Name: 'I only ever wanted to be a chef'
Uploaded: 2024-12-16T16:04:57.936Z
Duration: 663.36

YL_Sarah_Hayward_v8.mp4

Sarah_Haywood_v3.vtt

English

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Happy birthday to you.

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Happy birthday to you.

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It's been an incredible journey to be on.

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I worked at The Coach back in like 2017.

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I was part of the team when
we won the Michelin star.

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I love being the head chef at The Coach.

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I love everything about The Coach.

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Tom Kerridge where are you?

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Every Wednesday we have a management 
meeting where we have 

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Chef Tom, Chef Warren and Mr Dooley.

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So they are the bosses.

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We literally tell them everything
that they need to know about.

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What's going on in the business,

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the welfare of the staff,
if something's broken.

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It's just to keep them in tune
with everything that's going on.

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I am Sarah Hayward and I'm the
head chef of The Coach in Marlow.

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There's a lot of things you kind
of have to do as a head chef.

{{00:01:11}}
One of my main responsibilities is
obviously looking after my team.

{{00:01:14}}
Menu decisions, like making sure that
you're, you're pricing things correctly.

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Making sure things are seasonal,
making sure it's things that

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the guests actually want.

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And, you know, making sure it's like  on
brand with the Tom Kerridge sort of group.

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When I started at the Hand and Flowers,
if someone had told me in five years

{{00:01:36}}
time, you're going to be head chef at The
Coach, I would never have believed you.

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Like, absolutely not.

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So for me, that was, that was huge.

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Obviously winning young
Michelin chef in 2023.

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It's still a blur.

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I still can't believe that
that actually happened.

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I only ever wanted to be a chef.

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My dad's a chef.

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He is one of the most passionate people
still to this day, like one of the most

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passionate chefs I've ever come across.

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And I don't know if that just sort
of like fed into me  as a kid. When

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you hit like GCSE sort of year,
they tell you to do work experience

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and I asked if I could do it at the
restaurant that my dad worked at.

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So I went there and at the time
he worked in a, it was a really

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busy like seafood like pub.

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He literally got me stuck straight in.

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He was like, right this is
either gonna kill or, or cure it.

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She's either going to decide that
she definitely wants to do it, or

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she's going to be like, actually, no,
this is not necessarily what I want.

{{00:02:37}}
And well, obviously, you know,
which way around it went.

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I have two sisters and a brother.

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We're all incredibly close, we're
all each other's best mates.

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I've got a younger brother
who is also a chef.

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We did a lot of cooking together as kids.

{{00:02:53}}
My name's Chris and I'm
Sarah's little brother.

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With Sarah, she knew from day one that she
wanted to be a chef and it's really nice

{{00:02:59}}
to see her progress and just basically
fulfill her dream that she's had as a kid.

{{00:03:03}}
So basically we buy it in whole
sides and we just trim it out

{{00:03:09}}
so you see all that bit that's
going to come off quite naturally.

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So I'm working here at the coach for
a couple of weeks with Sarah just to

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do a little bit of work experience.

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I think Sarah's composure in the kitchen
sets her aside from a lot of the chefs

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that i've personally worked with.

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She commands a lot of
respect from her team.

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Like the way she runs service is so
calm and just it's so natural to her.

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I think that's one of the biggest
qualities she brings especially to

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The Coach where it's an open kitchen.

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You know, all the customers get to
watch her work and stuff like that.

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So.

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I think that's probably the main
thing that she's really good at.

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Me and all my family, just so proud
of her, to be honest with you.

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And it's not a surprise either, cause
when we could see it from an early

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age and, you know, working our way up
through the kitchen, we all knew she was

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going to reach this level at some point.

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And I think it's only a matter
of time before she, she has her

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own place, hopefully one day.

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Right, Rich,  gnocchi.

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So this is Rich, who is my sous chef.

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And we actually go way back.

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So we used to work together
about about 11 or 12 years ago.

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So we were both, commis chefs on the
garnish section when we worked at Lucknam.

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I sort of got my first real
role in a professional kitchen.

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A position as a demi chef de
partie at a beautiful hotel

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called Lucknam Hotel and Spa.

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I spent about three years there.

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So the head chef of Lucknam Park is
an incredible chef called Hywel Jones.

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He actually helped me find the
role at the Hand and Flowers.

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When I first started at the
Hand and Flowers, I went in

{{00:04:39}}
as a demi chef de partie.

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Very quickly and again unexpectedly
got promoted to chef de partie

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and it only took me three months.

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We are at the Hand and Flowers, which is
where my journey with Tom Kerridge began.

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I remember just being incredibly
nervous and just, yeah, just really

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wanting to do well, really, I guess.

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This was for me the place that made
me establish my style and led me

{{00:05:08}}
onto a journey that I probably would
never have foreseen for myself.

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Tom has massively influenced my
career because he has, he's just

{{00:05:16}}
been this incredible support system
for me and has massively influenced

{{00:05:21}}
the, the journey that I have taken.

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It's been a huge part of what
has led me to be where I am now.

