Latest / Chef's PSA Podcast / The Life of a Chef, The Hidden Costs | Chef's PSA Podcast Ep. 113

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The Life of a Chef, The Hidden Costs | Chef's PSA Podcast Ep. 113 · Chef's PSA Podcast

0:00
Hello chefs, this is Chefs PSA Podcast.
0:02
I'm your host Andre Natera. On today's episode, we're going
0:05
to talk about what the real sacrifice is when deciding to
0:07
become a chef. Stay tuned.
0:21
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Now, before we get into it, let me give you a brief update later
0:59
this week. So if you happen to be listening
1:01
to this, the last week of August, I'll be doing a book
1:04
signing in El Paso, TX, part of El Paso Family Meal.
1:07
Follow the El Paso Family Meal Instagram page and you can find
1:11
out more. You can go to the dinner, you
1:13
can buy tickets. It's taking place August 28th at
1:16
the Culinary Institute by Southwest University.
1:19
So if you happen to be in El Paso, TX and you want to get one
1:21
of your books signed or you want to come to the dinner that we're
1:24
putting on later that evening, make sure you swing by, say
1:27
hello, get your book signed. I'm going to be doing a
1:29
presentation on why the world needs chefs today more than
1:33
ever, so you don't want to miss that if you happen to be in the
1:35
area. For those of you that are
1:36
waiting for the book update, the audiobook version of Bad Cooks
1:40
Everywhere is available. Go get it.
1:43
The Spanish version of it is also out and if you're looking
1:46
for the Spanish audiobook of Culinary Leadership
1:48
Fundamentals, it is also available now.
1:50
Strangely enough, it's become a bestseller.
1:52
The Spanish version, I don't know why, but the Spanish
1:55
version of Culinary Leadership Fundamentals is now an Amazon
1:58
bestseller. I thought that was pretty cool.
2:00
Best selling author three times over.
2:02
If you're watching on YouTube, make sure you hit the like and
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subscribe button. And if you're listening on
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Spotify or anywhere else, make sure you leave five stars,
2:08
nothing less than five stars because only good people leave
2:10
five stars. Bad people, bad people
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apparently don't do anything. They listen to every single
2:15
episode and they never leave five stars even though it takes
2:18
you like one second. Bad people do that.
2:20
Anyway, we digress. What were we talking about?
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The price of the apron? The sacrifices that it takes to
2:25
become a chef today would now was coming up with my chefs PSA
2:28
for the day. I did a little cartoon meme and
2:31
it was two people talking and one person says to the other,
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you're the best home cook. I know you should become a chef
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and open up a restaurant, which is like the worst advice I would
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give to anyone, that if you enjoy cooking at home, don't be
2:44
a chef because you might not like it once you get into it,
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right? There's that old expression.
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You know, just because you make something good at home doesn't
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mean it makes a good restaurant. You know, you're surrounded by
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your fan base at home that everyone's going to tell you
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it's great and then you go open up a restaurant.
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Maybe don't put $1,000,000 down because you make a good
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casserole. A lot of people decide to become
3:00
chefs without fully understanding what it really
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means to become one. Whether you're in high school
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right now and you're thinking about becoming a chef or you're
3:08
still early in your career, maybe you're thinking of
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changing careers because you think you want to become a chef.
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I think there's a lot of myths out there of what this industry
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is and what it's really like, and I don't want to glorify a
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chef life by any means because heart is hard.
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Whether you're a doctor, whether you're a lawyer, whether you're
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a chef, whether you're an entrepreneur, difficult is
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difficult. Being a chef is not
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exceptionally more difficult than some of those other
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industries. It is a hard our industry and
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what makes it uniquely hard is how difficult it is physically
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and mentally. And a lot of times when you're
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getting into it early on in your career that the pay is not
3:41
there. And then you have to think about
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all the things that you're giving up externally that aren't
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necessarily involved with the business.
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Now, I was a chef for 27 years and I had a love hate
3:51
relationship with being a chef because I loved it.
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I loved being a chef. I love the creative process.
