Episode #18: Mike Jennings
Savouring Simplicity: From Michelin Stars to Family Ties, Purpose Beyond the Plate
This week on The Excitable Soul Podcast we hear about the journey of Mike Jennings, an esteemed Michelin-trained chef turned hospitality consultant, and owner of Hospitality Hut.
Mike shares the profound shifts in his life, from the whirlwind of professional kitchens to the safety and warmth of family life.
Key takeaways from our conversation with Mike:
- **Embracing Change**: Mike's story teaches us the power of significant life changes and how altering career paths can lead to a deeper sense of fulfilment and happiness.
- **Balancing Priorities**: The fast-paced demands of professional success do not always align with personal well-being. Mike's transition emphasises the importance of reassessing and nurturing personal relationships alongside his own health.
- **Learning from Experience**: Life's journey is a great teacher. Mike reflects on how past experiences and challenges, like the immense pressure of a Michelin-starred kitchen, have paved the way for growth and realignment of his values.
Listen to the full story of how Mike's upbringing and values led him to make courageous decisions for his well-being and to impact others positively in the hospitality industry.
Links in this episode:
Read the transcript here
James Glover [00:00:09]:
Alrighty. Welcome to the excitable soul podcast. Here, we are interested in all things purpose. We want to know where and how people find meaning and connection in their lives. In every episode, we're gonna be hearing the real life stories of how people have uncovered, understood, and unleashed their own unique sense of purpose. Our hope is that we can all learn from the stories and the journeys of our guests so that we can better find the sense of purpose in our own lives. I'm host James Glover, performance coach and purpose nerd. I'm incredibly excited to be exploring these stories with you.
James Glover [00:00:44]:
So let's get going, shall we? Today's guest is Mike Jennings. Mike is an accomplished Michelin trained chef with over 25 culinary years experience. He has worked under some of the UK's most decorated chefs from Sean Rankin to Gary Rhodes. Mike is an experienced culinary judge. Recently, he was part of the judging panel at the MYBA chartered super yacht cookery competition in Barcelona. After many years of tireless service and dedication to some of the most notable restaurants in the UK, Mike saw the need to invest in more than his craft and looked to repurpose his own life. Mike founded and is owner of the Hospitality Hut, a consultancy that supports the hospitality sector and offers private dining experiences, a way to continue his passion of food, but also nurture his life beyond the kitchen. This conversation deeply emphasizes the power that we all have for making purposeful change in our lives.
James Glover [00:01:45]:
I hope you really enjoy it. Welcome back, ladies and gents, to the Excitable Soul podcast. I'm here with Mike Jennings. Hello, sir. How are you feeling?
Mike Jennings [00:01:52]:
Good morning. I'm very well. You? I'm, Yeah. I'm in a good place.
James Glover [00:01:56]:
Mega. Yeah. Me too. Sun shining today, my friend. And after the kind of the deluge of rain that we've had recently, it's, it's nice to enjoy a bit of a bit of warmth.
Mike Jennings [00:02:04]:
Yeah. It's about time.
James Glover [00:02:07]:
And being the the fact that you are the kind of the chef extraordinaire, I've got I've I've got to ask. You had breakfast today that was beyond a bag of crisps?
Mike Jennings [00:02:14]:
I've not had breakfast. I have had 3 or 4 coffees. I'm training hard at the moment, so I'm I'm focusing on just to to 2 meals a day at the moment.
James Glover [00:02:26]:
Yeah. Brilliant. Well, I had, poached eggs on toast, and, I used vinegar. So I had a beautifully formed egg, and I literally told everybody in the family that that little nugget of genius came from from me. So, thank you. So listen. Welcome. Welcome to the to the podcast.
James Glover [00:02:46]:
Those that are kind of regular joiners or those that are just kind of joining for the first time, this is a podcast around purpose. We are interested in being able to hear people's experiences of where and how they find meaning and connection in their life. And we tend to take a bit of a journey around, you know, moments that have really shaped people, like where did they discover purpose? And then once they found it, how do they understand it and kind of live with it on a day to day basis? And then where do they unleash it? And where does it help them going forward in their in their future lives? And, having had the opportunity for for to work together and the reason for us working together being because of our purposeful connection, I can't wait to bring this this conversation to our to our audience. So should we dive right in?
Mike Jennings [00:03:28]:
Let's do it. Let's do it. Excited.
James Glover [00:03:33]:
No pun intended. So, so talk talk to me, Mike. We're we like the the kind of one of the beliefs that we have at the excitable soul is, to kind of really understand the things that are important to you. You're going to kind of have to look back over your life's journey to date and start to see the moments that have kind of really shaped who you are. And I'm wondering what you think about your journey to date. What what the moments are that really stand out to you that you know have have shaped what matters to you in your life?
Mike Jennings [00:04:02]:
Yeah. I mean, for me, I've I've always been a a well driven kind of character. I've been brought up with a very a good strong foundation with my family. You know, there was no hand me outs in my house. It was you had to work to earn money to buy things that you wanted. Growing up in the eighties, you know, I was fortunate nowadays looking at it. I didn't have things like the internet, mobile phones, all these devices that we take for granted now. You know, for me, it was you went out to the park and you played till the street lights came on.
Mike Jennings [00:04:35]:
That was literally the rules. You knock on someone's door and ask if they were playing out. By the time we got to the last house, there were like 15 kids knocking on someone's door saying, Right, you're coming out to play. And that was that was the upbringing I had. You know, food was minimal. You know, you had a plate of food on the table and it was, once you finished it, you can go out. There was none of this choice. There was none of this, you know, let's just get a Mackey's or Deliveroo or things like that.
Mike Jennings [00:05:01]:
You know, McDonald's was a birthday treat. You could invite 2 friends and you would go to McDonald's and you would sit in and you'd maybe go swimming or bowling. And that was your birthday treat. And now we're living in a world where people are eating 5 or 6 macchis a week. And you look at it and it's just mind blowing. So going back to it, you know, family values are very important to me. I've got a very, very close family. I've got a mom and dad, 2 brothers who have always been supportive.
