Buzz
Whether it's in a late-night food truck or a Michelin-starred kitchen, being a chef is extremely demanding. While TV shows might offer a glimpse, unless you’ve actually worked a shift in a real kitchen, you don’t truly understand what it’s like.
This tough industry has its own brutal realities, and the workflow is unlike any other. In fact, it’s the kind of job where you’ll be scolded for forgetting to bring a razor-sharp knife. Few people realize the messy, gritty side of this business—covered in grease, sweat, and even pig’s blood. Here’s what it’s really like behind the scenes.
10. The Work Hours Are Insane
Having spent over a decade working in New York City’s restaurant scene, I can tell you that 12- to 14-hour shifts, six to seven days a week, are the norm. In most smaller establishments, there’s no such thing as downtime—from the early hours when food arrives to the moment the lights go out and the doors lock, it’s non-stop.
It’s incredibly disrespectful to walk into a restaurant just 10 minutes before it closes, especially after enduring long shifts. Many restaurants around the world are financial drains. It truly is a passion-driven job that impacts not only personal health but also families and friendships.
9. Legs, Feet, Footwear, and Odor
As a chef, you're constantly on your feet. There’s no getting around it. Between the grueling hours, sleep deprivation, slippery floors, constant bending, and heavy lifting, it takes a toll on your body.
In the kitchen, nonslip shoes are non-negotiable, and in some places, they're legally required. If your shoes can’t handle a full week without causing blisters or calluses, it’s time to switch brands.
And let’s not forget the smell. The oil in the thick air during the dinner rush settles into your skin. Sweat soaks into your layers of chef’s gear (which I always found uncomfortable). After 12+ hours on your feet, you end up smelling like a locker room that’s seen better days.
Think hot yoga is tough?
The average person has no idea what true heat feels like until they’ve spent 10 hours standing over a grill in a poorly ventilated kitchen during summer. Just check your meat thermometer, and you’ll probably see it at 71 degrees Celsius (160°F).
8. Dangerous Work Conditions
The kitchen is a hazardous environment! Just take a look at the arms of a grill, sauté, or broiler cook. After more than six months on the line, your arms will look like your mom should’ve hidden the razors when you were a teenager. Crisscrossing scars from rushing and accidentally touching hot broilers, ovens, or pans are common, but also respected symbols of experience.
Hot vats of oil or boiling water are constantly moved across slick floors. Most kitchens feature dangerous stairs with loose grip tape. And your primary tool? A chef’s knife, as sharp as a razor, ready to cut through flesh.
If you turn around into someone not paying attention, you might get fatally stabbed. And don’t get me started on the “mandolin” – a vegetable slicer that operates like a mini guillotine, eagerly awaiting the opportunity to chop off fingertips.
7. Every Shift Feels Like Walking a Tightrope
In the finely-tuned machine that is a restaurant, every moving piece must function smoothly. Many fine dining spots in major US cities experience an early dinner rush around 6:30 PM (depending on the day), followed by a second, boozy surge at 9:00 PM. This means the restaurant gets packed within minutes twice on most nights.
Orders are taken by servers and entered into the point-of-service system. From there, they turn into tickets in the kitchen, which the chef either announces to the line or handles personally. When a flood of tickets arrives all at once, a bottleneck forms, which is why it’s best to book reservations either before or after these peak hours.
In some cases, you might actually receive better-quality food because cooking is an act of love. However, if the kitchen is overloaded, there will inevitably be consequences.
6. Challenging Guests
If you're a picky eater, own it. Many picky eaters act like it's perfectly fine to throw a tantrum at a steakhouse for not offering more vegan options. Fussy eaters tend to be more demanding than most. From a chef’s perspective, it’s often disheartening to witness how entitled and disconnected some people can be.
Guests who constantly send their server to the kitchen for every little question are holding up the whole restaurant. These kinds of requests are public signs of mental instability. If you insist on only eating organic poultry from Oregon, have the common sense to call ahead—or just avoid us altogether.
Don’t be so obnoxious as to think you’re the one calling the shots on the menu. You’re not. Someone in the kitchen is back there sweating and bleeding to make that menu a reality.
5. Relationships, Addiction, and Work-Life Balance
The simplest way to describe a fine dining chef’s schedule in a major city? Noon to midnight, six days a week. And that’s being generous.
When you work at the opposite hours of the rest of the world, it takes a toll. Both romantic and platonic relationships are always affected by the restaurant industry, even if it’s two chefs who are dating. Days off are nearly nonexistent, and some chefs become ghosts to their children.
