About Us
ABOUT US
The Staff Canteen is the UK's leading media, jobs and networking platform for professional chefs and hospitality professionals.
Founded in 2008, we've grown into the industry's trusted hub for news, recipes, job opportunities, awards and regular in-person networking events. Whether you're leading a Michelin-starred kitchen or just starting out, The Staff Canteen is where chefs and hospitality professionals go for opportunity, knowledge, networking and community.
What We Do
Founded in 2008 by Mark and Lucy Morris, The Staff Canteen is the one-stop shop for chefs and hospitality professionals and has been for nearly two decades. News, content, recipes, job opportunities, awards and a UK-wide hospitality network, all in one place.
The Staff Canteen has worked directly with chefs, restaurants and hospitality businesses for 18 years. Those relationships are why chefs give us their time, open their kitchens to us and speak honestly about their work. They are the foundation of our original films, interviews and event coverage.
Sat Bains has shared his recipes and knowledge with our community. Ashley Palmer-Watts leads our European Chefs Tour. When we launched in Australia, Heston Blumenthal and Clare Smyth were among the chefs who backed it. We give the same attention to the sous chefs, chefs de partie and young head chefs whose careers are still taking shape.
We offer a number of core services for chefs and partners.
Industry News and Media
The Staff Canteen covers the biggest stories in hospitality — Michelin awards, restaurant openings and closures, TV and media coverage, and the most comprehensive chef move tracker on the internet. We write every story from a chef's perspective, across our website and social channels.
Chef Content, Recipes and Community
We're a global leader in chef content, showcasing the world's best chefs creating their iconic dishes. Our site holds thousands of recipes from Michelin-starred chefs, a resource chefs themselves use for inspiration. Our website, social channels and email newsletter are a go-to source of food content.
Our Chef Community Platform
Chefs, hospitality professionals and businesses can create a free account to post content, connect and message other chefs, and interact across our platform. Our community of over 60,000 chefs is one of the largest in UK hospitality — a serious prospect for any business looking to reach the industry.
Our Member of the Month award recognises a different member every month, and those winners go forward for Member of the Year. Chefs, kitchen porters, front of house teams, sommeliers, restaurateurs and suppliers are all part of the community. A restaurant depends on all of them.
Industry-leading Networking Lunches
We run networking lunches all year round, nearly weekly, connecting dozens of senior chefs and hospitality professionals with carefully selected industry partners in a focused, high-value setting. Hosted in outstanding restaurants across the UK, our lunches are deliberately intimate, commercially relevant, and built around great food, wine and conversation — an industry-leading way for chefs and partners to meet, get inspired and grow their businesses.
We also take chefs and partners on tours around the world. Our European Chefs Tour takes a small group of chefs to a food destination to learn from its kitchens and from each other. The first tour visited San Sebastián in March 2026, with the next slated for Copenhagen in October.
Jobs
Our jobs board is a long-standing place to find hospitality roles across the industry — for senior chefs, junior chefs, front of house staff and kitchen porters alike.
Awards And live stages
The Staff Canteen Awards are an annual celebration of the best of the industry, and one of hospitality's biggest award ceremonies. In 2025 we received more than 300 nominations and more than 52,000 votes in the awards. Held in London each year, our 2026 awards are set to be our biggest yet, with hundreds of guests celebrating chefs, front of house, back of house and everyone who makes our industry great.
Meanwhile our live stages bring chefs' cooking demonstrations and conversations to trade audiences, including the chef demo theatre at the Catering Innovation Show.
The Staff Canteen in Australia
We launched The Staff Canteen Australia in November 2025, with support from our UK editorial, video and commercial teams. TSC Australia covers Australian chefs, kitchens and restaurants. In August 2026, 16 chefs joined our first networking lunch outside the UK, at Nel in Sydney. The Australian business is growing fast, and Australian chefs will get access to more features with each passing month.
Why brands work with us
Chefs are hard to reach. They work long hours, rarely sit at a desk and have little time for sales meetings. For suppliers and brands with something relevant to sell into hospitality, a Staff Canteen networking lunch offers several hours at one table with senior chefs and decision-makers who have chosen to be there.
Our team curates every guest list. Each chef lunch has one sponsor per sector, so partners are never competing with a direct rival for the same conversation. That leaves room for the conversations that matter commercially: how a kitchen runs, what a chef needs and where a product or service fits.
The coverage reaches well beyond the table. Every lunch has a post-event news piece on our website, and we report live throughout the day, mainly through our Instagram stories. At shared lunches, every sponsor is tagged in that coverage. When a brand is the sole sponsor, it has 100% share of voice.
Brands can also introduce new products and build on those relationships through bespoke lunches, live stages, awards and tour sponsorship, and content partnerships across our website, video, social channels and newsletters.
Our Mission
Our mission is simple: to champion the hospitality industry by giving chefs and professionals a platform to connect, learn and thrive. We believe in celebrating the creativity, skill and passion that drives this incredible sector.
Our Community
As early adopters of social media, The Staff Canteen has built the largest B2B hospitality social network and one of the UK's most engaged online chef communities. We reach over 625,000 followers across our social channels, with 145,000 unique website visitors a month.
Alongside our online presence, we have a newsletter audience of over 50,000 subscribers and run 40+ industry-leading events every year, helping chefs connect face-to-face as well as online.
Our community spans everyone from apprentices and kitchen porters to head chefs and restaurateurs — all united by a love of food and a drive to push the industry forward.
Join our community and become part of the UK's most passionate, supportive and inspiring chef network.
FAQs
What is The Staff Canteen?
The Staff Canteen is the UK's leading media, jobs and networking platform for professional chefs and hospitality professionals, founded in 2008.
How do I attend or sponsor a Staff Canteen networking lunch?
Our networking lunches are invite only, however you can register your interest in attending by emailing [email protected]. If you want to be a sponsor of our lunches, please email [email protected] for more information.
Are Staff Canteen networking lunches only for chefs?
No, we do networking lunches for front of house professionals, general managers and more.
How do I find a job on The Staff Canteen?
Check out our jobs platform here for a list of available jobs. If you want to post a job, you can also do that here from our recruiter site.
How do I submit a recipe or get featured on The Staff Canteen?
Submitting a recipe has never been easier! All you need to do is make an account, or update your existing one, click on post in the top navigation bar of our website, and then click recipe. From there, you can put your full recipe information into our AI tool and it will do the rest for you. Just add images and check all the information is complete, and you’re good to go!
Posting recipes on our website ensures you go to the top of our Recipes page, and if you submit a seasonal recipe, you can be featured in our monthly seasonal update. We are a community first platform.
How do I enter or attend The Staff Canteen Awards?
For more information on The Staff Canteen Awards, check out our awards site here. You can submit nominations when the period is open, vote for nominees during a voting period. Invites for our awards are selective, but if you are nominated you have a great chance of being invited.
Is it free to join The Staff Canteen community?
Absolutely! It is free for all hospitality professionals to join our community. By joining you get access to amazing content through email and our website, a superb forum to meet and connect with businesses and fellow professionals, and the ability to post your own recipes and content!
Can I make an account for my business?
Yes, you can. As a supplier or a business you are able to make an account. We offer standard and premium services for suppliers. Check out more here.
How many people are in The Staff Canteen community?
Over 50,000 newsletter subscribers and a combined social audience of over 625,000 followers.
How often does The Staff Canteen run events?
We run 40+ events a year, including near-weekly networking lunches and our annual Awards.