Mike Jennings [00:05:30]:
Everything I've done. When I was 19, I was working in some restaurants around the Manchester scene, and I decided that I wanted to fly the nest. You know, both my brothers had both gone to university and got degrees. I was never academic. I was never interested in that world. I was more creative. The only subject I really enjoyed at school was art because it allowed me to create something and it gave me the freedom to do something. So then at the age of 19, I said to my parents, I want to go traveling.
Mike Jennings [00:06:01]:
I want to go make some stories. And my mom and dad were like, right, go. Go and do it. You know? So I went over to the island of Jersey and I went into a kitchen, this very cocky kid from Manchester thinking that I knew everything. And I got a very serious wake up call from a very strict head chef who, who should we say knocked that confidence out of me, but also transformed it into a confidence in a craft. So all of a sudden I'd gone from this cocky, nearly 20 year old lad who thought he knew the world to actually I'm confident about cooking now. I understand it. And it became an addiction.
Mike Jennings [00:06:42]:
It really was an addiction. You know, I was cookbooks, you name it. I'd buy it. I'd eat out. I'd be scrutinizing every single item of food ever put in front of me. So I got to travel. I got to go and move over to Jersey, but also I was creating something. And once I'd learned my perimeters as a chef and the boundaries that I could go to with my personality, I was feeding off this chef because he was showing me the way how to cook.
Mike Jennings [00:07:13]:
Now at the time, when you're a wannabe chef and think you know everything, when you have somebody go into detail on how to make something as simple as mashed potato. And we're talking like a conversation that could last half an hour. Now to most people, you just boil potatoes, drain the water off, and smash them. That's it. My God, did I learn a lesson about that? You know, would you believe that all different potatoes have a different sugar content? The higher the sugar content, the more chance you've got of making a gloopy mashed potato because the sugar turns to caramel. You know, it softens and it ruins the mash. So it's very keen to make sure you pick the right potato. And I was like absorbed by this knowledge and going, If you can captivate me with potatoes, then where can we go from here? You know? And the doors just opened then.
Mike Jennings [00:08:07]:
And it was, you know, it could have been peas. It could have been scallops. It could have been beef fillet. It could have been anything. But there was always some sort of educational purpose to it. And that's what I started to thrive on was that learning about food. And I'd go back home and I'd be like, Mom, I need to make something for you. She'd be like, what are we making? And I'd be like, I'm doing this.
Mike Jennings [00:08:28]:
And I'd be going to the shops. And she's like, you've spent like 15, £20 on a meal for 2 people. And I'm like, yeah, but wait till you taste it. It's gonna be the best meal you've ever had.
James Glover [00:08:41]:
So so so, Mike, just, there there are 2 things here that that I kinda just wanna because we're we're about to kinda launch into the the kind of the, the Jedi training and the kind of the lightsaber battles of the future. What 2 things. Firstly, you talked about this kind of, supportive family environment and kind of what it felt like to be in that environment and making different choices to to your siblings. So 3 of you, 2 brothers chose to go to university, you didn't, you chose to become a chef. So I'm really interested in, a, understanding how that environment nurtured the person that you are. And then the second thing is, you know, making that different choice to do something, you know, you didn't follow the follow the follow the brothers or try and do something that felt kind of aligned to to what had gone before. You chose to kinda go your own your own way. What was it what was it that kind of shaped that choice into, you know, food and becoming a chef? I think
Mike Jennings [00:09:41]:
a lot of it was the support around me. So even though both my brothers had gone on to do degrees, they didn't look at me and go, you need to go to uni. You need to go and do this because we've done this. They were more like, they would look at me and say, our younger brother is an amazing chef. So they wouldn't look at it like it's a competition where you need to go. And I joke all the time to them, they're like the 2 wise old elves, the pair of them. And I have different relationships with them both because I can go to them for different support. I can speak to them about anything at all.
Mike Jennings [00:10:17]:
A very open relationship. 1 of them lives in Sydney now, but we still have a great relationship where, you know, it's support. And I think the fact that they looked at me and went and certainly my parents, you know, you don't have to go to university to create a career for yourself. You know, there's no rule book on this. There's no, actually, yeah, you have to do this. If I wanted to be a brain surgeon, then obviously I need to go to university to get a degree. But like I say, I wasn't academic. I didn't enjoy school.
Mike Jennings [00:10:45]:
I didn't enjoy sitting in a classroom, the monotony of it all. I enjoyed being creative. And people around me saw that. And they would joke about it and go, Okay, you know, for the first 4 years of my working career, I think I had a job every other week because I never lasted, because I just didn't enjoy it. You know, I worked at a butcher's, didn't like it. Words at a cheeseburger, didn't like it. You know, I worked as a carpenter for a day. But it was just, there was never any sort of conversation that went with it that said, No, no, you've got to do this.
Mike Jennings [00:11:17]:
You know, you have to do this. There was no forcefulness to it. It was more, You do what you want to do. We'll support you whatever you want. You know, you're still our brother. You're still our son. We'll still love you whatever you do. And that that creates that foundation for you to drive, not to succeed, but it makes you drive every day.
Mike Jennings [00:11:37]:
I made a joke to somebody the other day and said, Del Boy used to say all the time, this time next year we'll be millionaires. And it was a constant joke in the show. However, David Jason, look at him, he's a national treasure. So he's right in what he was saying in some essence.
James Glover [00:11:52]:
Yeah. Amazing. So there there's something about the the the environment that your parents created that meant even though they got 3 boys, it wasn't com there wasn't a competitive environment. It was a support My
Mike Jennings [00:12:05]:
parents were working. My parents worked very, very hard. They brought kids up. My mom works in an office 9 till 5, Monday to Friday. My dad was a salesman. He was 7 o'clock in the morning. He'd be leaving the house with his breakfast wrapped up in tinfoil that my mom had made for him, suit, shirt, and tie out the door, and he'd be selling us. Sometimes he won't get home till 7, 8 o'clock at night.
Mike Jennings [00:12:28]:
And he was 5 days a week then. And then on a Saturday and Sunday, they had to be you know, my mom's then got to make dinner for us, 3 boys at nighttime when they come back from school. You know, there was no you know, we didn't have nurseries and childcare like we have now as a luxury. It was, no, that's it. You know, your older brother's going to make sure that you do your homework when you come home from school. And then when we come home, we'll all have dinner around the table together. So there was a very much family orientated vibe across us all the time. And then on a weekend, on a Saturday, we used to just go out.
Mike Jennings [00:13:00]:
We'd drive to the valleys of Eden and anywhere, Yorkshire, North Yorkshire. My mom was, they were very much like, you didn't have lions in our house. You know, it was very much one up, you're all up. The hoover would be going around that landing at 8 o'clock in the morning. Ah.
James Glover [00:13:18]:
Honestly, you've just you've just transported me back to my childhood. Like, and I'm getting a bit of this at the moment because we're staying with with my parents. My the who the sound of the hoover on landing is like part of the soundtrack to my life.
Mike Jennings [00:13:32]:
It's like SAS. It's like one of those positions where they give you the headphone, listen to your mum say, right. 1 up, 1 up. If you want a bacon boy, you need to get your ass downstairs now. And that was the normality. You know, you do your shopping on a Friday night. There was none of the shopping every day. You know, you would do your Friday night big shop.
Mike Jennings [00:13:50]:
And then on a Saturday, as a luxury once a month, you may have a takeaway. You know, you might get a Chinese and we would all sit around the telly. We'd watch the likes of You Bet and You've Been Framed, and then we'd watch the Saturday night movie together. But again, it was always family. We were always there until probably the eldest got 18 and realized that going out in Manchester was a real treat in comparison to watching U Bet. And then the middle brother then did the same. And then I remember, you know, I could have gone out to clubs when I was younger, but my middle brother used to go to a nightclub in Manchester called 42nd Street every Tuesday night religiously. It was like 50p a drink, student night.
Mike Jennings [00:14:36]:
So I remember saying to my mom and dad, you know, they were like, oh, you know, you can go to the pub if you want at 17. You can go if you want. We trust you. You know, we've had a beer at family parties and things like that. But I waited until my 18th birthday and said, no, I want to go to 42nd Street. And my brother and his best mate took me out for my 18th birthday. And that was the first time we went to a nightclub. I had friends that were going out into town at 16.
Mike Jennings [00:15:00]:
But again, it keeps going back to that core family value, you know? And that started with my mom's mom and dad because they were very much around family gatherings. Whether it was New Year's Eve party, every year somebody would do a party. You would never go out. Somebody would do a house party. Even down to the Grand National, right? Growing up, family, cousins, uncles, aunties, you name it, we would all be at my nana and granddad's at 1 o'clock. And all the men would be on the beers and the ladies would be having a gin and tonic or a glass of wine. And we'd walk there. It was like a half an hour walk, but you'd walk there because you're all having a drink And you'd be there, and they'd do the sweepstakes, and everyone puts the money in the pot.
Mike Jennings [00:15:50]:
And then there's like 20 people in the tiniest living room you can imagine all screaming at a tiny little television watching the Grand National. But again, it goes back to that family and that structure that's been embedded since day 1. You know, we look at Christmas coming up, it was the same. You know, my granddad would go, he would go, my nana and granddad used to visit their children's house every Saturday religiously. And they'd take a bunch of flowers and he'd go and have a cup of tea with his kids every Saturday and he'd do the rounds. And then he'd go to the pub down the road with his mate for 3 hours. And then he'd come back and peel potatoes for dinner.
James Glover [00:16:27]:
And so it doesn't it doesn't surprise me then that you felt a sense of freedom in the choices that you had. And and so why so I hear the creative that, like, create creativity was a really significant pull for you. And, and there's a really easy there's a really easy assumption I can make. Well, there's a tonne of creativity in food. But how did you come to the choice of of investing in food? I hear that you tried a few things and nothing had really stuck. But so how did you how did you kinda get down that?
Mike Jennings [00:16:58]:
So I I needed a job because I wanted a pair of trainers. We went for dinner at a pub and they were looking for a kitchen porter. So my mom and dad said, you know, they're looking for staff here. Why don't you get a job? So I did. I'd always been interested in food. I'd always been interested when my mom was making dinner. I'd peel potatoes. I'd get involved in it a little bit.
Mike Jennings [00:17:23]:
And then I got this job at the pub and I was washing pots, peeling carrots, peeling potatoes, just helping out. And I was fascinated watching the kitchen brigade work, the high speed, the coloradership of the chefs. It was like pirates almost. You know, there was just the banter. There was everything. I was like, I love this. This is amazing. It's like walking into a little family.
Mike Jennings [00:17:47]:
So then I finished school. And again, going back to academic, I didn't do very well at school. GCSEs, it just wasn't my bag. But I found out that the only college, because I wanted to go to college because a lot of my friends were going to college. So I found out that catering college, you didn't need any GCSEs. You just needed a good school report and a good attendance. So I went into catering college and started to learn the basics. And I had some amazing tutors as well, very old school mentality, but they taught you basics.
Mike Jennings [00:18:21]:
And then you start, the addiction starts, you know, when you start seeing things go from flour and water and yeast and turns into this bread that's been tied like a plait. And you're like, how have you made that? That's incredible. You know, you've taken something so raw and converted it into a finished article. And it wasn't the science. It was more the mechanics of how do you do this. And then the repertoire of chefs is never ending because you can always grow. You can always take that raw product and make something out of it. I became fascinated.