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I love being in the kitchen around other chefs and cooking
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and having a great service. And that's the whole reason I
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chefs PSA. But there was also a lot that it
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took away from me. And really what it takes away
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from is time to enjoy the things outside of the kitchen because a
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lot of times when you're a chef, it becomes all consuming.
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I would go through periods of life where I couldn't hold a
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conversation with you, with a, with a civilian, with a normal
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person, if it wasn't about food, if we weren't going to talk
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about food. I didn't want to talk at all
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because I was so immersed in what I did.
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I wanted nothing more than to be a great chef, and I was
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consuming every bit of chef content that I could.
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Back then, it was books, TV shows, and my social circle of
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friends was all chefs, so all we talked about was chef things.
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When you'd introduce an outsider into the conversation, it was
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like they were lost. I couldn't relate to them.
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Being a chef, you kind of live in your own little bubble world
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where everyone else kind of thinks the same, acts the same.
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We all have the same opinions about food and we could talk
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about it at length because we're passionate about it.
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But there's some difficulty when you go into the civilian world
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and and they want to talk about anything other than being a chef
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and you struggle with it. I know I did.
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I really had to immerse myself into different subjects so I
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could carry a conversation because I did recognize that it
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was a weakness. People want to jump into this
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industry because it looks fun. They enjoy the creative process.
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They enjoy cooking at home. When you go to culinary school,
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every day is new and exciting because you don't know much and
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you're learning something new every single day.
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And your learning curve is just skyrocketing.
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And then you get into the real world and you get frustrated and
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you go up to your chef and you say, can I move stations?
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I don't feel like I'm learning anymore.
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But you're not even good at your station yet.
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You're still viewing this as a learning opportunity.
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You're not yet viewing it as the career choice that you've made,
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and your skills aren't necessarily good enough to move
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to the next station. You might have learned how to
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make the salad already, or plate the dessert, or whatever happens
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to be on your station, but you haven't mastered it.
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You know how to do it, but you haven't mastered it.
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Mastery comes from doing something thousands of times to
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the point where you do it when you're not even thinking
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anymore. And so when you get into this,
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because you only want to learn, sometimes it's a bit of a shock
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when you get into the real world because you feel like you're
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learning stops or slows down significantly.
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And then you realize some of the realities of becoming a chef.
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It's long hours now, maybe it's not long hours.
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A lot of places are 8 hours a day and they don't allow
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overtime, but 8 hours a day on your feet, bending, turning,
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twisting in the walk in, in the freezer, moving heavy boxes,
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putting away produce, chopping, physically demanding hot
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kitchen, mentally demanding chaotic tickets coming in.
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You hear the sound of the printer when you go to sleep,
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you dream about it. You hear the oven beeping, you
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hear the timer going off when you're at work.
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And when you're not at work, all of a sudden those eight hours
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feel a lot longer. 8 hours typing on a keyboard feels much
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different than 8 hours on the Saute station.
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So there's this physicality that goes with being a that a lot of
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people don't really understand. Your feet hurt and they hurt
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forever. I've been retired for a few
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years and my feet still hurt and it gets worse.
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Invest in good shoes. Make sure you're taking care of
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your feet. When you're a cook, the mental
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strain comes from the amount of prep that you have to do and you
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might not even be that proficient at it.
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And so you're dealing with people that are years ahead of
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you in experience and expect you to work at their level.
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And so you start to feel a little bit insecure.
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You start to feel the pressure of the other people and it
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creates a little bit of a pressure cooker environment
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because the people also that you're working with want to be
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faster. They understand that you're
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green, but they don't have time for it because they need to get
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their job done. Causes people to be a little bit
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more curt, maybe what you would consider a little bit mean.
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They just want to get their station done, right?
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We all start as nice people when we go into the kitchen.
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Sometimes the environment brings something else out in us that we
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didn't know existed, right? That's when you're just
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starting. When you move up, you're a sous
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chef, you're going to work a little bit more.
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When you're the executive chef or the chef that was in, you're
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going to work a little bit more. So now those physical hours
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become longer, right? That's not for everyone.
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There's days when I was a chef where I'd wake up and it was
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dark and I'd go home and it was dark and I could go.
