For those who don’t know, I used to be a chef.

I had all the classical training because I love food. I love the different flavours and smells you get by combining ingredients until you get the desired outcome. It is chemistry 101.

I never really thought of being a full-time chef until the NHS lost the funding for the project I was working on as a consultant, and I had to scramble to find work in a saturated market in an industry that is as uncertain at the moment as it gets.

I applied for a Chef de Partie job at a well-known restaurant and, to my surprise, they invited me to join their team. That was the start of a 2-year stint where I went from CDP to Private Chef and Head Chef as well as a Chef de Tournant for a few amazing places, including a handful of Michelin Star restaurants which, well… was always kind of a dream, until I had a heart episode at the beginning of this year, which, for all intents, led me to hang my chef whites.

I’ve since been working on getting back on my feet doing what I do best: MarComms – focus on the communication part of it – and trying to reboot my career working for myself.

Problem is, this is going slower than I anticipated. A 100 problems developing a website and life getting in the way left, right and centre, and BOOM… Here I am stuck in the middle…

Last week, I had a tempting offer from one of my agents from when I did the whole Chef de Tour thing… 4 days cooking for the residents of a nursing home near Oxford… Getting paid at Head Chef rates… Well… We all have bills to pay, and a nice cash injection this side of the month wouldn’t be a bad thing, considering it’s school holidays, and we have our first family get-together – as in, my family and Amy’s family all together in one place – happening in October… In Italy (I’ll write about that soon cuz it’s a whole of another bitch <-said in best Soprano impersonation).

Not gonna lie… Was weird being called chef again.

I like the deference that comes with the title though. Not gonna lie… Except when people don’t like the food, so they do the whole “I want to talk to the chef” thing.

But I also like it when people enjoy the things I cook.

So I took the contract…

Getting back home, though, made me remember one of the reasons I hang the whites. Exhaustion and pain all over my body played a big part in it before. Luckily, my blood pressure seems to be unaffected, and I am hoping the fact that it is just a 4-day contract and that it is NOT MY KITCHEN will mean it will stay that way.

In a way, it feels like I took a step right back though…

Saying yes to a four‑day chef contract hit me with this weird feeling, like I’d just stepped back into a version of myself I’d already retired. It’s funny how old identities linger — you can be building new projects, new work, new purpose, and suddenly the ghost of the chef coat taps you on the shoulder. Even though it’s good money and only temporary, it still stirs up that sense of “am I going backwards?” But really, it’s just a bridge — a quick, practical move while the bigger things I’m building continue taking shape.

It remains to be seen…

Until then and for the next 3 days, I’ll try to make the most out of it.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go put my chef hat on again and go cook dinner for the fam.

Carpe Diem!