In a discussion about pop culture, food is just as relevant
as social media or clothing styles. It
goes through fads and phases as often as Miley Cyrus sticks out her tongue. My favorite way to obsess over food culture is
to watch The Food Network. Although I’m a terrible cook, watching shows such as
The Pioneer Woman, Chopped, The Barefoot Contessa, and Diners, Drive-Ins and
Dives is really interesting to me. What I also find interesting is how the
media portrays these famous chefs, because in my experience, they could not
have missed the mark any more.
We like to believe all professional chefs work in the
pristine conditions in which our favorite TV cooking show hosts work, but that’s
just not the case. The media is lying to us in an attempt to make cooking
professionally look glamorous. I’ve been working in restaurants for the
entirety of my adult life, and I even spent some time working in kitchens. It
is not a pretty job. No matter who you are or where you work, if any portion of
your day is spent in the kitchen of a restaurant, you will return home sweaty
and smelling like grease. There is no getting around it, and chefs, servers,
and restaurant managers alike have all accepted this as part of their life. Not
to mention, chefs are NOTHING like Rachel Ray or Guy Fieri. They will not
calmly create your artful masterpiece of a dinner with the occasional funny
quip or anecdote. Instead, imagine Gordon Ramsay in the Chopped kitchen. That’s
exactly what chefs are like. They are running around like crazy, trying to get
the food out as fast as possible all the while more orders are coming in. Chefs
are short-tempered and if they are laughing it is often at the expense of the
poor server who happens to be standing by or the diner for whatever ridiculous
request they made.
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