The Restaurant Industry According to Hollywood #9
If polled, most of us would describe ourselves as a professional. However, when listening to Gordon Ramsay describe the kitchen depictions in the film Burnt, you might think, really? Is this capturing the behavior of professionals? If the average kitchen manager exploded the way the spoiled brats that achieve three Michelin stars do, we would have to move to automated kitchens.
To be sure, the movie was entertaining. The food, from market to plating, was pornographic. But it still doesn’t represent us very well. Our kitchens are serious business. The imagery of crashing plates and chef’s flipping tables at their frustration are fantastical to say the least.
Anthony Bourdain gets it right when he describes this behavior as dangerous. To paraphrase, Bourdain intimates that most kitchen lines are populated by hard working men who don’t appreciate being belittled. The inference is they are fairly well armed and the chef might find himself at risk after an unneeded tirade.
Granted, anyone in Ramsay’s kitchen wants to be there and will endure almost anything to be in his presence and working that line. Yes, they see a prize for enduring that behavior, but most of us wouldn’t tolerate it for a minute. That may surely mean that most of us won’t have three Michelin stars either, but then again, there are lots of ways to be successful in the restaurant industry.