Mike Jennings [00:19:05]:
When my mom was doing the staple meals at home, liver, mash and bacon, I was going, why don't we try this? Why don't we do this? And then the icing on the cake was when my mom let me 1 year. I mean, I'd done quite a bit of cooking at home. And in 1 year she let me do the Christmas dinner. And that was like, I've hit a pinnacle in life here. So I did everything, prawn cocktail to start, roast turkey, everything you think of. And it was just that love of food and not just taking the ingredients and creating something, but also the look on people's faces. You know, the fact that you could make a bowl of soup and see the reaction in somebody's face become so happy, as complicated as chefs make it look, in essence, you're making food to give pleasure to people. And that's as simple as it is.
Mike Jennings [00:19:59]:
So that then became a very joyous experience for me. And we'll go on to that.
James Glover [00:20:05]:
You used the word addiction like, 3 times in the in the in the in the, like, 20 minutes we've been talking, which I'm really interested to kinda get into, in a second. But there's just an like an observation from my perspective around this kind of this captivation that you're experiencing around food, which is which is really purposeful because the this the, you know, there's a a really kind of a simple understanding around purpose, which is it's, you know, the strength of relationship between what's happening in me and what's happening in the world around me. And, you know, when you're describing being a chef, I'm hearing you talk about there's learning, there is growth, there is development, there is, there is there is skill and craft for me, and there is pleasure. There is joy in in others. And so there's a there's that kind of real interplay, isn't there, between the contribution that you can make and the impact that that contribution has.
Mike Jennings [00:21:05]:
Classic saying for me is if you do what you love, you love what you do. It's it's simple words, but it's true. You know, I use the word addiction because an addiction is something that you can't fight against. You're stuck with it. Some people could look at that as a negativity and think, well, actually, you know, you shouldn't be addicted to your job. But exactly like you've just said, if it gives you pleasure and you're not harming yourself, then why not call it an addiction?
James Glover [00:21:35]:
You went on a journey?
Mike Jennings [00:21:36]:
I did go on a journey. That's all the pleasantry bits out of the way.
James Glover [00:21:42]:
So where did where did the the kind of the, where did the fascination and the curiosity and the kind of the the the Yoda, Obi Wan relationship of, of Jersey take you?
Mike Jennings [00:21:55]:
So Jersey took me, as I said, so I learned my craft from a an an incredible chef, an incredible mentor. And said chef got offered an opportunity to open a new restaurant. And he asked me to go with him. We became very close. Good friends, still speak today. 20 year relationship, staying in touch. And we created a restaurant which became Michelin Star. It won a Michelin Star, which is the highlight of any career.
Mike Jennings [00:22:28]:
And I was part of the team from an opening site to achieving that accolade, which the chefs up and down the country, 1,000, millions that have never even go through that in their career. And I was fortunate, you know, I was part of this pirate ship, this family of getting through this environment. And we won the cover. And we were like, we were like rock stars in that time. You know, we're on a small island. There's 70,000 people that live on the island in the peak of summer. The restaurant was fully booked every day. You couldn't get near it.
Mike Jennings [00:23:07]:
We were walking out, going to the bars down the road for a few beers, going to the front of the queue, you know, come on, lads, on you go. You know, we'd won we were the only restaurant at the time to have a Michelin star on the whole of Jersey. I think at the time in the whole of the Channel Islands. But then the accolades kept coming. So, as we went from a 1 star to a 4 rosette restaurant, 4 AA rosette. Then we went to number 17 in the country. You know, we then launched the first Chef's Table outside of London. You know, so all of a sudden you've got 6 people sat in front of the pass.
Mike Jennings [00:23:43]:
Well, hang on, we can't be like we normally are. You know, we can't be screaming and shouting at staff, but people are paying for that. They want to see that. You know, you have people saying, Are you going to shout at someone soon or what? We're paying for this experience, you know? But obviously with all of that praise, the pressure builds. And, you know, you've got the chef, he's then getting asked to go on TV. He's getting asked to do books. His pressure is building. He's out of the kitchen more, which means as the number 2 chef, I've now got this responsibility on my shoulders of running this restaurant with all these accolades, dealing with the public face to face, managing a team of 10, 12 chefs and their abilities and their negativities in the kitchen, their mood swings, as well as remaining high quality.
Mike Jennings [00:24:35]:
You know, At one point we were pushing towards 2 Michelin Star standard food. So the pressure on that kitchen was intense. I would never say no. So if somebody rang in sick, I'd get the phone call and I'd be in 6 days a week, 15 hours a day. That was what you signed up for in that world. And, you know, fast forward 7 years, which is how long I was in Jersey for, the pressure got so much, but I didn't realize it. And my mum rang me and I was on a day off and she just said, How are you doing, son? And I just sat on the floor and burst into tears. At which point, I'd never behaved like that.
Mike Jennings [00:25:20]:
I didn't know what was going on. And my mum said, right, I'm coming over. I'll be there tomorrow. And she jumped on a flight and she came over the following day and she took me out and she was exploring what was wrong. And I just had the pressure, just the amount of stuff you've got to remember, the amount of things you've got to deal with is so intense. And I've been putting this force field up for so many years And I would never blame anybody else because I'm in control of my actions. So if I accept the fact I'm working 6 days 14 hours, that's nobody else's fault. The demand's there, but I have the opportunity quite rightly to say, no, I don't want to do that.
Mike Jennings [00:26:03]:
But in that world, I couldn't say no. The bravado, the power of the kitchen. There was no element of weakness could be shown, especially when you were the senior figures. You took everything on the chin. For example, a 7 warts in a quarter, a 10 a month in a 7 course tasting menu, and all the staff are whinging, you're the one that has to step up and go, You're getting paid aways to do a job. Get on with it. You know, I would have to be that voice. So in the space of 3, no, 2, two and a half months, I literally threw my notice in and left.
Mike Jennings [00:26:41]:
I cut ties with the whole island. I was done, finished. I needed to get off. And at the time I blamed the island. I blamed the island life. I said I was missing my family. Because there was times when I was on my own at Christmas, I remember the worst Christmas ever had was waking up on Christmas day with a card from my mum and dad next to me in a bedsit. And that was it, you know? And to spend Christmas Day with staff members, it's not the nicest Christmas to have, but it's what you did.
