Day 22: Burn Out

May 12, 2022

It’s gone 2am by the time the kitchen begins to clear down. But we are all still buzzing from the adrenaline.

We’ve been on our feet for over 15 hours.

But we feel good, we feel great. That’s thanks to a huge dose of adrenaline, tonight has been a hard push, but we nailed it.

Is this what makes chef life so compelling? Yet on the flip side so damaging?

Day 22 of my 100 Day Chef Stage has been a long one. Most days in the kitchen are. But today broke the record.

And, as I drive home in the early hours, along the deserted streets of Alicante, I can’t help questioning it.

Why is it so? Why do chefs work these long, crazy hours?

Today, started with an 8 hour morning shift. An hour off, to shower, eat, sit down and be back for the 7pm evening shift which tonight finished just after 2am.

15 hours at full pelt.

“Es lo que hay,” says the one of the chefs, “That’s how it is.”

And although today, has been exceptionally long, he’s right, it is.

Culinary Lab says, “For a chef job in a restaurant, expect to work 7 days a week for 12 to 14 hours each shift.”

And that’s pretty much the industry standard. No matter the level you are at in the kitchen, you can expect to work a minimum of 50 hours a week. But expect more.

Most chefs are regularly doing 80-100 hour weeks.

How long can anyone hack this for?

Most chefs will say it’s the adrenaline that pulls you through. That, and copious amounts of coffee.

Adrenaline causes your heart rate to increase, pain is blocked, and fatigue disappears, glucose levels in the brain rise, and the result is a super-human boost in concentration and effort.

A surge of adrenaline is exciting, thrilling even, and makes you feel very, very alive.

But too much and the side effects kick in; the shakes, sweats, anxiety, insomnia and a decrease in performance. Long term, it results in broken bodies and broken people.

There’s not doubt. These long adrenaline-jammed hours are a recipe for burn out.

And so, it begs the question why?

Why is it like this? Surely, the answer because ‘that’s how it is’ doesn’t cut it.

These long hours lead to burn-out and high turnover. Not to mention mistakes, poorer creativity and a decrease in performance.

Has the industry got blinkers on? Something, somewhere along the line is failing. But who I am to say so?

Is it going to change? And who is going to change it? I decided to ask around.

I spoke to Scott Davies, head chef Three Chimneys, on the Isle of Skye and he told me it is changing.

Scott has just reduced his brigade to working a four-day week.

“I want to make sure the chefs have 3 days off a week. Gives them time. One day to recover, one to do the laundry, and one to enjoy life, go see the island. Else you’re back to work and you’ve not done anything enjoyable.”

Was that like for you, I asked?

“No, 82 hour was a light week! Regularly I was doing 100 hour weeks. But it’s changing now.”

If you delve deeply, you can see the ripples of change, perhaps the beginnings of something better. But you have to delve.

In Girona, Michelin star chef, Joan Roca has also been working on the question: how to improve the employees’ lives?

He says, “The most important thing has been cutting shifts from 14 to 8 hour - we wanted people to lead full, stable lives outside of work. That meant re-organising our staff into two full brigades.”

In Sweden, Magnus Nilsson of Fäviken says the industry business model needs adjusting.

“People long before us have created a system that is broken, we need to understand what is going on and make the changes.”

He too has cut working hours down to eight hours a day across a 40 to 45-hour week, plus chefs get five weeks holiday a year.

To do so, though he has doubled his prices.

Which brings us to the nugget of the whole debate. Are we (the customer) paying enough when we eat out? And are we willing to pay more? Until we are, can things even change?

The hours the chef works are the only expansible part of the equation. Ingredients cost a certain amount. As do overheads. Chef Salaries are fixed. But what’s extensible are the hours they work.

And so, often to make the business work, hours are increased.

If your meal is priced ridiculously cheaply, then you can bet someone somewhere is paying for them. And that mostly likely is the line chef, working 100 hour weeks, to cook them for you.

I arrive home, finally some 16 hours after I left it. The adrenaline gradually drains from my veins, the inevitable tiredness arrives, as does a bit of sadness.

Most chefs are young. The right side of 25, and I can see why. For me, the wrong side of 50, it’s too much.

As much as I am enjoying this Chef Stage, I realise I am going to have to have a rethink.

But all that will have to wait until tomorrow. I look at the clock. In just under 6 hours, it will time to put the whites on again.

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Day 22: Burn Out

It’s gone 2am by the time the kitchen begins to clear down. But we are all still buzzing from the adrenaline.

Most chefs will say it’s the adrenaline that pulls you through. That, and copious amounts of coffee.

If you delve deeply, you can see the ripples of change, perhaps the beginnings of something better. But you have to delve.

Which brings us to the nugget of the whole debate. Are we (the customer) paying enough when we eat out? And are we willing to pay more? Until we are, can things even change?

The journey so far:

Day 7: The Pursuit of Excellence (+ Recipe: Rabbit and Snail Paella)

Day 12: Learn to Experiment (+ Recipe: Orange Rice Pudding)

Day 16: Hollandaise, the easy way.

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