5 ms·

Commercial kitchens are incredibly high pressure workplaces and many famous chefs are also assholes. It doesn't excuse Chang, but there's definitely a certain p

Commercial kitchens are incredibly high pressure workplaces and many famous chefs are also assholes. It doesn't excuse Chang, but there's definitely a certain personality type that's drawn to and can function in these environments.

taeric 2y ago
This "high pressure workplace" has always struck me as crazy. I grant that it looks true from the anecdotes, but it also seems that the vast majority of the pressure is self created. Often times specifically created by that second point, that many famous chefs are assholes. Worse, as most of their asshole behavior seems to stem from the fact that they are buckling under pressure. Pressure that they themselves are causing.
- wnc3141 2y ago
  I've always wondered about this. Apart from the small fine dining market, people just want decent food at a decent price and timeliness.
  - taeric 2y ago
    But I am right that the general narrative is definitely that kitchen help staff is a high stress job? I just don't get it. Now I'm curious if this is reputation that is legit, or just one that everyone parrots. :(
    - gravatron 2y ago
      High end kitchens really are high pressure, even though at the end of the day its just food. From the moment you walk in the door for your shift, you are already hours behind. You will be given a couple of hours to prep an insane amount of food from scratch, often bouncing between 5-10 stations at a time to make it happen. I worked at a place that I was expected at all times to have food cooking on a giant flat top, charbroil grill, multiple ovens, 6 burner sauté range, deep fryers, steamers. While all this is cooking you also need to be doing the cold prep of cutting, measuring, weighing and portioning all of this prep work. After you finish this, you will have a little bit of time to start a mad rush to set up your actual station for the service. I worked at a place once where this was a two hour ordeal to set everything up while basically working at a slight jog the entire time. And all of this can be really heavy when it comes to moving around large buckets and containers of ice, for example. Finally, once service starts on a busy weekend for example, you are now looking at a 4-5 hour rush with a minimum ambient temperature of 95 degrees, where you will be absolutely slammed with multiple orders all coming in steadily, requiring a tremendous amount of skill to balance the timing of all this. Think about how hard it can be just to time a main protein with a couple of side dishes when you are just cooking at home for the family, and now imagine having to cook that same amount of food 300 times within a few hours. There will be no break during any of this either, standing and running around the entire time. Once the service rush is finally over, you might think that your day is winding down, but think again. You now get to start the multi hour process of breaking down and cleaning every single thing you dirtied over the course of the night. This will also be a somewhat fast paced time of the night as labor costs are always a concern in the restaurant industry, so there is no time to slack here either. Finally the shift is done and you can go home after 10-12 hours, stuff your face with a peanut butter and jelly, and do it all again tomorrow, since you work 6 days a week, every holiday, every weekend. I am a software engineer now and I can confidently say that I have never had a day in this profession even remotely close to as stressful as just a regular Tuesday could be in the restaurant industry.
      - taeric 2y ago
        I mean, this sounds legit, but it also sounds like any other job. Have you worked construction? You will have an absurd amount of stuff to get through, with no help if the weather decides not to cooperate. Bus driver? Good luck if traffic is bad. Teacher? Hope the kids are cooperative today. Working in a tech company when your stack is down? That is, you are correct that it is higher stress than a healthy software job. It doesn't take a lot of searching to see that "grind" for game devs is absurd, though. And I'm sure you can find stories of toxic teams in any big company. That is all to say, a ton of that pressure being "high stress" is specifically from people buckling under the pressure. I think it is fair to say that working an active event at the likes of Amazon can be as pressured as any food service work. Doesn't mean it has to be high stress.
        gravatron 2y ago
        I have actually done construction like work, and I have been a delivery driver (not bus driver though). Those don't even compare relative to the stress of a high paced kitchen. And yeah, when a tech stack goes down, that is stressful for sure, but again, that happens like once in a blue moon and lasts a short amount of time. I've have never had a 60 hour emergency work week in tech lol. This was every single week in the high end restaurant industry, for no pay on top of that. I didn't even include the stressors involved in wondering if your pay was even going to cover your bills for the month, or stressing if the restaurant was just going to close its doors on you overnight. Never heard of a tech or construction company doing that, it happens all the time in restaurants. And I was specifically talking about my time in actual restaurants, not fast food chains or fast casual. I can't speak to them. I am talking white chef coat, table cloth with reservations type of restaurants. I'm not arguing that tech work can't be stressful or hard (or any other job), from a skill level the tech work is much more difficult. But you asked if a the high stress stereotypes are true, and as someone that has worked in around dozen different industries over the years, restaurant work is far and away the most stressful of the bunch, it's not even remotely close. Not arguing that it should be that way, but it certainly is.
        taeric 2y ago

taeric 2y ago

This "high pressure workplace" has always struck me as crazy. I grant that it looks true from the anecdotes, but it also seems that the vast majority of the pressure is self created. Often times specifically created by that second point, that many famous chefs are assholes. Worse, as most of their asshole behavior seems to stem from the fact that they are buckling under pressure. Pressure that they themselves are causing.

