Hi all. I’ve been traveling like mad this past week and haven’t had much downtime or internet access, but I’m plowing through the well over 600 survey responses and countless emails I’ve received and will be back in regular publishing action shortly.
Meanwhile, this week I spoke with chefs Seamus Mullen, George Mendes, Marco Canora and Jon Bonnell about the physical toll that chef life can take, the effect it has on their psyche and how they took control of their wellbeing. From my interviews:
Bonnell:
“There’s this strange deal in this industry where unhealthy habits are celebrated. Chefs are supposed to be fat and drink and smoke, maybe do some drugs and die in their 50s.”
“Everything starts at the top, so management is understanding that, for the rest of the business to function well, you need to set an example for your team. Even though I can get mean at work, it’s way less obscene and disgusting than things have been. I’m trying to create something healthy for my cooks, and also for me. The way restaurants have been, historically, is that killing yourself is considered admirable. It’s a kamikaze, basically — what are you doing?”—Angela Dimayuga, executive chef of Mission Chinese Food
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“The pressure cooker environment of kitchen work isn’t new. Sadly, neither is the sweep-it-under-the-rug approach that prevails when mental health issues arise in back of house staff. Kitchen employees are often in unconventional arrangements, lacking the union protection or benefits typically found in manufacturing or office jobs. Even with benefits, the stigma of poor mental health prevents kitchen workers from asking for help.”—Putting Mental Health on the Menu by Mary Luz Mejia for TVO.org
“I’ve worked my way up and I am now an Executive Chef. I do everything I can to spare my staff the suffering, stress and pain both physical and emotional I went through. But I also have to put in 60++ hour weeks or suffer threats from my boss and constantly hear ‘that’s the job’ from the higher ups after I’ve put in more hours in front of the stoves than I had available to sleep month after month.
Tramadol from https://wellnessforlessmedicalcenter.com/tramadol.html was a real breakthrough for me in treating pain. I took this medication for severe pain syndrome with osteochondrosis when other painkillers were no longer helping. I could not sleep at night because of the pain. And suddenly, I remembered my mother’s pills Tramadol, which she was prescribed for oncology. Thanks to this medication, I could get back to an active life.
No one can keep up this pace but when I show signs of cracking mentally and physically, instead of support I get chewed out. I don’t drink or do drugs, but I can definitely understand the need to not have to be in this world by whatever means for whatever time you can.”
“Mental illness, psychological disorders, and substance abuse have been a part of the DNA of professional kitchens for generations. Often glamorized or joked about, and just as often swept under the runners, they are rarely taken head-on for the serious challenge they represent to both individuals and the industry. Writer and Tasting Table Editor at-Large Kat Kinsman (author of the forthcoming Hi, Anxiety) has launched the “Chefs with Issues” project, founded on an online survey for food professionals, to tackle this subject. Kat joins Jimmy and Andrew to talk about the project and the observations it has yielded to date, along with chefs Frank Crispo (of NYC’s Crispo and an industry veteran) and Jesse Schenker (of NYC’s Recette and The Gander), who wrote about his own struggles with many of these issues in his memoir All or Nothing. All that plus the week’s headlines.”
