The Burnt Chef Project – working for a healthier, more sustainable hospitality sector

Alan Tompkins is an Australian ambassador for The Burnt Chef Project – a non-profit social enterprise established in 2019 to help eradicate the stigma associated with mental illness in the hospitality profession and make it healthier and more sustainable. We spoke to Alan to find out more about the project and the role he plays in it.

LISTEN: Podcast Interview with Alan Tompkins

Opening the lines of communication

“The Burnt Chef Project was founded by Kris Hall, in Bournemouth on the south coast of England,” Alan tells us. “Working in the hospitality industry, Kris saw friends who were chefs struggle with failed relationships, alcohol and drug abuse, and, unfortunately, a number of suicides, all of which prompted him to take a stand.”

In an effort to raise awareness, Kris began taking a series of monochrome photographs designed to show behind the scenes of the kitchen and emphasise the human struggles of hospitality professionals. “He wanted to open the lines of communication to topics that no one had wanted to talk about,” Alan says. This soon grew into a line of merchandise designed to make people think about mental health issues in hospitality.

“Long antisocial hours, tough environmental conditions and pressures to perform are just some of the issues that hospitality professionals are fighting against on a daily basis,” points out Burnt Chef founder Kris Hall.

“We recently conducted a survey of 1273 hospitality professionals which showed eight out of 10 (84 per cent) of respondents had experienced mental health issues within their career and 46 per cent wouldn’t feel comfortable talking about their health concerns with their colleagues.

“Hospitality staff should be able to discuss the state of their mental health and gain support from their peers and employers. It's important that although mental health can't be seen it is regularly discussed and policies reviewed. Together we can burn away mental health stigma within hospitality once and for all.”

Fast forward four years and The Burnt Chef Project now has more than 130 ambassadors worldwide, a podcast with over 100,000 downloads worldwide, free e-learning resources with well over 15,000 modules completed, plus fundraising activities, conference and culinary school talks, and mental health training available both face to face or online. Resources are available on the Burnt Chef website and associated Thrive Mental Wellbeing app, all readily accessible to the hospitality industry in Australia as well as overseas.

Alan’s turning point

Alan’s involvement in The Burnt Chef Project was born out of his own mental health struggles while working as a chef in Melbourne and Geelong in pubs, cafes, restaurants and the functions market. “I was never a great chef but I was a very reliable one, the best right-hand man a chef could have. But I always struggled with my mental health and never dared show that weakness in the kitchen. When I look back now I’m disgusted that’s how the industry used to be – you would shut up, not complain or show any form of weakness, you just did your job.”

The turning point in his career came in 2021 when Covid gave his mental health a battering. “We were in and out of lockdowns, in and out of table service, pivoting to takeaway only, in and out of 15 hours a week back to 70 and then back to 15 again.” Nevertheless, during lockdown he managed to undertake a Certificate IV in Mental Health, which would lead him into a new career post-cooking.

“I ended up having two breakdowns in the space of six months at two different venues,” Alan recollects. “I knew what was happening – years of poor mental health coupled with years of 16 hour days, poor diet, little to no exercise, little to no work/life balance … I had burnt out, and as much as I thought I’d get back in the kitchen, deep down I knew I had to get out.”  

So he walked away from 22 years as a chef and decided to start talking publicly about his own struggles in the hope it might help others. “I started my own Facebook page, I started telling my story and in a way I started healing. I actually stumbled upon the Burnt Chef Project by chance or perhaps luck. I had been seeing a life coach to try and find new purpose and a new career. My life coach hosts his own podcast on wellbeing and one day I typed “chefs’ mental health” into a podcast search and The Burnt Chef Project’s podcast was the first one to come up.”

After familiarising himself with the project, Alan got in touch and soon learned about the worldwide ambassador scheme. “I figured they’d already have Australian ambassadors but once I started down the path of applying I found out I’d be Australia’s first.”

