Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Why Must Other Kitchens Give Others Bad Names?

http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/gutcheck/2011/11/mortons_steakhouse_lawsuit_sexual_harrassment_asparagus.php

The above link horrifies me as a professional cook. I have never seen nor will see this happen in any kitchen I have or will work in because it is an isolated incident. Yet no matter how isolated it is, everyone will think it happens in every kitchen because it was in the news. That is what makes me sad.

People will always read one story and automatically think it happens everywhere. When Columbine happened my High School, which has less that 500 students K through 12, wanted to install cameras and metal detectors because they thought one of the students would pull that stunt. It got so bad that no student was allowed to wear a long coat for several years. Now this story will scar kitchens like mine.

Things do happen in kitchens but never this bad and it is usually in the fast food industry. You always hear about the local burger joint getting busted for someone spitting in a burger or urinating in the pickles, but never a fine dining or similar restaurant. This one kitchen has a chef who should never have been a chef because he does not take food seriously. Any chef who stuffs food in his pants to get a laugh does not deserve a culinary degree or a kitchen to lead. I actually believe that he doesn't even have a degree, he may have been someone they just called a chef to give their kitchen a better image, which would explain his behavior as he was never taught professionalism.

In the kitchens I work in there are jokes, there are fights, and their have been sexually suggested comments, but never anything to cross the line or make people uncomfortable. No one has done what that chef did because we know there is no place for it. If I heard of my chef doing that I would call him out, if not punch him out. We are professionals, yet we have fun in the kitchen.

So if you work in a kitchen that does stupid things like the one in Florida, fix yourselves, you are professionals and this is a professional industry. If you can not take it seriously, find another job. Now to the patrons of these restaurants, do not judge the entire food industry based on isolated actions of a few. We are not all like that and we are here for a reason, to make great food. So keep coming out, keep eating and drinking, and never judge us because of a few assholes. We are professionals, not amateurs.