Why do so many chefs smoke?

[MonkeyFunk]

When I worked in restaurants, a lot of chefs smoked. Now I watch the reality cooking shows, and a lot of them smoke.

Isn't it odd that such dedicated foodies would smoke?

[Drum]

1. It cleans the palate between courses.

:evilgrin:

[cbayer]

2. I smoke. Cigarettes are really good after eating.

Therefore, if I cooked all the time and ate what I cooked, I would smoke all the time.

Oh yeah, I do both those things.

[Frank Cannon]

3. I asked a chef about this once

He told me that it's because they are SO crazy busy. The pace just never lets up. So what they do is justify a step out of the heat every so often by going outside for a cigarette.

This is not looked at as loafing on the job. Their bosses do the same thing, as did their bosses before them. Nobody minds. Sometimes ya just gotta have a cigarette.

Well, that's what this chef told me.

[EstimatedProphet]

4. Very stressful job

[mainegreen]

5. Why do so many chefs drink cheap canned beer on the job, and throw cans at the waitstaff?

All the while raging about how that order he/she fucked up is somehow the waitpersons fault?

[mondo joe]

6. Restaurant kitchen staff is a culture all its own - and a pretty hard living one at that

quite often.

[LynzM]

7. It's a "legitimate" reason for a break

And the nicotine keeps you going in that kind of crazy atmosphere... that's my take, anyway.

[Mutley]

8. It's a high stress job

even in a slower establishment.

[Bake]

9. Ha! A poorly-disguised attempt to start a SMOKING THREAD!!

We're onto you, MonkeyFunk! It's all the fault of those evil smooooooooooookers!!!!!

:rofl:

:hi:

Bake

[kentauros]

10. As everyone else has said, it's the stress.

Then again, I've known way too many chefs that were just plain crazy, using a hot pan to cauterize a ripped-open knuckle, yelling at you in French because of a minor mistake, you name it. I'd say any anxiety that nicotine might cause is more of a calming agent compared to what they put up with and create in the kitchens and bakeries. The good ol' boys and rednecks in the oil bidness (where I find myself these days) are nothing compared to that culture! ;)

[Swede]

11. Because they are addicted to nicotine.

Cigarettes are the delivery system of choice for addicts.

[Akoto]

12. With high-end chefs, I'd imagine it's due to the stress.

The chefs you see on TV tend to work in high-end restaurants, where the average patron has equally high expectations. It's very stressful to have that non-stop demand for fast, quality meals equivalent to the establishment's reputation.