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Months like that. There's people that call off in
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the kitchen and then someone has to pick up the slack, right?
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There's no more bodies. So guess what?
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You're doing 2 stations that you're expecting to perform at
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the same level. You don't get an award.
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No one Pats you on the back and says, hey, good job, you did two
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stations. No, we all have to do that.
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It's difficult. It's hard and you start thinking
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to yourself, when I move into the next position, it'll get
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easier. You think when you're a cook
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when I'm sous chef, it'll get easier when you're the sous
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chef. You think when I'm the chef, the
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cuisine, when I'm the executive chef, it gets easier.
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Fact of the matter is, it doesn't get easier.
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You might trade in a little bit of the physical stress for
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mental stress. The mental stress starts to
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accumulate more and more the higher up you go over the
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ladder, right? Because now you share the
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problems with everybody. What was your problem?
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Your station is now their station.
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Your problem. When you oversee them, you have
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the burden of being a chef. The financial pressures.
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Is your food cost in line? Is your labor cost in line?
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The reservations are light. Not enough people are coming in.
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You got a bad review on the paper.
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You got a bad review on Yelp. It affects your business the
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next day. Owners are coming to you every
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day and saying food cost is not in line, revenues are not where
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they need to be. Maybe you need to change the
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menu. Maybe we need to open up brunch.
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You have this constant stress of being a chef because you you
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almost have this lingering feeling in the back of your mind
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that you're going to lose your job at any moment if things
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don't turn around or you're the complete opposite.
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You think everything's going well and you have no idea that
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your head's on the chopping block.
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I've been in rooms where we're talking about we're going to let
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this person go or we're going to let that person go and they have
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no idea and they're completely oblivious to the fact that
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they're not doing a good job, even though we've told them they
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don't read the writing on the wall.
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As a chef, you also face challenges at home with family
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and friends, not spending enough time with them.
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Your schedule might not be consistent.
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You miss out on important dates because you compromise with your
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workplace, whether that's a wedding, your best friend's
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getting married, your kids, soccer game, seeing a parent or
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a loved one. You miss a lot of that because
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you think they need me in the kitchen.
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You're so close to it, you don't see what's important.
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It's hard to maintain friendships, especially if
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they're not in the industry. What I notice is that most of
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your social circle starts to become other people in the
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industry. Other chefs that you see at food
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festivals and whatnot. They become your close friends.
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That's your network. Some of the friends that are non
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chefs, you don't see them as much.
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Their life moves on when you're working the line, they're at the
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beach, having fun. And then of course, there's the
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health issues that you may face. Mental health, right?
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This industry pushes you and you have to find a way to cope with
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the stress. And those vices look extremely
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tempting sometimes. And if you work in a restaurant,
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a lot of those vices are readily available, right?
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Maybe you eat too much, maybe you drink too much.
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Guess what? You work in a place that there's
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nothing but eat and drink all around you.
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And then there's assholes everywhere.
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You might have an asshole boss, colleague, Co worker, and what
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you realize is you go to the next place and they're still
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there, their face changes, the name changes, still the same
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jerk. You can't escape them.
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And it's not that our industry is particular to hiring assholes
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because bad people are everywhere.
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They're in every industry. There's bad lawyers, bad
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doctors, bad sales people. They're everywhere.
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The difference is you work with more of them because you have
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larger teams and you're working in teams constantly.
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If you were working in an area where it's just you and one
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other person, well, the likelihood is now 5050.
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But now you're working with ten other people.
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Well, all you need is one person out of the 10 to be a jerk.
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And you think the whole kitchen's bad, right?
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The kitchen becomes toxic because of one person, even
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though it is only one person out of 10.
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The team aspect really changes things.
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And then you give it your all. You've given up with friends and
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family, you've given up a certain portion of your health.
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Your knees hurt, your back hurts, your feet hurt, you're
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losing a little bit of your hair.
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You haven't slept well and then your restaurant closes.
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Or you don't get the award that you are working towards.
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Or you lose your job only to get replaced by someone who will do
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it for a little less money. It's a it's a very tough
11:36
industry. Maybe your partner leaves you
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because you're putting work before them, right?
