THIS IS IT!!

The lights are off and the show is over.

After 4 years, 8 months and 20 days, 5 sous chefs, 2 apprentices, 4 assistants and countless waitresses, the show is over. This is the stage where it all happened. Most memories are good, not all but most. I avhieved entry into the michelin guide and the good food guide. I was not supported from the front and therefore couldn't build on those successes. Come to think of it at the start I was promised £500 each time I'd enter a guide but that never materialised.

It's time to move on now. I have been a chef for 20 years and most of those I worked between 60 and 90 hours a week. So I have done my fair share of hard work. I am now taking a step back from cooking and hope to pass on my knowledge and experience to the younger generation. I will now be teaching 3 days a week in a college which will increase to full-time after the summer holiday when the new training kitchen has been built.

I'm actually getting quite emotional while writing this and hope that this decision is the right one!

A lot has happened in my life the last few months. My marriage broke up, I moved house and I'm changing career. I'm not sure if anything else can change! But I am very very much looking forward to the future. I have found happiness in my personal life and hope to find it again in my professional life too!

I am still going to be in a kitchen for 3 days a week until the summer so it's a slow goodbye. I will be assisting a very good head chef in a growing business. So if anyone fancies saying hi, come to the Tytherleigh Arms in Devon. I will be there on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays.

So... bye bye head chef jobs and hello teaching... On to a more normal life...

OH...AND THIS IS ALSO MY 365TH ENTRY! HAPPY BLIPDAY TO ME!