Former chef gives insight on how tough life in a commercial kitchen actually is
FORGET the glamour of MasterChef or MKR, life in a kitchen is unforgiving with gruelling hours and no social life, says former chef Paul Shapiro, who argues the hospitality industry needs reform.
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POSITION vacant, 70 hours a week, no overtime, no social life, minimal contact with family and friends, exhaustion, must be able to deal with alcoholism, drug use and depression, must be able to suck it up.
It hardly sounds like a dream job but clearly I’m joking, right? No way could anyone do that.
Unfortunately I’m not joking as it’s a hopeless reality for many chefs. Everyone knows chefs do long hours, that’s just part of the job, right?
And everyone knows the falsehood that chefs are either “alcos” or “druggies”, that’s also part of the job, right?
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So it’s probably about time we stopped joking about something so serious especially after Anthony Bourdain became the latest chef to take his own life.
I was a chef at several Melbourne restaurants for the best part of two decades before I could finally pull the pin.
Some places were fair, most wanted your soul but overall it was a pretty dismal experience.
The draining reality of working commercial kitchens is in no way captured by cooking shows such as MasterChef and My Kitchen Rules which over-glamorise an unforgiving industry.
Picture this, you get home at 2am after working a 16-hour day, speak to no one, watch a bit of television and then try to get some sleep before your alarm goes off at 6.30am so you can do it all again.
Get to work and it’s a mad rush to get all your prep done before lunch service, which is busy, then clean up, hopefully sit down for half an hour, get ready for dinner service, get slammed, clean up, go home and so on.
Not too bad? Throw in a demanding boss, angry customers and fellow tired, grumpy chefs and then do it day-in, day-out for 10 years straight.
Exhaustion, stress and isolation mixed with alcohol and perhaps some drug use is a sure recipe for serious mental issues.
Bourdain’s death was a tragedy but it should also serve to highlight anxiety and depression in the hospitality industry.
You only have to read Kitchen Confidential to know Bourdain lived a chef’s life.
I don’t know Bourdain so I can’t possibly presume why he took his own life but his death follows on from other recent high-profile chefs to die in tragic circumstances.
Last year, renowned Sydney hatted chef Jeremy Strode took his own life and celebrity chef Darren Simpson passed away after a long battle with alcoholism.
Thousands of other rank-and-file chefs currently working in Australian kitchens are risking serious mental problems if nothing is done to change the industry.
Yes, owners need to ensure their employees are looked after but a big part of the problem is the chefs themselves.
The attitude in a kitchen is to “suck it up” or, one of my least favourite sayings, “go to Bunnings and get some cement to harden up”.
A lot of chefs I worked with had a warped sense of bravado, like it was an honour to work long hours, get drunk after work and front up hungover the next morning.
Chefs also pride themselves on their ability to handle pressure even though few actually can.
For the first half of my career I took a salary and worked unpaid overtime, weekends and public holidays without really worrying about my bank balance or my health.
That all changed in 2006 when I was working at a high-profile restaurant owned by a high-profile chef.
I worked 100-plus hours in each of my first two weeks on the job.
It calmed down to a cruisy average of 70 hours a week after that. The joint completely broke me and only a few months into the gig — after a complete mental breakdown — I quit.
After the dust settled I knew I had to get out and change careers.
It took me a few more years of working — solely wage gigs — but I was eventually able to change occupations to do what I do now.
I was one of the lucky ones as many other broken chefs find themselves stuck in the game.
I can’t recall any veteran chef (five years or more) I’ve worked with who didn’t wish they were doing something else.
A friend of mine who has been a chef for more than 20 years is now at university studying to be a teacher because “hospo is a bitch”.
But why does he have to abandon something he once loved doing because the industry broke him?
Surely the solution would be to ensure chefs — and other hospitality workers — enjoy the working conditions most others take for granted. If a few restaurants have to shut down because they can’t operate without exploiting their workers, so be it.
A more understanding public would also help and maybe some political intervention because a chef’s life isn’t a joke, so it’s time to stop treating it like one.
IF YOU’RE EXPERIENCING A PERSONAL CRISIS, CALL LIFELINE ON 13 11 14
PAUL SHAPIRO IS A NEWS CORP JOURNALIST
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