Recent months have seen some huge changes for me.
Seven weeks ago, I left my role as general manager at Stem, and became GM at Darby’s, a new restaurant from the team behind The Dairy, Sorella and Counter Culture. I had the invaluable chance to take a good break between jobs due to leftover holiday from Stem and spend two relaxing weeks back home in Wales.
Days filled with mountain walking, reading, gossiping with my mum and watching the snooker with my stepdad were a 
welcome contrast from the constant bustle of London. It was the perfect chance to reset before my life was taken over by opening Darby’s.
I love opening restaurants. This will be the fourth restaurant opening I have worked, the third one as general manager, and while the stress levels are incomparable, the rewards are incredible.
My friends and family are well used to it now: a good two to three months of unreturned phone calls, a lack of solid commitment to any plans and a flurry of last-minute cancellations following the inevitable rota fluctuations. Everything comes second when you have a restaurant to open.
Image: Chefs Dean Parker and Robin Gill at Darby's. Credit: @underwood_emma
Instead my days are filled with our new work ‘family’. Built through those painful weeks of recruitment we all know so well, of trawling through the multitude of recruitment sites for that glorious ‘YES!’ moment of actually finding an applicant with vaguely relevant experience only for emails to go unanswered.
Eventually the gems are unearthed, and the new team begins to take shape. A restaurant team in its infancy is special, everyone is yet to find their place and on best behaviour, while management are covertly assessing for strengths and weaknesses. Little displays of passions and dislikes are mentally noted for future job roles. Gaps in knowledge are quickly filled, while abilities are elevated and utilised to their maximum.
The weeks prior to opening