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I'm Tom Kerridge, chef and owner of
The Hand and Flowers, The Coach, The

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Bridger's Tap, Kerridge's Bar and
Grill and Harrod's Fish and Chips.

{{00:05:36}}
The moment that she walked through
that door, even as a young person,

{{00:05:39}}
you could see there at that point,
somebody who is just fundamentally a

{{00:05:42}}
good human that you could help shape
and mold and give them their opportunity

{{00:05:46}}
to develop and grow if they wanted to.

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And she wanted to grab it for herself.

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Okay, so I'm just building a Coach burger.

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There's been many variations
of it over the last 10 years.

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The current version of it that we have on
the menu is, so it's always a beef patty,

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and then we melt smoked cheese on top,
and then it is a soy and sesame braised

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chicken, and then coleslaw, which we mix
with a sesame mayonnaise, and then it's

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dill pickle and it's all sort of wrapped
into a nice sesame seed, like toasted bun.

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I was 28 when I was first
promoted to Bull and Bear.

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The biggest learning experience
of my career to date.

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My name is Warren Geraghty
and I am the group exec chef

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for Tom Kerridge Restaurants.

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Sarah became a head chef in a property
up in Manchester for the first time.

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So we opened it in November of
2019, you get two types of people

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when you open a restaurant.

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You get those that kind of hide
and those that go looking for it.

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And Sarah was very much the
ones that go looking for it.

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She wanted responsibility.

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She wanted to look after
the people that were there.

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She wanted to be the one
who solved the problem.

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She'd had five years experience
at the coach and at the hand.

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So she was already very, very well
ingrained in the DNA of Tom Kerridge.

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Like it was such a tough time to
have like a first head chef role.

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Like.

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It was throughout COVID and your
role completely changes and you

{{00:07:14}}
have to think about so much more
going from sous chef to head chef.

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You never really know when Tom's
gonna pop in, just kind of shows

{{00:07:27}}
up and this was one of those days.

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So we were actually in the middle
of service at the Bull and Bear and we

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just sort of see Tom Kerridge walking
down the restaurant and he's like,

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right, have you got two minutes?

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Like takes me into another room and he's
like, starts talking about the changes

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that are happening in Marlow and we're
looking for someone who's got, you know,

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a lot of potential, a lot of, you know,
solid worker and sort of started reeling

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off this list of qualities that he was
looking for in a head chef for The Coach.

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And he's like, you got any suggestions?

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And I just kind of stared at
him and he was like, it's you.

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It's, it's, I'm asking you to do it.

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And I was just like, oh, okay.

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Like, like again, like take it back
because running the Bull and Bear and

{{00:08:08}}
running The Coach, you know, they're
two incredibly different roles.

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A shock to the system, but again,
an incredibly humbling and proud

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moment to be asked to be head chef
of such an iconic little place.

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If you want it and the opportunity is
there for you to take, it's just about

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grabbing it and making the best of it.

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And I think that was what made my
particular climb from demi chef

{{00:08:41}}
de partie to head chef so fast.

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This is an industry full
of very passionate people.

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What she's brought to the customers is
creative, warm, interesting seasonality

{{00:08:56}}
and British food that is led with
her deep understanding of cookery.

{{00:09:01}}
There is a real sense of her personality.

{{00:09:03}}
That personality then transfers
into the kitchen in the way

{{00:09:06}}
that she runs it in her team.

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I've always had a really
strong work ethic.

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From being a kid, like I always wanted
to, you know, earn my own pocket money.

{{00:09:16}}
I've always known what I want
and not scared to go for it.

{{00:09:20}}
I had managers that saw something
that knew with the right amount of

{{00:09:25}}
guidance and leadership could blossom
into what has become my career.

{{00:09:33}}
Sarah's beginning to fully
embrace and recognise the

{{00:09:36}}
fact that she is influential.

{{00:09:39}}
Somebody that can offer people inspiration
for young chefs coming through a kitchen.

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What Sarah's got is a lot of self belief.

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She's got belief in her team.

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She creates incredible strength
in the team behind her.

{{00:09:50}}
She solves problems for them, but she
also teaches them how to solve problems.

{{00:09:54}}
But she does it facing this way.

{{00:09:56}}
Working with the customers, talking
to them, making sure they're

{{00:09:59}}
having a great evening, knowing
what's going on behind them.

{{00:10:05}}
I get a lot of the time that I'm,
I come across as a very humble

{{00:10:09}}
chef, but it really does genuinely
surprised me how far I've come.

{{00:10:13}}
I know I work really, really hard, but
it's, it's always nice to have that

{{00:10:16}}
recognised and shown in a way that

{{00:10:19}}
has moved my career up
the ladder quite quickly.

{{00:10:24}}
Michelin's saying that they recognise
her work as somebody that's individual.

{{00:10:28}}
They're not, she's not just
cooking my menu or Tom's menu.

{{00:10:32}}
This is something that's
recognised, it's all about Sarah.

{{00:10:36}}
Keep your head down,
work really, really hard.

{{00:10:39}}
Find the right kitchen for you.

{{00:10:41}}
Finding people who  you look
up to and you can learn from

{{00:10:44}}
and who are willing to teach.

