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The idea of stress in professional kitchens is not a new concept; it has been the path of many culinary geniuses and their teams in search of the satisfaction of their customers and success.
There have been several chefs who condemned this issue on different occasions. Steve Palmer and Mickey Bakst declared war against this situation and created Ben's friends, a community built by professionals of the culinary world with the purpose of helping the cooking industry heal.
The new generation of Chefs
But this status quo doesn’t convince today’s chefs. The time has come when the new generation of cooks decide to stand up and announce that the job they so much love, also risks crushing them.
This is the reason why CIB and Guttmann Barcelona started a partnership; to ensure that the next generation of restaurant leaders have the correct tools and strategies to navigate daily struggles in the professional kitchens of the world.
Guttmann Barcelona is a brain health treatment center, its team of psychologists, neuropsychologists, and psychiatrists assists anyone who wants to improve their brain health. They have a specifically designed clinic, thought to take care of people's emotions and mental health. We have teamed up with them to organize sessions for our students to create awareness and provide skills to identify and handle difficult emotional situations.
What the partnership involves:
2. An intervention service to address mental health issues with a priority assistance helpline for our students with Guttmann Barcelona.
Eulàlia Solís, a neuropsychologist member of this team, believes that the professional cooking world is a highly stressed sector, the heat, aggressive talking, and long working hours create an intense environment. “Turning this situation around is one of the biggest challenges the culinary sector is facing”, she says. “It is obvious all careers have their challenges, but some professionals have higher risks of stress problems. It is important to identify which working environments suffer more mental health problems and act, not only individually with these workers, but also within the companies’ dynamics, to improve and care for the mental health of the employees.”
"Turning this situation around is one of the biggest challenges the culinary sector is facing"
- Eulàlia Solís
Working in a professional kitchen is highly demanding, The Guardian analyzed a study made in the UK to chefs that has thrown some numbers on this: almost half of the chefs regularly worked between 48 and 60 hours a week. Seventy-eight percent said they’d had an accident or a near-miss through fatigue. More than a quarter were drinking to get through their shift, a figure which doubled to 56% when it came to taking painkillers. A startling 51% said they suffered from depression due to overwork….
So how do we turn this around?
According to Eulàlia, turning to substances is a way of coping with stress, which is why it is important to learn how to develop healthy strategies for handling these situations. “It is essential to educate society and include specific training programs in all levels of education, this way everyone can learn about emotions, learn how to manage them and deal in a healthier way with day-to-day challenges”.
Eulàlia is concerned about the controversy we are facing as a society; “our mental health is going downwards, we must help each other and learn to detect in our environment who may be suffering. There are some red flags we should look out for: if a colleague is not showing up, if they have sudden mood swings, suffer from lack of sleep, or if we see that they are using drugs... It is essential to be aware of these signs. Often, when people are in a state of risk, they can generate feelings of rejection in others. But we must confront these feelings, and if we are lucky enough to have good emotional health, offer a helping hand. By doing this, we can avoid much more serious problems.”
CIB's Commitment
From CIB we are committed to creating awareness on this topic and changing the culinary scene. It is our purpose to offer mental health support to our students through education.
"NO CHEF!" is our motto, it seeks a radical change in the culinary culture. We call upon the culinary community to join together to address and lead the change we need. If you are a CIB student and are suffering from a similar situation or want to tell us your story, please contact the alumni office.
