Exeter Food & the Exeter Phoenix round table discussion: “If you can’t stand the heat, change the kitchen!”

In recent years, restaurant kitchens have become places of public fascination. From the confessional writings of the late Anthony Bourdain, to film and TV dramas such as Boiling Point and the Bear, restaurant kitchens are often depicted as pressure-cooker environments that combine passion for the creation of great food with extreme suffering for those that make it. But, how did professional kitchens become this way? What creates the idea of having to suffer for your art? And how are contemporary chefs pushing back against some of these pressures?

As well as food historian and Radio 4 Kitchen Cabinet regular Annie Gray, we will be joined by chef and entrepreneur Harriet Mansell of Robin Wylde and Lilac Restaurant & Wine Bar in Lyme Regis, head chef of the Hour Glass Inn in Exeter, David Knapman, who has previously worked at fine dining restaurants including Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck, and Dr Jed Hilton, a former chef turned anthropologist whose research engages with fine dining chefs in historical and contemporary contexts through themes such as craft, value and sustainability. The panel will be chaired by Exeter Food Lead, Professor Harry West.