wnc3141 2y ago
I've always wondered about this. Apart from the small fine dining market, people just want decent food at a decent price and timeliness.
- taeric 2y ago
  But I am right that the general narrative is definitely that kitchen help staff is a high stress job? I just don't get it. Now I'm curious if this is reputation that is legit, or just one that everyone parrots. :(
  - gravatron 2y ago
    High end kitchens really are high pressure, even though at the end of the day its just food. From the moment you walk in the door for your shift, you are already hours behind. You will be given a couple of hours to prep an insane amount of food from scratch, often bouncing between 5-10 stations at a time to make it happen. I worked at a place that I was expected at all times to have food cooking on a giant flat top, charbroil grill, multiple ovens, 6 burner sauté range, deep fryers, steamers. While all this is cooking you also need to be doing the cold prep of cutting, measuring, weighing and portioning all of this prep work. After you finish this, you will have a little bit of time to start a mad rush to set up your actual station for the service. I worked at a place once where this was a two hour ordeal to set everything up while basically working at a slight jog the entire time. And all of this can be really heavy when it comes to moving around large buckets and containers of ice, for example. Finally, once service starts on a busy weekend for example, you are now looking at a 4-5 hour rush with a minimum ambient temperature of 95 degrees, where you will be absolutely slammed with multiple orders all coming in steadily, requiring a tremendous amount of skill to balance the timing of all this. Think about how hard it can be just to time a main protein with a couple of side dishes when you are just cooking at home for the family, and now imagine having to cook that same amount of food 300 times within a few hours. There will be no break during any of this either, standing and running around the entire time. Once the service rush is finally over, you might think that your day is winding down, but think again. You now get to start the multi hour process of breaking down and cleaning every single thing you dirtied over the course of the night. This will also be a somewhat fast paced time of the night as labor costs are always a concern in the restaurant industry, so there is no time to slack here either. Finally the shift is done and you can go home after 10-12 hours, stuff your face with a peanut butter and jelly, and do it all again tomorrow, since you work 6 days a week, every holiday, every weekend. I am a software engineer now and I can confidently say that I have never had a day in this profession even remotely close to as stressful as just a regular Tuesday could be in the restaurant industry.
    - taeric 2y ago
      I mean, this sounds legit, but it also sounds like any other job. Have you worked construction? You will have an absurd amount of stuff to get through, with no help if the weather decides not to cooperate. Bus driver? Good luck if traffic is bad. Teacher? Hope the kids are cooperative today. Working in a tech company when your stack is down? That is, you are correct that it is higher stress than a healthy software job. It doesn't take a lot of searching to see that "grind" for game devs is absurd, though. And I'm sure you can find stories of toxic teams in any big company. That is all to say, a ton of that pressure being "high stress" is specifically from people buckling under the pressure. I think it is fair to say that working an active event at the likes of Amazon can be as pressured as any food service work. Doesn't mean it has to be high stress.
      - gravatron 2y ago
        I have actually done construction like work, and I have been a delivery driver (not bus driver though). Those don't even compare relative to the stress of a high paced kitchen. And yeah, when a tech stack goes down, that is stressful for sure, but again, that happens like once in a blue moon and lasts a short amount of time. I've have never had a 60 hour emergency work week in tech lol. This was every single week in the high end restaurant industry, for no pay on top of that. I didn't even include the stressors involved in wondering if your pay was even going to cover your bills for the month, or stressing if the restaurant was just going to close its doors on you overnight. Never heard of a tech or construction company doing that, it happens all the time in restaurants. And I was specifically talking about my time in actual restaurants, not fast food chains or fast casual. I can't speak to them. I am talking white chef coat, table cloth with reservations type of restaurants. I'm not arguing that tech work can't be stressful or hard (or any other job), from a skill level the tech work is much more difficult. But you asked if a the high stress stereotypes are true, and as someone that has worked in around dozen different industries over the years, restaurant work is far and away the most stressful of the bunch, it's not even remotely close. Not arguing that it should be that way, but it certainly is.
        taeric 2y ago