Long hours combined with a nocturnal social life can lead to substance abuse creeping in. The adjustment is always difficult at first. But without a solid work-life balance, this industry will wear you down to the bone. Sometimes, working in this business feels more like being part of a cult.
4. The Chef’s Diet
Most chefs don’t get enough sleep. After the chaos and energy of the kitchen, it takes time to unwind. Even chefs who head straight home don’t usually go to bed right away.
If you're lucky enough to clock out at 11:30 PM, head straight home, plan the specials for the next shift, and either crack open a beer or steep some tea. Even then, it takes time (and melatonin) to slow down your mind. With little sleep, most chefs avoid heavy breakfasts, at least the ones I know.
In New York City, most chefs are quickly devouring smoothies or BECs (bacon, egg, and cheese on a kaiser roll—an essential NYC staple) while riding a filthy subway. With only 4–5 hours of sleep, there’s no time for a big breakfast. The chef’s duty calls them straight to the kitchen.
Then there’s “family meal,” the meal prepared for the entire restaurant crew. When everyone’s about to be on their feet for hours, this meal serves as the vital calorie boost before the doors open. It can either be amazing or awful, depending on the restaurant.
Next comes mid-shift snacking: grabbing extra fries or cheeseburger spring rolls to share around the kitchen, swiping a piece of bacon, or munching on a bread roll intended for the tables. Every snack fuels the rest of the shift.
For those chefs who still go out after their shift and socialize, nothing beats greasy 1:00 AM fast food, gas station hot dogs, or $1 pizza. Most cooks and chefs eat poorly during their workweek if they don't maintain a work-life balance.
3. Is There Life After Being A Chef?
To thrive in this industry, you must have an all-consuming desire to be a chef. Many enter it during their teens or twenties, and by the time they start feeling the grind after years on the line, they want out. But leaving isn’t easy—especially with children or financial ties. It’s also difficult to pivot when you’ve spent seven years honing your kitchen skills but now dream of a career in sales.
Sometimes, the industry can feel like a trap. You wake up one day and realize that your youth has slipped away. The key is to not force it. I know a two-star Michelin chef who works six days a week, from 5:00 AM to 11:00 PM every shift. Always smiling, never showing any signs of fatigue, this chef is the embodiment of what it means to be a chef. He will keep cooking until the day he dies.
That’s the kind of mindset required to make it in the business. You’ll be underpaid, overworked, and exhausted, but you can survive on nothing but sheer passion.
2. It’s Not Entirely About The Food
Being a chef doesn't mean you get to cook whatever you want. Crafting a menu is a logistical puzzle—ordering, tracking inventory, and working with seasonal ingredients. In most kitchens, many ingredients are pre-cooked, and during a dinner rush, your job is mostly to reheat those ingredients, which were prepared by prep cooks earlier that day.
In most corporate restaurant chains, menus are created in test kitchens within large office buildings. Unless you're running your own place, you’re likely just executing someone else’s recipes—perhaps for your entire career.
The notion of creative freedom in a kitchen is misleading. This is a highly structured environment, just like any other job. If you’re lucky enough to make it to sous chef (the second-in-command to the executive chef), your job is to learn to create a menu by starting with daily specials—and that’s only in some kitchens.
The worst offenders are the commercials. The clichéd montages of happy, stress-free people leisurely shopping at a farmer’s market and then playfully tossing food over a stove as cheerful music plays—it's all a lie. Running a kitchen is about hiring, firing, managing logistics, handling supplies, navigating office politics, and dealing with severe sleep deprivation.
1. Leading The Line
One of the hardest challenges of being a chef is maintaining a fully staffed kitchen. Restaurant work is grueling, which is why many kitchens in major cities—even the big corporate ones—rely heavily on immigrants. They’re grateful for the opportunity and don’t view the work as beneath them, making them ideal team members.
This job is dirty, greasy, exhausting, dangerous, and often unappreciated. Many Americans and others from First World countries struggle with the tough work culture, making them risky hires. Without a real passion for the industry, even a well-intentioned newcomer will quickly turn bitter when they realize the harsh realities of the daily grind.
In large kitchens, there are constant, open calls for prep cooks and dishwashers because the work is demanding. Many people who dream of running their own kitchens don’t want to spend months peeling potatoes just to work with a celebrity chef. Paying your dues in this industry is a difficult and often grueling process.
