Hey everybody. I spent three years in the culinary industry as a “chef” ( the term has become so bastardized I don't even relate to it anymore) and I hated literally every second of it. Perhaps the worst part of it though, was dealing with rude or unprofessional co-workers. I've been insulted a lot, treated like an idiot, but I think perhaps one of the worst things that happened was when I was working at a shit place in San Francisco, in the tenderloin. I had to go downstairs into our downstairs supply room with my coworker Angel (a real one might I add) and pull our line and prep cook Eduardo up the stairs because he was passed out drunk on the floor minutes before service started. He kept his job for another month because nobody else wanted to work there. I've also been verbally abused by coworkers, had to deal with intoxicated coworkers, no threats of violence but I think that's because I'm a pretty imposing person ( had to chase a drunk out of one of the place I was working though), but yeah, terrible hours, bad pay, general exploitation, rampant unprofessionalism…
A lot of people expect this to be the norm or even fun somehow (among others I blame Anthony Bourdain for romanticizing it). It more or less has a sense of Stockholm syndrome built into it. Machismo, abuse and self-destruction are celebrated. It's one of the only jobs I can think of where drinking on the job is frowned upon but also somewhat expected. Some places will even look the other way if you're doing coke in the bathroom, or even give you a high five. Over time, without closely proper management and compartmentalizing of stress, it's easy to slip into forms of addiction, depression, other forms of mental illness, and possibly suicide… And I've been there. PTSD is actually higher among people in the culinary industry than you might think.
Where I'm going with all of this is that even though I'm no longer a chef, even though I couldn't take the proverbial heat and got out of the kitchen (haha) I still have a certain degree of love for it. I respect the craft, I respect the proverbial hustle, but it's broken. It's so badly broken. I feel it's also overlooked sometimes because it's such a broad subject, especially because cooks and culinary industry professionals can range anywhere from a dive bar to a high school cafeteria to a three Michelin star rated restaurant.
But as I've been on this subreddit, and I've read, and I've listened to people's in other industries, seen some of the rhetoric, my heart aches for my former comrades, when I've seen first hand the suffering they have to endure. I feel like there must be something else that can be done. There must be a reform of this ghastly system and culture where people are celebrated for being just above slaves, often not making enough money to sit down and eat the food that they're making in the restaurants they work in, where being broken spiritually and physically is expected.
But how does one remove the work element from this? How does one advance unions, reduce exploitation, deprogram a culture of abuse? I don't work in it anymore, I don't want to work at it anymore, but my heart still bleeds for the people who still pour their blood, their sweat, their tears into every moment. They deserve more.
Tl;dr the culinary industry is broken, possibly beyond repair. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.