An acute shortage of staff offers an incentive to improve a stressful working culture
White Heat, by Marco Pierre White, is one of the most influential recipe books of the past 30 years. Published in 1990, its edgy black and white photography popularised an idea of the chef-as-hero, immersed in the creative Sturm und Drang of a frantically busy restaurant kitchen. Its cover features a handsome 28-year-old Mr White in a butcher’s apron, looking moody and a little like Jim Morrison.
For most chefs the reality has always been much less romantic. Long, unsociable hours are often poorly rewarded, and a sometimes brutal workload makes cheffing one of the most stressful ways to earn a living. Burnout is commonplace, and a healthy work-life balance difficult to maintain. One 2019 survey found that eight out of 10 employees in professional kitchens had experienced mental health problems during their career. Research by the Unite union discovered that 52% of chefs have a negative view of their jobs and only 22% would recommend the life to school-leavers. Happily, there are some tentative early signs that the hospitality hiatus caused by Covid may lead to change for the better.