The Recipe

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 Bateshttps://www.connectioncph.dk/https://www.instagram.com/alan.g.bates/https://www.instagram.com/connectioncph/Dennis Van Tintelen, La Mar Chicahttps://www.mar-chica.com/https://www.instagram.com/chefdennis_/https://www.instagram.com/mar_chica/Kris Hall, The Burnt Chef Projecthttps://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". 

Recent years have seen a number of sexual misconduct cases in the restaurant industry, from the allegations against Mario Batali to the litany of claims about the Danish hospitality scene.But while it’s vital to hold perpetrators to account and to illuminate the murkiest corners of the industry, it can sometimes feel like little is being done to fundamentally change things.Which is what makes the work of Sofia Bodovic Olsson so interesting.A decorated chef based in Gothenburg, Sofia reached a boiling point last year, following misconduct allegations by a dozen women against one of Sweden’s most famous male chefs. Angered by the culture of silence that enabled his impunity, Sofia launched #härtardetslut — a campaign to try to bring structural change to the Swedish restaurant industry.Ahead of International Women’s Day, on Tuesday 8 March, we spoke to Sofia for this bonus episode of The Recipe, to learn more about her campaign and what inspired it.

For years, “restaurant brands” meant chains like McDonald’s or TGI Fridays.Not any more.In today’s fast-paced, hyper-digitalised world, every restaurant is a brand — whether it likes it or not.In episode 5 of The Recipe, we explore the consequences of this shift.We hear from a Danish brand director who says that any restaurant with a higher sense of purpose is a brand — and that it should be reflected in everything it does.We sit down with the creative director of one of Scandinavia’s most sustainable restaurant groups to talk about the challenges of offering plant-based fine-dining.And we engage in a little “toilet talk” with an expert in brand experience who explains why a restaurant’s bathroom should never be an afterthought.

Almost two-thirds of restaurants fail within their first year.The number one reason for their demise? Their address.That's right. Open any textbook about launching restaurants and one moth-eaten mantra for surefire success is location, location, location.The standard advice is to determine demographic factors such as the median age and income in a chosen neighbourhood.If only things were that simple.In this episode, we hear four very different stories about the luck, logic, and lore of finding the right location for a restaurant.One of Denmark’s leading chefs, Torsten Vildgaard, explains why it’s taken him almost three years to find the right spot for his new restaurant in Copenhagen.American chef Matt Orlando discusses the fluctuating fortunes of locating his restaurant, Amass, in what has long been one of Copenhagen’s least accessible locations.British chef Darren Brown describes what it's like running a seasonal, ethical, and local restaurant in an English market town.And London property consultant Camilla Topham explains why certain restaurant operators succeed in finding a prime location while others struggle.

The celebrity chef Bobby Flay once said that “everybody at some point in time has thought to themselves, 'I have a really great idea for a restaurant.’”The subtext being that not all of them are good ideas.But if there is a recipe for culinary success, then it surely begins with having a clever concept.For some, it might mean spotting a gap in the market.For others, it could be about putting a new twist on an old idea.And for others still, it might be about ignoring what everyone else is doing entirely.In this episode, we hear from three restaurateurs about the big idea behind their latest venture.We find out what inspired them, what makes their restaurant different, and what’s on the menu and why.First we visit Cadence, an all-day eatery in the Carlsberg district of Copenhagen.It’s the brainchild of Rhys Howell-Morgan, a restaurateur from Wales, and André Rossi, a management consultant from Australia.André kicks off the episode with a wonderful explanation of how he and Rhys ended up opening a brunch restaurant in Copenhagen.Spoiler alert: it involves Danish language classes, playing in a band together, and missing the Melbourne’s trendy brunch scene.André also explains the importance of things being “casually awesome” at Cadence and shares his insights into the world of restaurants as a relative outsider to the industry.Next, we resume our conversation with the Canadian chef Jonathan Tam and discuss the various sources of inspiration for his new restaurant, JATAK.They include his Cantonese heritage, his decade-long stint at the Michelin-starred restaurant Relæ, and his summer residency at Dan Barber’s acclaimed New York restaurant, Blue Hill at Stone Barns.Finally, we visit Pico Pizza and find out what it’s doing to stand out in Copenhagen's super-saturated fast-food market.Co-founder Lars Hylby explains how he developed Pico’s eclectic menu and talks about the importance of thinking outside the (pizza) box.Finally, he weighs in on how to eat a slice and whether pineapple is ever an acceptable topping.

Launching a new restaurant isn’t for the faint of heart.“You stand on a cliff and you're scared,” says the Australian chef Beau Clugston. “Will the parachute open if I jump?”As metaphors go, it’s a pretty good one.After all, as one former Guardian restaurant critic once put it, “the economics of setting up a new restaurant are scary in good times and terrifying in bad ones”.And that was before the pandemic.So who on earth would open a restaurant right now — and why?Well, in episode 2, we hear from four people who have done just that — or are trying to.First, we meet the Canadian chef Jonathan Tam, who spent a decade at the Copenhagen restaurant Relæ, before deciding to launch his own eatery in the Danish capital — JATAK.Smooth sailing? Anything but.Jonathan explains why he’s been on a roller coaster of a journey so far.Then we pay a flying visit to cocktail bar Bird to meet Peter Altenburg, a bartender who called time on his old joint right before the pandemic and says the time is right for his new concept.We also speak to Ann Lee, who toured the world in a Japanese punk band before winding up in Oslo by way of Silicon Valley and has just launched La Mayor — her 14th eatery in six years.Finally, we meet the Danish chef Claus Henriksen, who left the Michelin-starred restaurant Dragsholm Slot last year after 13 years and has just launched his first restaurant, MOTA — but only after a cruel twist of fate threatened to dash his dream.Indeed, each guest has a story to tell about the long and winding road to opening day.And each reveals how they summoned the courage to stand on that cliff and jump. Clip from "Heart Attack"  courtesy Damaged Goods Records and taken from the album ’The Fake Fake Sound of Mikabomb' www.DAMAGEDGOODS.co.uk

Buckle up — this may be one of the most inspirational conversations about restaurants you’ll ever hear.Three experienced restaurateurs share their thoughts on the state of the  industry.First, we hear from Matt Orlando, the chef and owner of the Copenhagen restaurant Amass.And he doesn’t mince his words.Matt reveals  the "deep underlying problem" in the restaurant industry, identifies its most  “irresponsible business owners”, and pinpoints the problem with awards and accolades.He also explains why we need “an aggressive cultural shift within the restaurant industry”, how chefs have the tools to do this, and how it could help make restaurants financially secure.Then we speak to Beau Clugston, the owner of the Copenhagen seafood bistro Iluka, who explains how his restaurant got through the past eighteen months.Beau tells us what needs to change in the industry — even if diners won’t like it.Finally, we talk to Lau Richter, the general manager at Noma’s sister restaurant, Barr.He tells us about the positive impact of the pandemic, how Barr survived, and why he’ll never look at polishing wine glasses in the same way again.

The Recipe is a podcast about the new generation of restaurants and the people behind them.It launches on Sunday 31 October.In this show, we’ll take a look at some of the ingredients required to run a successful eatery.Along the way, we'll meet some of the food world’s most forward-thinking individuals — and find out how they think, how they work, and how they’re shaping the future of the industry.Brought to you by Superb, The Recipe is a show for anyone who’s ever had a great plate of food put in front of them and wondered how it got there.Join us as we seek fresh ideas, insights and stories from across the culinary world.