UNDERSTANDING STAR RESTAURANTS

The word "passion" has its origins in the Latin "passio", meaning to bear, endure, and encompass both positive and negative suffering. In elite culinary chefs, this passion can manifest itself in intense enthusiasm or extreme perfectionism. We are far from the usual idealization of this form of passion.

The acceptance of excessive suffering

The world of high gastronomy is distinguished by demanding working methods, aimed at ensuring quality, discipline and compliance with the highest standards. This almost justifies the notion of suffering in the name of culinary art. Acceptance of excessive suffering without complaint becomes a hallmark.

Isolation, abuse and even violence.

For exceptional culinary excellence, working in the kitchen is implicitly synonymous with isolation, abuse and even violence.
It is essential to have a total and unwavering commitment on the part of the kitchen brigades. The chefs work between 12 and 20 hours a day. This conception of professional commitment translates into the image of a strong and resistant individual, having to choose between founding a family and devoting himself to a profession for which he is truly gifted.

“We dedicate our entire lives and sacrifice everything, absolutely everything, to put something we are passionate about on a plate,” as one sous chef with three Michelin stars put it in a study:

Furthermore, throughout their careers, leaders are confronted with acts of extreme violence, suffering attacks on their person, their dignity and their sense of worth. They submit themselves to many trials, thinking this is the path to enlightenment:

place yourself in arduous situations where you learn a lot in order to achieve a higher objective.

Serious and traumatic events involving repeated beatings, third-degree burns, sexual assaults, and even stabbings (such as with knives and temperature probes) can occur.

An impact on mental health

The mental state of star chefs is often altered by the mistreatment they endure, including humiliations during their training and career, and the impact this has on their psychological health.

Culinary chefs act almost as if they are going to war. Many chefs mentioned that they suffered from vomiting and/or diarrhea before starting their shift.

Difficult to be a rockstar and to be part of the ranking of the fifty favorite personalities of the French, like singers, actors or footballers. In 2023 Philippe Etchebest and Cyril Lignac appear respectively in 7th and 13th place.