Stray Kitchen is our column all about food written by renowned local produce expert, food writer and chef, Stephanie Moon. Stephanie is a champion of food produced in the UK and particularly in Yorkshire and the Harrogate district. 

 

 

As the Hotel & Restaurant industry and catering outlets dust off their aprons, I keep hearing fellow chefs saying “It is great to get back to normal”.

I am not sure many chefs I know are normal! I mean that as the utmost compliment – but myself and my comrades are anything but...

These past few months have been the toughest, and I’ve been hearing that many hospitality people have become disillusioned with the career and perhaps gone to do something completely different – but as a town that thrives on being hospitable, Harrogate and the food it produces needs its chefs.

Where have they gone? Some may now be drivers, carers, and shop workers or just loving having Saturday nights with their family.



Chefs are an unusual breed, as I said before. Anyone who wants to put themselves under pressure like that and thrives on it perhaps needs their head testing- but we love it.

As the final for Great British Menu gets underway this week and the chefs are in a boiling pot of creativity and competing – it makes me think, chefs will always want to create and compete and push themselves. Perhaps the chefs of tomorrow are creating in their home kitchens and making tea for their family’s tonight. Good luck to them and know that a challenging, yet promising and rewarding career is still out there. If you are a Chef that has wondered if it’s time for a change, I say wait: remember the creative side, the passion and the fun that the kitchen can bring.

Our normal IS coming back!

Being a chef is in your blood, and there’s no denying we love it.

Happy Cooking

Steph x

Read More: 

• Stray Kitchen with Stephanie Moon: Knaresborough Farmers’ Market


• Stray Kitchen with Stephanie Moon: Free Food