{{00:10:46}}
Taking everything around
you, absorb it like a sponge.

{{00:10:48}}
Never say no to any opportunity
that comes your way.

It's been an incredible journey to be on.

I was part of the team when
we won the Michelin star.

Every Wednesday we have a management 
meeting where we have

We literally tell them everything
that they need to know about.

the welfare of the staff,
if something's broken.

It's just to keep them in tune
with everything that's going on.

I am Sarah Hayward and I'm the
head chef of The Coach in Marlow.

There's a lot of things you kind
of have to do as a head chef.

One of my main responsibilities is
obviously looking after my team.

Menu decisions, like making sure that
you're, you're pricing things correctly.

Making sure things are seasonal,
making sure it's things that

And, you know, making sure it's like  on
brand with the Tom Kerridge sort of group.

When I started at the Hand and Flowers,
if someone had told me in five years

time, you're going to be head chef at The
Coach, I would never have believed you.

Obviously winning young
Michelin chef in 2023.

I still can't believe that
that actually happened.

He is one of the most passionate people
still to this day, like one of the most

And I don't know if that just sort
of like fed into me  as a kid. When

you hit like GCSE sort of year,
they tell you to do work experience

and I asked if I could do it at the
restaurant that my dad worked at.

So I went there and at the time
he worked in a, it was a really

He was like, right this is
either gonna kill or, or cure it.

She's either going to decide that
she definitely wants to do it, or

she's going to be like, actually, no,
this is not necessarily what I want.

And well, obviously, you know,
which way around it went.

We're all incredibly close, we're
all each other's best mates.

I've got a younger brother
who is also a chef.

We did a lot of cooking together as kids.

My name's Chris and I'm
Sarah's little brother.

With Sarah, she knew from day one that she
wanted to be a chef and it's really nice

to see her progress and just basically
fulfill her dream that she's had as a kid.

So basically we buy it in whole
sides and we just trim it out

so you see all that bit that's
going to come off quite naturally.

So I'm working here at the coach for
a couple of weeks with Sarah just to

I think Sarah's composure in the kitchen
sets her aside from a lot of the chefs

She commands a lot of
respect from her team.

Like the way she runs service is so
calm and just it's so natural to her.

I think that's one of the biggest
qualities she brings especially to

You know, all the customers get to
watch her work and stuff like that.

I think that's probably the main
thing that she's really good at.

Me and all my family, just so proud
of her, to be honest with you.

And it's not a surprise either, cause
when we could see it from an early

age and, you know, working our way up
through the kitchen, we all knew she was

And I think it's only a matter
of time before she, she has her

So we used to work together
about about 11 or 12 years ago.

So we were both, commis chefs on the
garnish section when we worked at Lucknam.

I sort of got my first real
role in a professional kitchen.

A position as a demi chef de
partie at a beautiful hotel

So the head chef of Lucknam Park is
an incredible chef called Hywel Jones.

He actually helped me find the
role at the Hand and Flowers.

When I first started at the
Hand and Flowers, I went in

Very quickly and again unexpectedly
got promoted to chef de partie

We are at the Hand and Flowers, which is
where my journey with Tom Kerridge began.

I remember just being incredibly
nervous and just, yeah, just really

This was for me the place that made
me establish my style and led me

onto a journey that I probably would
never have foreseen for myself.

Tom has massively influenced my
career because he has, he's just

been this incredible support system
for me and has massively influenced

It's been a huge part of what
has led me to be where I am now.

I'm Tom Kerridge, chef and owner of
The Hand and Flowers, The Coach, The

Bridger's Tap, Kerridge's Bar and
Grill and Harrod's Fish and Chips.

The moment that she walked through
that door, even as a young person,

you could see there at that point,
somebody who is just fundamentally a

good human that you could help shape
and mold and give them their opportunity

Young Leaders

Case Study

Sarah Hayward is one of the hottest names in British cooking. Her meteoric rise from apprentice to head chef in under 10 years speaks for itself, and in 2023 her culinary accomplishment was recognised as she was crowned Michelin's Young Chef of the Year.

Most days Sarah can be found in the kitchen of The Coach in Marlow, a Michelin-starred gastropub owned by celebrity chef Tom Kerridge and renowned for its creative and seasonal British cuisine.

Streamly spent the day with Sarah, finding out about the milestones, challenges, and triumphs that have shaped her remarkable career.


Inspiration

Next Generation

Personal Story

SarahHaywardpic-scaled-e1691161619533.avif

Sarah Hayward

Discover insights from other experts

Head Chef

Hayward shares her early experiences and influences. 

Early life

Hear more about Hayward's strong connection with her family, including her younger brother who is following in her culinary footsteps.

Family life

Hayward recounts her career journey from her first kitchen role to her current position as Head Chef at The Coach. Her mentors Chef Tom Kerridge and Chef Warren Geraghty also reflect on her growth as a chef. 

Reflecting on the journey

Sarah Hayward reflects on the importance of seizing opportunities and how her rapid career progression shaped by passion, hard work, and self-belief.