The incredibly fast-paced nature of the restaurant industry means that it can sometimes be tricky to keep your finger on the pulse. Practically every day a new restaurant opens and another closes, a chef announces they’re changing direction or moving kitchen, and a new ‘best restaurants’ list drops. And that is exactly why we’ve created The Hot Plate – a Friday round-up of the biggest pieces of chef and restaurant news from the past week – so that you can easily stay up to date with the latest goings-on in the restaurant world. Each week we’ll be updating this page with the headlines that have caught our attention, so make sure to check back every Friday.

This week, a new restaurant topping the list of the UK's 100 best at The National Restaurant Awards, an innovative new production site from the world's first zero waste restaurant, and some big news coming out of The Tom Kerridge Group. All this and more in this week's edition of The Hot Plate.

It's been twelve years since The Ledbury last held the title of best restaurant in the UK, but at Monday's National Restaurant Awards, it finally reclaimed its position at the top, knocking Gareth Ward's Ynyshir (which had topped the list for the past two years) down into fifth place. Tomos Parry's Mountain was the highest new entry at number two, whilst Chishuru's Adejoké Bakare was named Chef of the Year. Find the full results in our write-up here.

Founder of the world's first zero-waste restaurant Douglas McMaster this week announced plans to open a new commercial fermentation site in partnership with Crate Brewery to mark ten years of Silo. The Fermentation Factory will be headed up by Silo's Head of Fermentation Ryan Walker and will produce large quantities of everything from koji to beer grain miso. Their aim is to make ferments readily available for restaurants and businesses who don't have the resources to produce their own in house. A kickstarter has been launched for the project, which you can support here.

Charity fundraiser BiteBack, the brainchild of co-owner of Michelin-starred restaurant Pine, Sian Byerley, has raised a massive £82,000 for Cancer Research UK. The event, which took place last weekend at Wylam Brewery in Newcastle, saw fifteen British chefs with a combined nineteen Michelin stars and Green stars between them cook up refined street food creations for members of the public, who had bid online for tokens. Further funds were collected from an silent auction, with an array of foodie experiences on offer to bidders.

We finish with the news that chef Nick Beardshaw is leaving The Tom Kerridge Group after fourteen years of working alongside the celebrity chef. Most recently the head chef at Kerridge's Bar & Grill, Beardshaw also opened The Coach in Marlow for Kerridge, winning a Michelin star in the process. While there are still no details of the chef's exact plans moving forward, it has been confirmed that the Great British Menu winner will be opening up a restaurant of his own.

Check back next Friday for more of the latest chef and restaurant news!