As someone who's been a cook/chef (still am, ish) in some legit good restaurants (including a world's 100 best spot), plus done business school (finance/economi

As someone who's been a cook/chef (still am, ish) in some legit good restaurants (including a world's 100 best spot), plus done business school (finance/economics), some consulting, been self-employed and so on, being a chef is a very mixed bag. It can be everything Bourdain describes and worse. Or it can be a lucrative career (does require you to have ownership however) with pleasant working conditions. I will admit though, more restaurants are the former since most restaurateurs aren't very business savvy not educated. There's a reason most restaurants fail while a few can have many outlets and grow to billion dollar companies. Most restaurants languish at 1-3% margins (the actual average is 3 I think) while some do 20% easily. It's a good business to be in, however you need a strong business model, good execution and very good people skills.