Working in a kitchen, like any service industry job, is almost always hard, low-paying, and rarely offers benefits, whether you’re on the line at Applebee’s or some Michelin-starred place. Why do people still attend expensive bachelor’s degree-granting culinary schools to do it?

Furthermore, why is the culinary industry in general so hyped up? Maybe it's because I'm poor, but I'm very much a “food is fuel” person, and I eat unpleasant things on the daily to make sure I'm getting calories and nutrition. Then you turn on the Food Network and see Gordon Ramsay physically retch because he didn't like the sauce on somebody's scallops. Are some people just wired so differently that any meal not being the best thing they've ever had is a crime against humanity to them?