Chefs Are Sharing The "Normal" Aspects Of Life That Come With Working In Restaurants, And As A Former Line Cook, I Can Confirm They're Spot On
As a chef, you live in an alternate reality from most people — a reality revolving mostly around a kitchen. With a job that demands dedication, sacrifice, and physical effort, chefs naturally adapt their lives to their work. So when u/drmendez took to Reddit Community r/chefit to ask fellow chefs, "What is something only Chefs do that regular people would never even consider?" chefs eagerly shared the unusual habits and quirks that come with the job.
1."Chefs don't have arm hair. I took a year out of working in kitchens... One day, I was walking and holding hands with my wife when she recoiled and said touching my hands and feeling hair on them was weird. 'I'm so used to them being bald from burning the hair off!' she said."
2."Drinking out of quart takeout containers. I always have one lying around somewhere."
3."One noticeable thing is our lack of fear of fire compared to normal people. A stovetop burner won't light? Let me just use my hands and stick a match down there. Whoosh! I'm used to the heat so I don't even flinch, but people watching me flip out and gasp as if I were lucky not to have been hurt."
4."Eating like absolute shit at home when capable of so much more."
"I have worked in multiple high-end restaurants, but I eat Costco chicken nuggets that you just have to microwave for dinner and eat them with Caesar dressing because I've been too lazy to buy ranch."
"I can eat literally anything I want at work but always end up eating crap food when I get home after a 14-hour shift."
5."Sharpening knives is a chef thing if my friends’ homes are any indication."
"When someone else uses one of my knives, I internally panic and rush over to make sure my baby (the knife) is going to be okay in the hands of a non-chef and repeatedly assure them 'you can cut yourself by looking at that knife wrong, be careful.' Most regular people don't know what a sharp knife is; as a chef, if I can't easily shave with it, it's not sharp enough."
"It's my biggest pet peeve when someone else grabs my knife…. I'm a lefty, and all my knives are sharpened in the opposite direction from how a right-handed knife would be sharpened."
6."Chefs put cornstarch on their balls for the friction of moving in hot kitchens all day."
7."It is always amusing to my family that most of the prep and cooking is done the day before... On the day of a family dinner, I just warm up/bake/broil/roast/toss, and serve."
"I was raised by chefs, and I've always done this for big meals. My confusion came when I realized others don't do this."
8."All chefs know how to move around in a small space with lots of people."
"I started a new job in commercial plumbing. I've been working on a ladder in confined spaces, and at least three times in the last couple of weeks, I've heard, 'Sorry, I know this is a little bit awkward.'
'No man, I'm used to kitchens.' If I haven't kneeled three inches from your balls while in a 500°F oven while you sear a steak over my neck…. Then I haven't worked with you yet."
"There’s definitely a flow/movement in the tight spaces with other cooks where you’re forced to be aware of what others are doing. It's almost a dance when you get into a good working rhythm with people."
9."Chefs always communicate when they're behind someone."
"The number of times I've been passing behind someone in a supermarket and just casually said 'BEHIND YOU' to a complete stranger is just embarrassing. You get some weird looks."
"There's an instant bond when you get a quiet 'heard' from a stranger."
10."We pick up all objects, irrespective of what they are made of or how hot they are, with a cloth instead of an oven mitt."
"My wife goes apoplectic when I use kitchen towels for everything; for some reason, civilians believe those items of cloth are sacred and may never be stained. I use them willy-nilly as I don't want to be burned. Using separate oven mitts messes with your efficiency and time management."
"I probably have about 20 towels hidden across the US in select establishments I worked with. Nobody will find them but me or a really good porter."
11."As a chef, you'll burn your arm during a rush and not even notice until days later when someone else points it out."
"My boyfriend and I work in restaurants, and after work, we always ask each other, 'What happened there?' And, the answer is always, 'I have no idea.'"
12."Chefs are obsessive about the cleanliness of their kitchens at work but have days' worth of dishes in the sink at home. Working 10–12 hours a day, chefs make everything perfect for everyone else, but their personal lives lack. Days off are spent sleeping, gorging at all the other restaurants in town, and making up for the missed calories."
13."Most of us don’t have free time or days off to do anything but also don’t have the money to do anything. People (specifically, my friends and family) can't understand why we stay in the industry despite all the drawbacks."
"Man I’ve been out of the industry for about 15 years and I still get a little twitch when I go into a restaurant and can see the kitchen. It’s a sickness!"
14."We call everyone at work by the same title: chef."
Do you have any chef-y habits to add to this list? Let us know in the comments, or submit them anonymously using this anonymous form.
Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
