I have not done any blog posts for the best part of 3 years but I am starting up again and it will be a monthly event!
Well where do I start it has been a crazy crazy year. From starting the year planning to finalise my debut book in September, loads of bookings and doing some commercial work for Stella Artois oh and also actually planning some time off in summer for the first time ever!
So starting with the book, it was a really hard process taking nearly 2 years but really it took 26 years because of the amount of effort and work that has gone into building myself as a chef. I nearly gave up a few times but what’s the point in giving up on something just because it is hard? That achieves nothing so I just kept pushing until eventually it all paid off! So after 2 years of relentless work I launched A Private Table https://www.chefsargent.co.uk/shop/ what an absolute roller coaster of emotions when it launched relief and absolute happiness but what I did realise is the climb writing the book was where the real fun was not when I first received the first copies of the book. It was a huge success when launched and is still exceeding my expectations, but loads more of this in the months to come!
Triple Chocolate Brownie in my debut book A Private table
Which brings me along nicely to how full on work can be if you do not look after yourself. I tend to work way top much without actually thinking about when I am going too take days off which obviously is not the correct way to run your life but I enjoy the whole process of working so much that time off has always come second. So this summer I actually booked off 6 days during summer to attend a close friends wedding in Porto, wow it was well worth it what an amazing time I had and do you know what the business did not fall apart while I was away! So it is something I am going to do more regularly next summer. I also did take a weekend off in the summer for a local music festival. But what I did find was to take the time off I worked way to hard either side of the days off to make up for missing out on the business which ended up with me visiting the doctors due to stress, so I am still trying to get that balance. But I know lots of people in business and they all struggle with the same affliction no matter the business they own.
Also this year I was given a great opportunity to go to London to do some commercial work for Stella Artois I can not go into to much detail about how this came about other than I cook for someone that is involved in the company AB inbev that owns Stella along with Budweiser and heaps more companies. Since covid I was told that beer sales have accelerated with people drinking at home so I was bought onboard to promote beer and food so I spent the day filming with a tv crew to produce some really cool footage of me talking about how to host your own dinner party with beer and also using a product called Perfect Draft https://www.perfectdraft.com/en-gb/. https://www.instagram.com/p/Cxuz0VIs_6d/ An amazing piece of kit well worth the purchase if you enjoy a pint!
I have loads planned for the coming months so if you enjoy my socials please keep an eye out on my blog page for more of a personal insight to me and my business.