I love Hell’s Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares, two Fox shows hosted by Gordon Ramsay, OBE, a British celebrity chef and very strong personality. Watching this season of Hell’s Kitchen reminded me of the stress and rigors that chefs in training regularly undergo. And something rarely mentioned on these shows — substance and alcohol abuse amongst student chefs.
While on internship in New York, I had the pleasure of serving at the local county department of mental hygiene (yes, mental health is like your teeth — you need to floss your brain regularly to keep it clean!). In one of my rotations there, I had the pleasure of seeing a few clients who were attending the prestigious Culinary Institute of America. This is one of the premier chef schools in America, and if you’re ever in Hyde Park, New York, you should definitely make reservations at one of their restaurants (way ahead of time — they book up quickly).
One of the things related to me by some local mental health professionals was that a good many chefs-in-training grapple with the stress of the culinary training through excess — substance and alcohol abuse are commonplace. Surprisingly, I couldn’t find a single study that examined substance abuse amongst chefs in culinary school. I know it’s a niche area, but these are the same people who then go on sometimes to become world renowned chefs. I think it would be interesting to see whether these issues resolve themselves after training is completed, or whether substance abuse continues on in the high-end, high-pressure kitchens. It would also be good to know that if this is a real problem, what schools can do better to help their students grapple with the stress of culinary studies. Word of mouth suggests it does go on, but that’s highly unreliable and akin to gossip.
Violence and bullying are also commonplace amongst chefs working in high-end kitchens (Johns et. al., 1999). The stress to perform consistently and produce high-quality food of excellence day-in and day-out is overwhelming to most chefs. It seems reasonable to suppose that one way to deal with this stress or bullying is by turning to alcohol or substance abuse, if not during work hours, then definitely when the workday is all done (often in the wee hours of the morning).
These are not public health issues, since high-end kitchens do not stand low-quality output. Such chefs quickly are shown the door if their food preparation is not up to par (although, as our local public health board regularly shows, high-end restaurants seem just as susceptible to food poisoning incidents as the local McDonald’s). But I do worry about the toll such jobs take on a person’s humanity and sanity, all in the pursuit of excellence in cooking.
And so while I sit there enjoying my episode of Hell’s Kitchen, I can’t help but wonder if I’m part of the problem, enjoying watching other people being bullied, harassed and threatened over the simple act of cooking.
Reference:
Johns, N. & Menzel, P.J.; (1999). ‘If you can’t stand the heat!’ … Kitchen violence and culinary art. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 18(2), 99-109.
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5 Responses to “Substance Abuse Amongst Chefs”
Health Professionals on The Finance World For News and Information Around The World On Finance » Blog Archive » Substance Abuse Amongst Chefs at 2:12 pm on
April 21st, 2008
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April 21st, 2008
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April 21st, 2008
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d day training at 6:11 pm on
April 22nd, 2008
[…] Substance Abuse Amongst Chefs […]
I just wanted to point out that the premise is quite often quite wrong. The idea of working in kitchens appeals to these vampires and nightstalkers so they get jobs in kitchens to fund their addictions, Some cut the mustard. Some cut quite a lot more, but hey, you get that in all walks of life. The life of a chef is a silent and solitary one in many instances. Skeleton staff, the bottom line, the need for silence in the kitchen so you can hear the cream whip, the potatoes roasting etc. means at the end of a shift these solitary soldiers of fortune, driven by passion and a desire to win at all costs have nowt to do but drink and take drugs. Lets face it, you are knackered, do you want to have a drink and get even more knackered, have a chuff and pass out at the table and have your friends continuously wake you and get you to get the drinks in, Hell its cheaper to do a line o coke. Look I know all drugs in excess can be harmful, I mean look at alcohol next time you are at the chipper, kebab house. Prohibition clearly hasn’t worked. And a line of good chan will get you through the list in record time.
It’s purposeful in the way that combating altitude sickness is a purpose. Reducing a mountain of work is a purpose. And you would rather it was charlie and they were, neat tidy, on time, ie early, than scruffy, stoners, lol. Seriously, its about choice, and not so much the choice of workers in kitchens and the liquor industry, its about the lack of any other choices open to them at the time they finish. They have less time to get pissed, less time to dance, less time to do more, and have to be working twice a day to please, not themselves, no, they are not doing this to please themselves though the lucky one’s will draw immense pleasure for doing it. They are doing this for you. They suffer hardships so you can enjoy the lifestyle advantages of being a 9-5′er, and like any economic system, for your joy, someone down the line is suffering, and you get to be the big kahuna. Weyhey. Whats more, because so many of you want to eat, there is so much more competition than in almost any other private enterprise other than petrol, you want to affect the price and place a lower value on it than it ought to be, by market forces etc. unlike servos, a lot of restaurants owe their survival to volume sales, and so too please the big-kahunas, they lower their prices, this is something you as the consumer demand. So you the 9-5′er is ultimately responsible for a downturn in living standards for industry workers, as you do in the market in general. Wait til your biofuel is worth more to you than people starving because of it.