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And I didn't do this episode because I wanted everyone to get
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down on being a chef because that that's really not the point
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of this. But I did want to paint a
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picture of what sometimes happens that a lot of people
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don't tell you when you're signing up for culinary school.
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Listen to this episode, right? Make sure you really want to do
11:54
this because it is an extremely rewarding job.
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You get to eat great food. You make some of the best
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friends, right? Chefs are built different.
12:02
We have great senses of humor. We tell good jokes.
12:04
We're the person you want in the foxhole with you.
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The creative environment is unlike anything else.
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And if you're an adrenaline junkie, a busy restaurant is a
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good place for you, right? You fit in.
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That's the other thing about kitchens is you do fit in
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because everyone's welcome in a kitchen, right?
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There's people from all over the world, all sorts of
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personalities. You could have someone from an
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extremely wealthy background working the line next to an
12:26
immigrant and they become best friends during that time.
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You could have someone that's just out of prison cooking,
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cooking with an 18 year old line cook just out of culinary school
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and they need each other and they have each other's back.
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So it's a, it's a really beautiful thing when you become
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a chef and you start surrounding yourself with some of these
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people. Some of the best friends I've
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made for life are in the kitchen.
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Let's talk some strategies on how to deal with this.
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When it comes to my mental health, I often get asked the
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question is what am I doing about it?
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As a cook, I usually walk big circles around the subject
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because I think everyone's unique and I'm not a mental
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health expert so it's hard for me to speak on the subject.
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But here's what I do for myself. One is I meditate daily.
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I have some sort of breath work practice that I recommend that
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people do. It helps me learn how to calm my
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mind and deal with stressful environments, right?
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I've been meditating for years and it's probably the one thing
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that I would say has helped me out the most when it comes to
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working in stressful kitchens. I've learned to take on other
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interests outside of work, so I don't think about just cooking
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all the time. I exercise.
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Even though my body has damage from working in kitchens, I
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think it could be a lot worse if I didn't exercise.
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Try to eat healthy, drink lots of water, turn your phone off
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right. Set boundaries with your
13:35
workplace employer. People respect boundaries and I
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think that's something that doesn't get discussed enough
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because I know when I was a chef, sure you you constantly
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push the line a little bit like hey, can you work this day?
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Can you work that day? I know it's normally your day
13:46
off, but can you come in? But if you have firm boundaries,
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eventually people don't ask you. They know that person can't work
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that day. That person will not give up
13:53
their Saturday. That person will not miss
13:55
whatever that event is, right? And so they won't ask you, they
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won't push you on it, but if they sense a little bend in you,
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they will. They will find that that point
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where they could push you, where you agree to do it is in their
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best interest, established boundaries.
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The other thing is, don't work in an environment that's not
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healthy for you or that's not the right fit, right?
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If you're in an environment where you don't feel welcome and
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it's just not for you, there's no shame in leaving.
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I think a lot of people stay in a job too long that they don't
14:21
like thinking that they shouldn't leave for some reason.
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I promise you, nothing's going to happen if you leave.
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I've been in this business a long time.
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People leave jobs every single day.
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You'll forget about it. They might remember for about a
14:32
week. They'll move on and so will you.
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If it's not the right fit, there's no shame in leaving.
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If anything, you're doing yourself and them a favor
14:39
because maybe it wasn't the right fit for them either.
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When it comes to time with friends and family, here's what
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I'll tell you. And this took me a very long
14:46
time to figure out. At one point, I was looking back
14:48
at all the awards I'd received as a chef and all the highs and
14:51
all the great moments and the great services that I've had.
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And I thought to myself, what I wouldn't do to have that one
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Christmas at home with my family or with whoever, right?
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I would trade any of that to have that moment back.
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There isn't an award or a service that is more important
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than something that's really important in your outside life.
15:10
Whether that's your wife and kids, whether that's your
15:12
parent, that's your best friend's wedding.
15:14
There are going to be things in your life that are more
15:15
important than service or are the award right?
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You don't get that time back. Make the right decision.
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As tough as it is, and I know I say this a lot on chefs, PSA is
15:23
work in the type of kitchen that you'd like to run eventually.