Mike Jennings [00:27:09]:
You just got on with it. You know, you made it because there was other people. There was people from Malta who had no family. And, you know, you'd make the effort for them and you'd all bring a plate and you'd make an atmosphere that was Christmas themed. But it's not my idea of Christmas. It's not how I want to spend Christmas. So, yes, so fast forward to I ended my noticing, cut ties and left. And then I went on to a bit of a darker path where I went to another one star restaurant and again, I was fixated.
Mike Jennings [00:27:39]:
I was learning. I thought I knew best. I didn't want to listen to somebody else telling me that what they knew was better, even though they were equal level of restaurant. I thought, hang on a minute. The way you're doing things isn't the way that I know. And I know that the way that I'm going to tell you is better. And it will get you a better product. But they were like, well, this is our restaurant and we don't pay you for your opinion.
Mike Jennings [00:27:58]:
We pay you to do a job, which is right. And I don't judge them for that. They're absolutely right. Every restaurant is run differently. So, I just started drinking. I have never had a drink problem where I would like drink during the day or drink on shift, but I'd be going out every night to release steam and I'd be going out getting leathered till 2 o'clock in the morning, and I'd be going in the kitchen at 7 o'clock the following morning, crack on the other day. And it built and built and built. And, you know, it was my escapism then because I obviously had regret to what I'd done.
Mike Jennings [00:28:35]:
But at the time, there was no clarity in what I was doing. It was more like just a train flying down the track. And anything that got in the way would either get smashed out of the way or run over or one or the other. But it was only probably a couple of years ago that I actually realized that I'd had a breakdown. I couldn't accept it.
James Glover [00:28:56]:
And so, yeah, how so you you're kinda starting to to kind of touch on the territory of this kind of professional experience, but actually how it influenced you personally. So, this the again, this idea of not being able to say no in that environment, but didn't want to to show weakness. And and then that kind of pattern of behavior being embedded to the point where, you know, your mom is coming in going, everything's not okay, and you realizing, you know what? Everything's actually not okay. I'm not gonna be here anymore. But the justification being, it's not me.
Mike Jennings [00:29:32]:
Everything around me. Yeah. Yeah.
James Glover [00:29:35]:
So so I'm out. But then actually finding yourself in a repeated pattern to some degree. Yeah.
Mike Jennings [00:29:41]:
Yeah. And it carried on. So then I left the other restaurant. I went down to I went down southwards to another restaurant there. And again, I took on my 1st head chef position, and I was only 27, which is very young in the game to take on high protein. I was working for a celebrity chef at the time. And again, pressure's on, but I loved it. I loved the pressure in the kitchen.
Mike Jennings [00:30:03]:
I loved the kitchen banter. I loved everything about it. But going to the whole point of what we're talking about, there was no purpose for me. It was a vehicle. I was a vehicle to make food for people. I was making people happy, which is what I wanted to do. But I never looked at myself and said, Do you know what? I'm happy. I could never say that to myself.
Mike Jennings [00:30:25]:
So I then embarked in another restaurant in Manchester, which I ended up buying, which put so much pressure on my relationship with my partner, who's my wife now, to the point of it was either the restaurant or me and her. And that was that was probably the biggest turning point. That was when I realized there's more to life than restaurants and food because I chose to stay in my relationship because I couldn't see a world without her.
James Glover [00:30:56]:
And I was gonna say, what what what so, you know, if you think about the kind of the journey that you've been taking us on here and the just the level of connection to what you did rather than who you were, You've now come to this kind of moment where the world may never not may never be the same again after this choice. So what was it that enabled you to make that choice? How were you able to connect with what was most important to you beyond what you do?
Mike Jennings [00:31:22]:
I had a reality check where I I was in a great relationship and the pressure was building because in my mind I was fixated on getting a Michelin star for myself. When you're presented with that kind of dilemma, do I carry on with this relationship that I love so much and I'm having such a great time in? Or do I lose that to carry on trying to get a Michelin star, which there's no guarantee? And the guide could come out and I've not got Michelin star, but then I've lost an amazing partner who could have been the one. So then I took the step back and realized there's more to life than just food and being obsessed with it. So go back to the addiction bit now. There is a way of having the happy medium where it's not an addiction, it's a passion. So then all the restaurants I'd worked at, I then took a back step from and went, this is just food. This isn't life or death, which is what I used to think. And obviously, there's an immaturity element to it as well.
Mike Jennings [00:32:32]:
I was a lot younger back then. And then as you get older, you get a little bit wiser, you start to diffuse situations differently. At the start of my career, I was screaming and shouting at people. To the end of my career, I was consoling them, and I was putting more time and effort into them. And I was seeing the reward by seeing the development stage of a chef. Cause I was like, well, actually, by putting my arm around you and spending more time with you, I've actually developed your skills and created a better chef. A better chef makes my life easier. So then I started to focus on, I don't need to do 16 hours a day.
Mike Jennings [00:33:03]:
I can find the balance. I don't need to work. I don't need to drink Red Bull every day. I don't need to smoke 20, 20 fags a day. You know? So it was COVID that really made me realize a bit more self worth and to maximize me. And I spoke to people, peers, people in the industry who just said to me, Listen, when you die and you go in your funeral, they're not all gonna be sat there going, 'He was such an amazing chef. Let's talk about his career as a chef.' And he said, Yeah, exactly. They're gonna, What are they gonna be talking about you for? And I was like, Shit.
Mike Jennings [00:33:43]:
Yeah. You're right. You know, what are they gonna be talking about? So then COVID hit and obviously we all went through this life changing period of time. And I've never ran. I've never looked after myself. I've never been into fitness. I've never ate the healthiest of foods. As we joked about, crisp sandwiches and, you know, maybe a bag of chips on the way home, and that was your diet.
