CHEF from a Chef

Well, just finished to watch the Film CHEF… I was Excited to watch it, like a single 40ish cat lady waiting to watch 50 Shades of Grey and I end up with the feeling of a kid watching The Lion King in the moment right after the stampede.

Theres a few points that i would like to put out there as a Chef.

First, theres a bit of fiction there, i have a few friends “Wanna be” Celebrity Chef, and they can tell you that you need way more that picking on a fight with a Food Critic to go viral and most of all, to get “that famous". And well, Twitter is not that effective those days.

Second, "the awful boss"… is cruel, is painful to watch, is frustrating and the worse part… is so fucking true… how many of us have’d compromise our integrity, creativity and passion because of those guys who decide to open a restaurant, hire a good chef and then don’t let him work. Those people that the only thing they have is money, no hospitality knowledge, no idea what are they getting in to when they decide to open a restaurant…. we all have at least one in our resume, we all learned a lot in a good or a bad way to move on from that.

Third, and probably the more complicated topic on the movie… Family…. I’ve heard so many colleagues putting them family on a side priority… myself included… i dedicated my last years to my career and sometimes i look around and i realise i have a lot of people who loves me, but im actually never around, i miss birthdays, important stuff, funerals, christmas… and im not even married. But just to let that clear… is not that we care less about the people we love, we aren’t bad people… we are just Chefs…. we make a commitment when we decide to work for this, with the people and with ourselves… our passion drives us, our career is to demanding to not care or to just leave at the hour that we suppose to finish. Imagine like you have a crazy jealous demanding Wife, 5 kids, you are paying a mortgage, paying a new car, your mother in law lives with you, you play soccer with your friends 3 times per week, you are pastor on a church, and your wife doesn’t drive and you have no job but nobody knows… pretty much this how much things we have in our head and how much pressure we handle everyday… but the big difference is that we have a huge love for what we do… and well… as in the movie… no true your 10 years old kid can come to work and help you that much.

Fourth…. just wanna mention something that nobody says but for the people in the industry is obvious, is that part of why this Sous Chef Dude left was because the restaurant was collapsing under Tonys (New Head Chef) Management, and saw a better opportunity with the Chef on the Food Truck… thats how things roll in our media… I mean don’t take me wrong i see the part where this guy is Loyal with his “Jefe” and he will follow him anywhere and theres many...plenty of loyal great people around, but when the boat is sinking, no many would give away them lifesaver.

And well, fifth and last…. i found the movie Inspirational somehow… is not that easy like in the movie to follow your dreams, but is not impossible either… we overcome so much shit in what we do that the fair point for all of us should be to pursue our dreams no matter how big or unreal they are… or at least the most basic dream of every Chef, to cook whatever the hell we want.