The glut of cookery shows on TV these days often portray being a chef as a glamorous, exciting and rewarding profession. While it can be all of those things, the day-to-day reality of working as a chef is often far from glamorous. Here are just a few of the struggles that many professional chefs face on a daily basis while on the job.
Constant Criticism on Review Sites
Even the world’s best chefs working in the world’s finest restaurants will fail to delight every single customer, leading to plenty of scathing reviews being posted online. In fact, often the more prestigious the restaurant, the higher the customers’ expectations are and many people simply will never be satisfied.
Chefs are often blamed for events that aren’t really within their control, such as poor service from front of house staff, or wait staff failing to adequately explain a particular dish. The Manchester Evening News recently published an article regarding a food blogger who actually read restaurateurs some of their most negative online reviews.
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Storage
Chefs will often struggle to find enough places to put all their equipment because of a lack of storage so ideally they should get Boltless Shelving installed from company sites such as www.rackzone.ie/shelving/industrial-residential-shelving to give them more access to the products they need.
Kitchen-related Injuries
Most of us are no stranger to the odd burn or cut in our own kitchens – and that’s when we’re only cooking one hot meal a day! Chefs are constantly burning their arms and hands, getting splashed by hot liquids or oil, and being nicked by sharp knives. Minor accidents will always be a common occurrence in busy, bustling kitchens. While all but the most basic establishments will have a team of kitchen porters and assistants taking care of tasks such as cleaning and washing up, commercial dishwashers are a great way to avoid the risk of plunging your hand into a sink of hot water only to be cut by a sharp knife someone has flung into there previously.
No Social Life
Being a chef involves long, unsociable hours, with late finishes and working all weekend without a break being common practice in the industry. When everyone else is out socialising and having fun, chefs are working, providing delicious meals for people on their evenings out. It’s also a tiring occupation as it involves lots of standing, rushing around and working in a hot, noisy environment, meaning many chefs might not feel like socialising even when they do finally finish for the night.