Mike Jennings [00:34:12]:
Red Bull was good because obviously you get the energy and you kick on, but 6 cans a day is a bit excessive. So then I started to run and I found this new lease of life. I was doing 5 ks runs every other day and a 10 ks run at a weekend. And I didn't care about being tired. I didn't care about the pain. It was the actual freedom. It was like the shackles had been taken off. And I'm running and I give up the facts and I'm watching what he eats.
Mike Jennings [00:34:41]:
And all of a sudden it's like, who's this guy? Look in the mirror going, what's going on? And then we came to the end and all the time through that, my partner, when we had the restaurant together, she stood by me all the way through it. And she's never, my wife has never looked at me and said, You should do this. She's always said the same as my parents. And I think that's why the connection was so strong between us because she's just gone, You do what you want to do and I'll be stood right next to you. And to have somebody in your corner that can build that relationship with you, knowing that you have that support, that's teamwork. That's what makes it work. And it goes back to my upbringing, having that support of coaching, of do what you want to do. Don't let anybody tell you what you have to do.
Mike Jennings [00:35:30]:
You do what you want to do. So then we came out of COVID and I decided to set up a consultancy business. And I said, I'm gonna retire from professional kitchens. And retire is a strong word. But my answer was, I don't want to work in a kitchen for 16 hours a day, not only because it's tiring. There's more to life. I have 2 kids. I've got a family.
Mike Jennings [00:35:55]:
I want to see them. I want to see them, not I'm choosing to because of work. I actually want to spend time with them. I want to go to the school pantomime. I want to go to parents' event. I want to take my daughter to school. I want to pick my daughter up from school today. And on the way home, she tells me all about her day.
Mike Jennings [00:36:13]:
And when I take her to school, the last thing I say to her is, Just be amazing. I want to experience that. So by making the choice and saying I'm going to leave kitchens means I need to find I've got the drive and determination. I have that self wealth in me to push myself. So I will get up in the morning and work from home, but I'll still be up at 8 at 6 o'clock, and I'll be in the shower, and I'll be in front of the laptop by 7 o'clock because that's my mantra. You know, my work ethic hasn't changed. I've just changed my surroundings to make it work for me.
James Glover [00:36:46]:
You've changed changed the context that you sit within, but actually the the kind of the driving force. And I I was just wondering if we can just explore this kind of this really significant transition that starts with, if I go down this path, I'm gonna lose my partner and making a choice in that moment. Then following that on, the the the then being this moment in COVID where you're still with your partner, so you've made a different choice, but ultimately, you're still in the same context and in the same environment. And now you have children and you haven't invested in you, and there is a gap in how you're investing in them. And you're then confronted with a sense of who do I want to be. How did you what were what was happening in that decision making for you in in that moment? Was there a what was the source of tension for you there? Like, where was the pain? And and what was the potential payoff when you were thinking about I need to do something
Mike Jennings [00:37:51]:
for you? I think the pain I did was, I'm getting older. And do I want to carry on in a rat race where I'm going to potentially end up alone? I don't want to be I can travel on my own. I enjoy my own company. I can sit in a coffee shop on my own and have a coffee. No problem at all. But the thought of growing old on my own and having no one to share my experiences with scares me to death because that's, in my eyes, that's not right. My parents are still together now. You know, they've been together since they were 20.
Mike Jennings [00:38:25]:
They've been together over 50 odd years. Right? And they're an example to me of working relationship. I don't want to get old and be on my own. I want a family. I want something to show for my life. I want kids. I want to own a house. All of these things were not possible because of the fast paced train that I was riding on.
Mike Jennings [00:38:50]:
There was no time for thinking about what was happening outside the train. You're on that train and you are literally flying at 100 miles an hour. And you'd see, I've just bought a house. Gone. Friends would be telling you things. Gone. You'd never focus on it because it never interested you because you weren't interested in anything unless it was food, Michelin guides, and feeding that habit of of that world. So
James Glover [00:39:18]:
It sounds exhausting as well.
Mike Jennings [00:39:20]:
It was.
James Glover [00:39:20]:
It sounds really
Mike Jennings [00:39:21]:
It was. I mean, my knees are like broken biscuits at the moment. But obviously my wife's support from day 1 has only echoed the statements I've made as we've continued our life together. So we've been together 12 years this year. As soon as I left the kitchen professionally, we managed to buy a house. We managed to get married. We've had more holidays together. We live a comfortable life.
Mike Jennings [00:39:57]:
And all of these things weren't possible before. A, because the industry I was in was so fast paced, but also I never gave it time. I never gave it energy. So when you realize that if you put your time and energy into something else, you will reap the rewards, which is standard practice in any world. But if you put energy into your relationship and you do the surprise date nights and you do the I've bought us a bottle of wine and I'm going to make us a nice meal tonight, and that could be both of us doing that, All of a sudden you're just walking around with a smile on your face all the time.
James Glover [00:40:36]:
I'm smiling to myself because I'm wondering what the pressure is like trying to make a
Mike Jennings [00:40:50]:
I'm not bothered. The thought of somebody else cooking for me is enough. Somebody actually taking the time because I know how long it takes to cook, you know? And yes, I'm fortunate because I know how to do things a lot quicker and a lot different. My wife says, she looks at me when I make a Sunday roast in awe. And she's like, How can you make a Sunday roast and have no pots anywhere in the kitchen and just put it on the table and sit down and eat it? So if I do it, there's like 15 pans around the kitchen. There's gravy everywhere. There's this everywhere. And I'm like, because that's what I do.
Mike Jennings [00:41:25]:
That's what I know how to do. But equally, do you know what? I'd love it if there was a mess like that around the kitchen and I didn't have to lift a finger and I sat down and had roast chicken dinner. And I wouldn't care if the chicken was overcooked, if it was moist, the roast potatoes could be burnt on the edges. I'm not bothered. The actual process of somebody cooking for me.