For a highly introverted, now ex-chef in the process of recovering from a mental breakdown, this seemed like a huge task. But a task that Alan was ready to face. “It’s given me the confidence to share my story and in turn I hope I can help someone who’s struggling with their own mental health to get the help they need. It’s ultimately my way to give back to the industry that has given me so much.”

Spreading the word

As of the end of 2023 there are now 10 Burnt Chef ambassadors in Australia plus one in New Zealand. Their primary role is to spread the word about the project to the hospitality community. “Being an ambassador is basically about opening conversations and challenging mental health stigma. We talk to hospitality business owners, managers and head chefs, but for me, more importantly, we talk to culinary students – tomorrow’s leaders – and try to give them the knowledge to spot the signs of mental health issues in themselves or one of their colleagues. I personally try to talk a bit about my own struggles with mental health and how I wished there was something like The Burnt Chef Project when I was a younger chef.

“Moving forward we’ll be actively involved in hosting fundraising events, with the majority of the money raised going straight back into learning resources and The Burnt Chef Academy.” This is an online mental health training and resource centre for both individuals and management teams which is accessible 24/7 and can be downloaded onto your phone.

Alan believes there is a growing awareness among hospitality professionals of the need to talk more openly about mental health issues. “Business owners can’t ignore these conversations any longer, as the younger generation are more likely to talk about their mental health than ever before. But if they think they’ll be judged, laughed at or dare I say sacked for it, they won’t.

“We are committed to driving cultural change from both the top down and from the ground up, ensuring that hospitality is a psychologically safe industry moving forward. If we want the industry to thrive, we need to provide our leaders with the skills to manage with confidence and empathy, so they can ensure that both their own wellbeing and that of their teams is priority. Together we can create a new hospitality industry – a happier, healthier and sustainable one.

“Just to highlight the importance of this work for our industry – did you know that Australian male chef suicide rates are 1.4 times that of males in all other occupations? And female chef suicide rates are 3.9 times that of females in all other occupations. Thankfully, hospitality groups in Australia are beginning to take notice of what we’re building here – organisations like Unox Australia, Australian Culinary Federation, Australian Institute of Technical Chefs, Les Toques Blanches Australia, Nestle Australia, Foodservice Suppliers Association Australia and the Australian Foodservice Advocacy Body to name a few – they, like many people, are seeing the positive impact The Burnt Chef Project can have on the Australian Hospitality industry.”

Helping ourselves and each other

As to what each of us as individuals working within hospitality can do to help ourselves and each other – Alan quotes the old saying, “prevention is better than cure”: “Far too often, both professionally and personally, we wait until we’re struggling before we do anything about it. But we know early intervention can reduce recovery time and even eliminate the need for recovery. Owners and managers especially can benefit from early intervention and actively highlighting the importance of wellbeing – thereby reducing staff turnover which reportedly costs hospitality businesses $12,000,000 per year in advertising, interviewing, hiring, training and getting new employees up to speed.

“Every one dollar spent now on wellbeing and retention saves a business owner four dollars. We as an industry need to get the basics right: gone are the days of working 80 hour weeks and of that being a badge of honour. The new badge of honour should be that of wellbeing, not an exhausted team with no sleep. We need supportive structures with an open door policy, mental health promotion through posters, involvement in mental health specific events, employee involvement in menu planning and ideas, longer lead times for rosters, consecutive days off, even the occasional weekend off. You know, the things other industries see as normal!”

In closing, Alan adds: “I’m not alone in this journey. I want to highlight my fellow ambassadors Dayan Hartill-Law, Bevan Vahland, Cory Hyde, Nick Kennedy, Leidy Maldonaldo, Remi Lachiaille, Andy Ball, Chris Dynia and Isaac Gorton. With special mention to the world’s first Kiwi ambassador, Joshua Thomas. 2023 has been an amazing year for The Burnt Chef Project in Australia and 2024 will be even bigger. So watch this space, and remember – don’t put your mental health on the back burner.”