15:26
And I think that's really important, especially early in
15:28
your career, because if you get in that type of kitchen that you
15:31
want to run one day and you might realize, I don't want to
15:34
run that kitchen. That's not for me.
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I don't want to be in this type of kitchen because it's it
15:38
requires too much of A sacrifice that I'm willing to give up.
15:42
Then don't. But you need to find that out
15:44
early in your career. And one of the last things I'll
15:46
say when it comes of the sacrifices of being a chef and
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this being a chef's podcast, it almost is a little bit difficult
15:51
for me to say this because I do think that we need more chefs in
15:54
the industry. I do believe that we need to
15:56
strengthen our bench strength in the industry.
15:58
We need more chefs, we need more leaders.
16:00
We need to fix the culture. That's why a chef's PSA.
16:03
But I also think we need to let people go when this is not the
16:07
right fit for them and they're not happy.
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If you're not happy in this business, there's nothing wrong
16:11
with walking away and finding a business where you will be
16:14
happy. And the sooner you figure that
16:16
out, the sooner sooner you can let go of that anger and
16:18
resentment. It's not for everybody.
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And there's nothing wrong with that.
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I don't fault anyone for not loving this business.
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I mean, we're cooking food, right?
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You can't fault someone because they don't like cooking food
16:29
that much as you do. Like, it's crazy that we shame
16:32
people when they want to leave the business.
16:33
Someone asked me the other day about burnout, and I talked
16:36
about this a little bit in the last episode I did with a
16:38
culinary student panel. I'm a little bit reluctant to
16:41
talk about burnout, but here's my thoughts.
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I think there's really two types of burnout in most cases, in my
16:46
opinion, physical burnout or it's mental burnout.
16:48
But I think a lot of the burnout just attributes to not liking
16:52
your job. Because you could take the
16:53
situation where someone's working 20 hours a week, but
16:56
they don't like their boss and they don't like their Co workers
16:59
and they don't like the food that they're cooking and it's
17:01
dirty and it's not a good environment.
17:04
And after 20 hours they're burnt out because it's so stressful
17:07
and so chaotic in that environment that 20 hours caused
17:11
them to burnout. You take another person who's
17:13
working 80 hours a week, but they have a great chef, they
17:16
have a great 18. Everyone's positive, they're
17:19
motivated, they're inspired, they're creative, they're
17:22
winning. Their best friends are in the
17:23
kitchen with them. It might be difficult to get
17:25
them to go home because they always want to be at work.
17:28
They're not burned out even though they're working more than
17:30
the other person hours wise. So then I would ask the
17:32
question, are you burned out or is it that you just don't like
17:35
the job? And I would think that in a lot
17:37
of cases you just don't like the job.
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Now, you can be physically burned out and you can be
17:41
mentally burned out and the chaos in the kitchen is a good
17:44
recipe for mental burnout. But before you attribute it to
17:47
burnout, I would say ask yourself this question.
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Do you like the job? And if the answer is yes, you do
17:53
love the job, then you might be burned out.
17:55
But if the answer is I don't like the job, it might not be
17:58
burnout. It just might be time for you to
17:59
leave. Hope that wasn't too much of A
18:01
Debbie Downer. Anyway, you want to support the
18:03
show, you know what to do. Go to chefspsa.com.
18:06
You get all the books, Culinary Leadership fundamentals, Bad
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If you're new to the industry and you don't know what to say,
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you don't know the words, this is going to teach you the slang.
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up for by Sub Stack. I'll link it in the show notes.
18:34
I think as of this week I have about 3 or 4 episodes up,
18:37
including an interview with Chef John Tazar, Chef Robert
18:40
Soladecki, Fermin Nunez, Philip Spear.
18:44
Those are already out on Sub Stack.
18:46
They'll be out later for normal Chef's PSA.
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Make sure you leave five stars, nothing less than five stars.
18:51
Like and subscribe. We'll see you next week.
18:53
Hit the porno music no? Small Andre in the kitchen,
18:57
mixing, dropping Chef Dallas. No fiction stirring up the
19:00
beats.