James Glover [00:41:45]:
Potatoes aren't supposed to be burnt on the edges. We well, like, don't do this for me.
Mike Jennings [00:41:49]:
Caramelization of sugar content in the potato that is, James.
James Glover [00:41:54]:
So I I know there's there's just some really interesting connections that are coming out for me here. Like, the way that you talk about your wife and the support that she provides is the same way that you talk about your parents and your brothers and the support that they, provided. There is this sense of, of of intentional choice being made because actually you had a willingness to invest and put energy in different things. My my passion is now beyond food. My passion is also about nurturing my children and the relationship I have with them. My passion is also about actually me and being able to make it to an older age and be able to, yeah, have knees like broken biscuits, but enjoy the run out because, you know what? I've I've created the freedom in this moment, and it feels to me like the summation of those things is that really beautiful connection between, meaning being what is important and significant to me and the evolution of understanding that over time. Because at some level, we're all just trying to understand stuff. We're all trying to find the meaning in what's happening.
James Glover [00:43:01]:
But when you go beyond that and you go into, this stuff is really important. It's actually really significant. Whatever triggers it, it starts to help you make different choices. And so, you know, you in this moment now being able to align those two things, the passion for your craft with the passion for the people that you care about is making more things possible in your life.
Mike Jennings [00:43:24]:
So so now, for example, I operate a consultancy and my objective is to train, develop, mentor business owners to become A, profitable and B, get the best out of their staff. So look at the working conditions that their staff are working in. Are they right? Are they working too many hours? Are they getting regular meal breaks? Are they getting breaks in general? Are they getting time off? Is the is the head chef taking a Saturday night off at a fully booked restaurant? Because he can. And then turn him around to the rest of staff and say, you can't take it out of his office. It's the busiest night of the week. Which I grew up in the industry with that kind of comments. I'll leave you with it tonight. It's not that busy for me.
Mike Jennings [00:44:12]:
But we'd like a Saturday night off, but we can't because we're an integral part of your team. So, we're making you money. Do you know? So, all these scenarios happen and I could potentially write a book about all the different things that happen in kitchens, but I won't. There'll be no names mentioned, put it that way. But that mindset of, right, you're a business owner, you know, how are you treating your staff? What do you do with them? What do you do? Well, we pay them a wage and we give them tips. Oh, well, that's great. They're basics. They're basic fundamentals that you have to do in employment law.
Mike Jennings [00:44:49]:
What are you actually doing to make your staff want to come in every day? Because I had a motto years ago, which was, if you ever wake up in the morning and think to yourself, I can't be asked going in today, just roll back over and don't come back. Because if your behavior, if your attitude is you don't want to come in in the 1st place, don't drag yourself there. Don't come back. It's fine. Go find another job while you're happy. So the consultancy is about putting that time and effort into the business owners, the directors, the CEOs, the managing directors to say, look, are you getting the best? Let me come and do an MOT on your business. Let me tell you where the failings are. And then there you go.
Mike Jennings [00:45:27]:
There's a list and you can see what needs to be done, and you can deal with it by yourself. Or if you want me, I can come back and help out. They're no hard sell with my business. I'm here to support anything that falls under the umbrella of hospitality. That's it. Simple as that. If we can work together, great. If I can advise you, great.
Mike Jennings [00:45:45]:
If you want to just grab a coffee for an hour, I'm not going to put a bill in for an hour's labor. I'll just give you time because some people don't have budgets for consultants, and some people just need a friendly word of advice. I get we're in a country that's governed and driven by money. And, you know, listen, we all want to make money. Of course we do. But sometimes you just got to be fair with people. So then I also do the private dining part, which has become really interesting over the last 6 months because the demand is there. So I do private dining and dinner parties in people's houses, which all of a sudden is like a light bulb eureka moment to me because not only do I get to cook and make people smile, I do it in my hours.
Mike Jennings [00:46:33]:
So if I cook at your house for 6 people, I'm doing 6 portions of a 5 course tasting menu and I'll bring a wine flight and you'll pay for that experience. And it's not cheap, but it's not expensive. And it's all comparable. But you go to a restaurant nowadays, are you getting exemplary service and food? Probably not because the hospitality industry is struggling. So there's 2 areas that I can support with here. I can create an amazing dining experience in your house, or I can come and consult and direct you in the ways to make your business work better. All on my terms.
James Glover [00:47:08]:
I was gonna say, and critically, all on your terms, which is then you being able to hold the tension. And one of the things that feels magical to me about purpose, it's like the the kind of the really emotive bit, is that it purpose is like scaffolding around tensions so you don't have to think it's bi the world is binary. It doesn't have to be this or that. But where you have dilemmas of, yeah, but I want to be I want to be able to deliver my craft because I have skill and, and because I love the impact that that creates. But you don't have to then be defined by the context, which means your family suffers, which feels like either or. Actually, what purpose does is it goes, well, where's the both and here? Well, the both and is I can deliver phenomenal experiences, and I can share my insights and experiences in a way that delivers impact. So I'm actually winning twice because if I cook, I get the reaction to the cooking. And if I help you, I'm helping you get the reaction to the cooking.
James Glover [00:48:06]:
And the reaction of you growing and learning and developing is giving me what I need at the same time as being able to put the boundaries around it to be able to walk my daughter to school and to be able to put on.
Mike Jennings [00:48:17]:
100%. And I think finding that, it's not even a balance, but finding that lifestyle choice that works for me, it just, it makes me smile. It makes me a happier person. I don't argue with people. I don't speak badly of anybody. I just I get up in the morning in a positive mood every day. And I watched an interview with Jackie Collins on The ONE Show the other day, And they said to her, Why do you always seem happy? And she said, I wake up every day in a positive mood and I wake up every day with a smile on my face. Very, very rarely do I ever wake up in a bad mood.