So you see, the main reason the industry workers turn to drugs is to get through the week, as a tougher regime is inflicted on them by a baying public of 9-5′ers, with pedestrian taste, driving down not only the price but the quality of the ingredients, the dish-washers dealing puff cos wages are so low, the bartenders got the coke etcetera. The issue is that in affecting your choice, and in downgrading a nation’s gastronomic heritage, and shrinking that nations gastronomy, as food becomes nothing more than a right that money buys, and it better be cheap and plentiful, because none of you are actually doing a proper job, ie 9-5′er, then you shall be disadvantaged, starved of choice, unable to participate in the very sector of the economy that hospitality workers create by their industry. One cannot have the bread and circuses, without the industry of the bakers and the slaves.
Frankly drugs are villified more because of the fact that the people with 90% of the worlds riches want the other ten percent, or at least dont want some new money interlopers, entering their world, enjoying the spoils that old money has built over generations, with profit spikes during slavery and economic rationalism. Restaurant standards were higher when the nation stayed home and cooked 4 nights a week.
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[…] Substance Abuse Amongst Chefs One of the things related to me by some local mental health professionals was that a good many chefs-in-training grapple with the stress of the culinary training through excess — substance and alcohol abuse are commonplace. … […]
[…] Read more about Poughkeepsie referenced blog article […]
[…] Read more about Poughkeepsie referenced blog article […]
[…] Substance Abuse Amongst Chefs […]
I just wanted to point out that the premise is quite often quite wrong. The idea of working in kitchens appeals to these vampires and nightstalkers so they get jobs in kitchens to fund their addictions, Some cut the mustard. Some cut quite a lot more, but hey, you get that in all walks of life. The life of a chef is a silent and solitary one in many instances. Skeleton staff, the bottom line, the need for silence in the kitchen so you can hear the cream whip, the potatoes roasting etc. means at the end of a shift these solitary soldiers of fortune, driven by passion and a desire to win at all costs have nowt to do but drink and take drugs. Lets face it, you are knackered, do you want to have a drink and get even more knackered, have a chuff and pass out at the table and have your friends continuously wake you and get you to get the drinks in, Hell its cheaper to do a line o coke. Look I know all drugs in excess can be harmful, I mean look at alcohol next time you are at the chipper, kebab house. Prohibition clearly hasn’t worked. And a line of good chan will get you through the list in record time.
It’s purposeful in the way that combating altitude sickness is a purpose. Reducing a mountain of work is a purpose. And you would rather it was charlie and they were, neat tidy, on time, ie early, than scruffy, stoners, lol. Seriously, its about choice, and not so much the choice of workers in kitchens and the liquor industry, its about the lack of any other choices open to them at the time they finish. They have less time to get pissed, less time to dance, less time to do more, and have to be working twice a day to please, not themselves, no, they are not doing this to please themselves though the lucky one’s will draw immense pleasure for doing it. They are doing this for you. They suffer hardships so you can enjoy the lifestyle advantages of being a 9-5′er, and like any economic system, for your joy, someone down the line is suffering, and you get to be the big kahuna. Weyhey. Whats more, because so many of you want to eat, there is so much more competition than in almost any other private enterprise other than petrol, you want to affect the price and place a lower value on it than it ought to be, by market forces etc. unlike servos, a lot of restaurants owe their survival to volume sales, and so too please the big-kahunas, they lower their prices, this is something you as the consumer demand. So you the 9-5′er is ultimately responsible for a downturn in living standards for industry workers, as you do in the market in general. Wait til your biofuel is worth more to you than people starving because of it.
So you see, the main reason the industry workers turn to drugs is to get through the week, as a tougher regime is inflicted on them by a baying public of 9-5′ers, with pedestrian taste, driving down not only the price but the quality of the ingredients, the dish-washers dealing puff cos wages are so low, the bartenders got the coke etcetera. The issue is that in affecting your choice, and in downgrading a nation’s gastronomic heritage, and shrinking that nations gastronomy, as food becomes nothing more than a right that money buys, and it better be cheap and plentiful, because none of you are actually doing a proper job, ie 9-5′er, then you shall be disadvantaged, starved of choice, unable to participate in the very sector of the economy that hospitality workers create by their industry. One cannot have the bread and circuses, without the industry of the bakers and the slaves.
Frankly drugs are villified more because of the fact that the people with 90% of the worlds riches want the other ten percent, or at least dont want some new money interlopers, entering their world, enjoying the spoils that old money has built over generations, with profit spikes during slavery and economic rationalism. Restaurant standards were higher when the nation stayed home and cooked 4 nights a week.
