Call me crazy, but I would rather have a lower paying chef position and produce amazing food prepared from scratch than work for a soul-less enterprise that serves up chemically sealed and engineered garbage. For example, a lot of chef jobs pay a handsome wage for someone to come in and manage the product and staff and compromise the quality of the ingredients and finished product for some big corporations bottom line that makes it’s consumers sick. Honestly, no job could pay me enough to subscribe to that. It’s always been about the food. This is how I like to think about this topic. It’s like Taylor Swift playing at the super bowl with the Rolling Stones if that makes sense. Hopefully it does. Stranger things have happened. Basically that person is a sell out!

To be great in this industry you have to compromise your profits to offer the customer the wow factor. This is how a business or a person stands out. It’s just like anything. Sacrifice is key. It also helps if someone has the basic foundation to execute this principal. Try to make food from scratch, use your training or get some more training, eat like you give a fuck and don’t be a very small percentage on someone’s payroll, making a lot of money for some corporation that doesn’t give a shit about you.

The cliché term, money doesn’t buy happiness; it’s true. Cliché terms are cliché terms for a reason. It’s better to be a happy chef working with a strong desire to provide the best you can do, than a unhappy chef making six figures, who hates his life. Not to say all corporate chefs hate life, but that only makes me question why they don’t.

We all have our vices whether it be, a Snickers bar, bag of chips, tobacco, or a cola and so on. That’s just based on consumption. Chef vices could also be a completely different topic of reality. So, if someone is going to say hey I’m a chef, then pay attention and see if they take pride. In this instance. Don’t be a Rolling Stone. Be a Ramone. But just say no!