To have the same emotion in the kitchen all the time is not good for the business.

Being the chef, you are responsible for the quality of the food, the food costs, and sanitation. A lot can go wrong with those responsibilities. It also comes with plenty of derivatives. If the chef fails to do his job, the end result can be unhappy customers, a failing business, and even food poisoning. This is a heavy burden and it should be taken seriously.

People often wonder why chefs have such a strong personalities. It has to do with what I mentioned. Plus any job that has demanding time lines and hot temperatures can make a chef wear thin on patience.

All that stress doesn’t mean that good times are not to be had. Joking and laughing can be pretty common in most kitchens. Moods can run very high and also turn very low. It’s nice to have a happy medium. But it’s not likely in a industry that is pretty straight forward with customer feed back. The customer often determines the chefs’ mood.

Music in the kitchen is a good thing. If the stress is crazy, classical music works every time. That’s a random example, but yet an effective mood stabilizer.

This theory depends on the chef. A lot of chefs are assholes. I’ve worked for plenty of them. The chefs’ mood typically determines the mood of the kitchen and the servers.

In the past decade, chefs have lightened up a little bit. More people do not put up with verbal abuse. The work force is stretched pretty thin; it demands that chefs lighten up.

Television has also given the customer a distorted version of reality. The reality cooking shows are not accurate. Screaming chefs are a thing of the past. TV packaged that concept from years ago and added some post ironic bullshit to acquire ratings. A lot of drama gives these shows ratings. It’s easier to feature fantasy drama rather than cooking ability. Some cooks from a couple decades ago, myself included can remember ducking saute pans being chucked across the kitchen. That was some real stuff. It’s not like that anymore.

Alright. Back to my point. A chef can’t have the patience of a normal person with a laid back job. It’s not a laid back job. Don’t piss off the chef. It’s not worth everyone’s time.

Hopefully I contradicted myself at least a couple times in this blog. Bipolar express baby. What are you talking about!