Mike Jennings [00:49:02]:
And if I wake up in a bad mood, I do something that makes me feel happy. And I thought, I like that because I agree with it. I agree with it. You know, we, we as people, as humans are the people that create the mood. Yeah? So if you drive down the motorway and somebody undertakes you, you have a moment of madness where you go, Oh, God, why would you do that? Your mind's controlling that. You're the driver, leave them. Let them drive their own car. You drive your car.
Mike Jennings [00:49:37]:
And we've spoken about this before, about the chimp, the chimp in your mind. And I think it's true, though. We're all governed by our own actions and our own decision making. Nobody else is making you do anything. It's down to you. You say yes or no. Do you want to jump off a bridge? Yeah, I'll do it. Oh, look, I broke my legs.
Mike Jennings [00:49:56]:
Well, you made the choice. Nobody told you. You gave me an option. So, yeah, life choices are very, very important. And I think on the whole, I feel very, very comfortable with myself. I'm happy with where I am.
James Glover [00:50:10]:
It feels to me like that is a consequence of the choices that you have made and that and that you have a sense of ownership and accountability for the choices that you've made. And even the ones that have maybe led you to places of kind of discomfort and tension and also, you know, kind of dark moments, The the reality is that you've made them choices to be able to do and experience something different. And for me, that's that's what all of this comes down to is just to be able to acknowledge the fact that we all have choice. You know, as as Victor Frankl used to say, between stimulus and response, there is choice. But we don't often feel like we have agency, that we don't have, control over those choices. And we really, really, really do.
Mike Jennings [00:51:02]:
Because I think we're just we're absorbed in a fast paced world where we feel like everything's a competition. We have to move at the same speed as everybody else. And sometimes you could just do you know what? This morning, I'm not answering any emails. I'm not answering any calls. I'm gonna take my dog for a walk around the block. And that 10 minutes clarity could be the difference between a good day or a great day. And and what is it? 10 minutes. You know, I learned this from from working with you.
Mike Jennings [00:51:30]:
You know, things like just putting your phone on silent, just leaving your phone in another room, just having a bit of a break away from it. My business is governed by a phone and a laptop, the car, that's all I need. So to think about, I haven't got my phone on me, it freaks you out at times. But now I'm starting to focus on, actions. You know what? I could just leave it in the kitchen. I don't need that. I'm going to go watch I'm going to watch a Netflix TV program with the with the wife, and we're going to have a brew, and we're gonna watch this. I don't need any distractions because I'm in that moment and that moment is important to me right now.
Mike Jennings [00:52:05]:
So my phone can wait. I don't need it. And I think a lot of that is supported by the upbringing of not having things like devices around us in that world. Do you know what I mean? Because you never had it. So because you never had it, you could live without it. Whereas nowadays, I don't think I could imagine being in a secondary school in the modern world and the pressures. But also the pressures are created by everybody. It's not just the child, but parents and everyone else that support it.
Mike Jennings [00:52:36]:
You know? We don't rest.
James Glover [00:52:38]:
So, Mike, when you think about kind of unleashing your kind of sense of purpose now, I'm wondering if if you could because you're kind of doing this in your work anyway, but if we make it a little bit more personal, if you could go back to that moment in, in Jersey and be with yourself when you were kind of on the phone to your mum. So instead of your mum being the one that kind of swooped in to talk to you and unpick it, you were able to go in there and and unpick it with you. What are the kind of things that you now know that you didn't know then that could really help you kind of close the gap without suffering in the way that you did?
Mike Jennings [00:53:19]:
I think I would probably look at that situation and pick out the warning signs of the pressure building. And I think I would have probably gone into the I'd have probably gone into the chef's office and said, we need to have a chat. And I would have opened up to them and just said, listen, I want to move. I want to leave this restaurant, and I want to do something on my own. I think that would have probably been the most sensible way. There's no regrets in my life, you know, if it happens for a reason and that's it. But at that point, if I'd left the restaurant and gone and taken my new first head chef job on then, I'd have been in a completely different world. But that would have been a better way of diffusing that situation.
Mike Jennings [00:54:03]:
And it wouldn't have created the drama, the pressure, the stress that I've caused for family as well as myself. Because as any parent would you worry if your child is getting upset and they're over the age of 25, there's something not quite right. So you react if you deal with it. So I think, yeah, if I could go back to that situation, I'd probably get a hold of myself and realize, sorry, not realize, work out what it is that the problem is and be honest with myself instead of just making up a story and going, I'm done with the island. I'm gonna run away.
James Glover [00:54:40]:
Yeah. Amazing. And I think there's something, really beautiful in that for us to almost kind of close our conversation on really, which is the 2 things I just heard there. Firstly, openness. I should go into the chef and I should talk about actually what I need in this
Mike Jennings [00:54:55]:
focus on now and the consultancy as well. Being open to people.
James Glover [00:55:00]:
Exactly. We rather than the battle. And then the second thing was just a sense of honesty to yourself. Actually, what is really going on here rather than the thing that makes me feel better in this moment, but it's actually the root cause of all of the pain. I think that idea of openness and honesty, openness with others and honesty with ourself is, yeah, a really powerful message for us to be able to pour pause the conversation. So, Mike, massive thank you for being on the podcast. Such a brilliant conversation, incredible story and journey. And I have to say it's a real gift for me to be able to work with you.
James Glover [00:55:39]:
So Mike and I work together on our immersive purpose programs. He is just the most critical part of the team and the environment that we create with not just the food that he brings, but just the way in which he sets the tone and the atmosphere for all of us to make sure that we're able to do the things that we need to do in the way that we need to do them. So it's my pleasure to have you both here on this podcast, but also to get to work with you, Mike. Thank you.
Mike Jennings [00:56:02]:
Absolute pleasure. Thank you for having me on the podcast.
James Glover [00:56:05]:
You're welcome, bud. Take care. Massive thank you for taking the time to listen to the excitable soul podcast. If you are interested in uncovering, understanding, and unleashing your sense of purpose, come and explore our purpose immersion programs at theexcitablesoul.com. We look forward to hearing from you there or being with you on our next episode. Have an incredible day.