create a sustainable restaurant that serves food made from scratch, using produce sourced from ethical growers — without generating any waste.

Silo is now a big source of inspiration to many other restaurateurs — including Lara Espirito Santo, who launched Lisbon's first zero-waste restaurant, SEM, with her partner George McLeod in 2021.

Episode 9 is all about a cutting-edge culinary idea that’s sweeping the world.

To understand why, we enjoyed some trash-talking with both Douglas and Lara — and found out what running a zero-waste restaurant involves, why it boosts not just their creativity but their bottom line, and what kind of waste every single restaurant could stop producing today.

The MAD Academy is a new type of school for food professionals.

Conceived by Noma’s René Redzepi and based in Copenhagen, it wants to transform not only the hospitality industry but the entire food system.

Indeed, the academy is born out of the belief that everyone who works in hospitality can and should dare to make a difference in the world.

But who is the academy for and what exactly do its students learn?

Who does the teaching, and what are their methods?

How can the academy tell it’s having an impact?

And how big can it get?
To get some answers — and learn about the method in the madness — we dusted down our satchel, sharpened our pencils, and went back to school.
Episode 8 offers a rare look at the uniquely experimental school that attracts students from around the world via an application process that’s as competitive as nabbing a table at Noma.

Visit MAD Academy for further information.

Today, Garrey Dylan Dawson is the general manager at Henne Kirkeby Kro — a Michelin-starred restaurant on the west coast of Denmark. But that scarcely scratches the surface of the former chef's long and illustrious career in the industry.
His highlights reel includes a decade as the head chef at The Fat Duck — alongside Heston Blumenthal — when it won its three Michelin stars; a long-running stint on one of the UK’s best-loved food programmes, Ready, Steady Cook; and a move to Denmark, where he forged a formidable relationship with chef Paul Cunningham at Henne.
In episode seven, we discover how Garrey broke into fine dining; why he turned down a job with “one of the godfathers of cooking”, Raymond Blanc; what it was like working with Heston Blumenthal; why he decided to leave the kitchen to focus on front-of-house operations; how he gets the best of his team; and why he rarely eats at Michelin-starred restaurants.

Restaurant names are critical.

A good one could be the difference between a diner taking a look at the menu — or moving on.

So, in episode 5, we explore why names matter and how restaurants can choose the right one.

First, we take a lighthearted look at how some top restaurants got their name — from the Latin American eatery that shares its name with a Kanye West album, to the pizzeria that found its name in the English-Esperanto dictionary.

Then we talk to Amy Dennis, of the Nice Branding Agency, who helps restaurants come up with a name and says that "naming is probably one of the hardest jobs we encounter".