I write this post cause its Sunday, my only day off. And i am soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo tired but ended up walking alone 3 hours in the city “just to do something”. Chefslife.

Nowadayz it seems so cool being a chef (like a rockstar or a football player…). Whoooooooooohohohoooooooooooooooo… everyone wants to be a chef. EVERYONE. And u ended up reading list about facts of chefslife ( like this… or like this ), the positive and negative side affects… well. Some of this are true, the rest is just bullsh8t. I thought to do a true -list (cause unfortunately im not that celebrated to have time to write a whole book about it :)))))) – sorry. Then u decide if its luck or sucks.

Our best friend is def. the Kitchen Aid or the Thermomix.

We do speak french (bearnaise, eclair, jus, sous vide, mariniere, cordon bleu…).

We can live and work anywhere in the world – changing countries and travel whenever we want or whenever we are bored.

What we are dreaming about: empty prep-list :)

We are chemists – knowing what temperature, moist, acid, time does with different textures, colors, flavors.

Only way we eat steak – medium rare. If u want yours well done, go somewhere else. HURRY.

Best birthday present for us is a japanese knife (around 500 euro/ piece).

We have no problem making difference (and cooking with perfection) between different cuts of meat.

Never ask a chef “what did u do in your day off?”! Obviously NOTHING. I repeat, NOTHING AT ALL.

If we go traveling – its gonna be a gastrotour. Eating bugs. Dont even imagine to climb any mountain (unless its for a special unique meal).

We eat sh8t usually. Have no sparetime and energy to spend on ourselves. If we eat, we eat fast and rubbish. When we do celebrate – STREETFOOD!!!! (but yes of course, we can shuck some oysters or slice a bit of foie gras just to check the quality hehehehe)

If u work in a busy place – u have no time to eat – so u will poison yourself with 2liters of coke and 10 coffees per day… and get a couple of kilos extra because of the beers…

If u work in a quiet place – u will get bored and having too much time so u will eat all day – gonna get extra kilos and become fat. FAT LIKE HELL.

Working more than normal people. MUCH MORE. U do 8 hours a day (more or less), we do 12 hours when its normal. Usually its not. This week for example i gave an extra day (12 hours) for free to my restaurant. Just because there is too much work to do. Oh, and i have one day off. :) heh.

Cooking is our job. We DO appreciate if u make dinner for us. Just the f8ckers critize friend^s food.

But we do critize if we are eating out (and we pay).

Butter is friend. Can solve lots of problems.

We do know more about good wines than average people. Lesson of the perfect food-wine matches necessary. And we always get the last sip out of the bottles.

Our friends are usually chefs. We always pamper our chef friends if they are visiting us in the restaurant with lots of “specials”. And we do expect the same when we sit down.

We are always working when u are off (holiday, summertime, vacation, weekend). No more family X-mas…

Approx: breakfast at 12:00, lunch at 17:00, dinner at 24:oo.

Hard to meet new people for good. Internet helps, so we have lots of one night stands. A LOT.

To chill after a long service… u can easily find us being awake at 3am in the morning having a (couple) glass of wine.

We chop onion faster and more efficiently then u would do. Sorry.

Our salary…. its kindof ok to enjoy the life – but comparing to the hours we do… JUST SH8T. Ridiculous joke.

Our skin is full with cuts and burns. Welcome to the real war.

We know that the only way it worth to prepair a chicken breast – is sous vide.

Our religion is the perfect food. And the GOD is the HEADCHEF. No comment.

We never call sick. In my whole chefslife (7 years) i got 1month sickbreak because I had an operation with Appendicitis – and they didnt renewed my contract of course, not to pay my sickpay – M8THERF8CKERS!!!

If u have a good team – u win all. However bad is the service – U NEVER LEAVE. And u leave no one behind.

We have lots of stress – so having lots of bad addictions.Drugs, caffeine, alcohol, adrenalin, sex, etc… Really…

Our life is our job. And our hobby is our job. Life seems to be our hobby. We work for live and live for work.

U can never survive if u are not passionate enough. U will fail very very very quickly. We can smell it.

The girls needs to grow balls if they wanna survive in a kitchen. I suggest to visit gym regularly and drink proteins for breakfast.

We love the adrenalin in the kitchen. But we need to reboot our mind after every service – and relax a bit. If its in the afternoon break – quite good going to the gym and do a great workout. If its in the night – get beers and talk. With more beers.

We smell food (onions, fish, demi glace), so your dog loves licking your hands. Im doing pastry now – my hands smell butter and sugar, Ohhhhhhhhhhh, so sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet :).

From the second we start the service till the last minute – the outside world does not excist. Dont try to contact at all (unless its a death issue, but in this case why is the big hurry…? ).

We are EXTREMLY passionate about this job. No matter what. I would happily sacrify my day off to learn how to make paris brest or macaron with perfection. Just to tease u.

So our life its like this… sincerely. Kindof. Obviously every kitchen is different, u can have more work or days off, relations and freedom… but at the end of the story the rules are all the same. U like it or leave.

I love my job. Can not imagine doing anything else in my life. But i do regret the day when i fell in love with the kitchen. There is no way back. No more free weekends, family birthdays or date night out…its a very special type of life… and we have got passion and adrenalin. Reasons to wake up every morning after 4-5 hours sleep but still with a (sleepy) smile on your face. Suffering, but love it. Worth it.

Would u?