Book 101 - A Year of Magical Learning

Reflection Title – UN-BALANCED!

Book – Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain

Book Description: Bourdain spares no one's appetite when he told all about what happens behind the kitchen door. Bourdain uses the same "take-no-prisoners" attitude in his deliciously funny and shockingly delectable book, sure to delight gourmands and philistines alike. From Bourdain's first oyster in the Gironde, to his lowly position as dishwasher in a honky tonk fish restaurant in Provincetown (where he witnesses for the first time the real delights of being a chef); from the kitchen of the Rainbow Room atop Rockefeller Center, to drug dealers in the east village, from Tokyo to Paris and back to New York again, Bourdain's tales of the kitchen are as passionate as they are unpredictable. Kitchen Confidential will make your mouth water while your belly aches with laughter. You'll beg the chef for more, please.

Reflection:

After reading this book, the first and only word that comes to mind is unbalanced.  

What a life these chefs and restaurant workers lead. All I could feel the entire time I was consuming this book was sadness for the chef and all the workers in his industry. Sure, with unbalanced existences you find entertaining stories of excess, and the chef certainly had plenty of those. As a tourist getting a peak into the day in the life, I could laugh and be shocked and then go back to my balanced existence. However, for the workers in this industry they can’t…this is their real life, and it sounds miserable. They work 16 hours a day. They never see their families. They abuse their bodies. They numb their pain with excessive alcohol and drugs just so they can wake up the next day and do it all over again. That isn’t a life that anyone should have to lead.

I genuinely wonder how this industry got this way in the first place? Does unbalanced work draw unbalanced people or is it vice versa? Whatever the origin, it must change. No human should have to live a life like this. This type of life is unsustainable and will eventually bring dire consequences at some point. Sadly, all you have to do is look at what happened to the chef later on in his life when he decided to depart this world early via his own hands.

The truly disappointing thing about this industry is that it has so much potential to be fulfilling work on its surface. I think the only reason people put up with all of this is that cooking at its core is oozing with natural purpose. From that perspective, there should be no industry better suited than giving people an opportunity to have meaningful work and the ability to express their values than through cooking and serving food to other humans?

So where did this all go wrong and how can we play our part to re-balance this industry?

I think, as with all things, change always starts with the person staring back at you in the mirror. I’m not a big foodie, but I’ve certainly been to plenty of restaurants in my day. The patrons of these restaurants set the tone of what is acceptable and not. It is pretty clear that we can improve a lot on our end in this regard.

For starters, our expectations are unbalanced. The average restaurant goer unknowingly demands A LOT of these businesses and in turn the people who work there. It has become the expectation that for our money we will be treated like kings when we walk into a restaurant. We demand to doted on by our server, have an amazing meal delivered quickly while not sacrificing quality, be available at all times of day, and most importantly don’t break the bank in the process. It is in unbalanced expectations like these that drive businesses to unbalanced practices to accommodate.

We can do all do better!

Step 1 - We need to always remember to have compassion and empathy for our fellow human no matter where we are and what we are doing. These waiters, cooks, and other restaurant staff are not our servants…they are people who are searching for purpose just like yourself. Let’s treat them as such, and give them an opportunity to live a life of balance and meaningful work just like we expect for ourselves.

Question: How can you help others when you see they are living a life out of balance?

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Links:

What is The Year of Magical Learning? An Introduction

YOML Podcast Discussion - Kitchen Confidential

YOML Bookstore - Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain