It is a myth that chefs eat meals just like the ones they prepare at their restaurants. The pace and demand of the job is so rigorous that chefs barely get a chance to stop and eat a full meal while working 12-plus hour days. With recent discussion about quality of life in the restaurant and hospitality industry, some chefs are opening up about what life of a chef actually looks like, which includes the honest truth that chefs eat a hodgepodge of things to get through the long days. And sometimes don’t eat at all.

Last month, Chris Coleman of Stoke touched on this topic on his social media. He posted two photos, first of a tartine composed and plated meticulously for dinner service and the second photo a mix of unidentifiable ingredients in a quart container for Coleman’s meal. His post sparked an honest thread among chefs chiming in on what their daily meals consist of during and after work. The conversation included eating most meals out of deli containers, eating a meal $5 or less, grabbing a sandwich from the corner market or gas station, hot dogs, prepackaged snack cakes, candy,  and scraps from the end of the night.

Kitchens try to provide a daily meal for staff before dinner service, called family meal or staff meal. Usually a sous chefs makes the meal and staff sits down as a team and eat together. In theory this is amazing, but reality is that not everyone gets the opportunity to stop and eat because if weeded in prep you have to sacrifice curbing your hunger to ensure guest experiences are not jeopardized. The meals prepared for staff are usually made of ingredients that are about to expire, scraps, excess prep from lunch, eggs, or rice all thrown together in a large hotel pan and baked off with cheese on top.

Sometimes during dinner service kitchen staff get lucky enough to pick at food sent back  by a guest if not cooked properly. Those steaks that come out overdone and sent back usually get turned into sandwiches for the dishwasher team at the end of the night.

I know during my time in professional kitchens, I behaved like a vulture when I saw food up for grabs. I survived off of rice and a mix of leftover vegetables and scrambled eggs tossed with sriracha. I also became a 1:00am regular at Cook Out for the hot dog tray with double cajun fries and a side of hushpuppies.

This is the harsh reality of the restaurant and hospitality industry: work tirelessly to give the best food, service, and experience to guests but sacrifice the livelihoods and health of staff and ourselves. Chefs joke about quart containers being a chef’s home china, and pride themselves on being able to down late-night bar food and drinks. These may make for a cheap and quick meal, but what we don’t discuss is how much they cost our mental health and physical well-being. Perhaps looking at that cost is enough to make us do better.  ––Justin Burke-Samson

Unpretentious People Say...

Other Articles You Might Enjoy