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I have been a chef for nearly 20 years. When young kids ask me if they should pursue cooking as a profession, I honestly and wholeheartedly advise them against it, suggesting there are better ways to earn a living. Before I continue, I must explain something. Cooking has always been a strong passion for me. I love everything about my job and my passion. It has taken me to many countries I never thought I would visit, opening my eyes and mind to new experiences. These journeys have broadened my outlook on life and shaped me into the person I am today. I am proud of the person I have become because of these experiences – a hard worker who appreciates the small things and values opportunities, no matter how small. I have met people who I now call friends and have learned from them, both good and bad. Meeting people has helped life’s mysteries unfold, making them less overwhelming, less mystifying, and more enjoyable. Every day, I wake up a little more curious about the life lessons I will encounter. Cooking has done all this for me. I left Australia for my first long stay abroad, young and innocent. I was naive and thought England was something out of “Little House on the Prairie,” a country with rolling green hills and people with funny accents. When I arrived, I was in for a huge culture shock. England was the most exciting, fast-paced, bright-lit place I had ever seen. Sydney was the only other big city I had been to before, but England was something else. Once over the initial shock, my curiosity was fueled on many things. I was very young, in a foreign but English-speaking country, and what would you expect a young man traveling with like-minded mates to do, especially without adult supervision? But I digress. I have been cooking for almost 20 years. During that time, I lived the life of a typical, old-fashioned kitchen upbringing. Manual labor consisted of fifty-plus hours a week (if I was lucky), but usually around sixty-plus, with most weeks being six days. My days off were on opposite sides of those six-day weeks, meaning I worked twelve days straight, back-to-back shifts. Shifts were called splits, allowing a break between two shifts in one day, but there was so much work to do that I worked through my split, for no extra pay. I did it because of the passion and because I didn’t want to let the team or the “line” down. We were “line” chefs, holding up a heavy rope together throughout the shift. No matter how hot, uncomfortable, or challenging the day was, we held our end of the rope because if we failed, the rope would fall, and everyone on the line would fail. A French chef shouting abuse in one ear, another chef calling out orders in the other, docket machines printing out a train of dockets, plating up while overseeing multiple things cooking, sweating in forty-plus degree cooking lines, burning yourself every time you open the oven, nursing cuts, kitchen hands not providing pans fast enough, misfiring dockets, wait staff dropping meals or sending wrong orders – all while hungover from the night before, caffeined up to stay awake, with aching back, numb limbs, pins and needles in fingers, creaky knees, burning feet, peeling skin, spot burns mistaken for drug addiction, and cuts that make strangers worry. Alcohol becomes a nightly escape, a sleeping pill, allowing you to forget and return the next day. Despite all this, hard work paid off. I landed jobs that taught me more about my field and how to run a business. I learned to engage people professionally and became a good mentor, trainer, and manager. Hard work, dedication, drive, commitment, and passion rewarded me with a good position. Now, to my point. Reality cooking shows can lead to cookbook deals, sponsorships, TV shows, and restaurants. Good for them, but I worry about the impact on young people today. They see these things and think it’s reality. Cooking is hard enough, and I find myself working harder. No chef is worth anything without a great team. Without a team, a chef’s vision doesn’t hit the plate, and the restaurant doors close. Young chefs coming out of cooking school now have the notion of becoming famous quickly, without the hard work. Shifts are getting shorter, and the passion seems to be fading. Google is teaching them how to cook, and cookbooks are becoming a thing of the past. There is no discipline anymore, and workplace rules protect workers, making it hard to discipline. Sick days are easy, and there is no ownership. Technology and reality TV shows create unrealistic expectations, making people lazy. In closing, a young student straight out of college once asked to resign from his work experience early, saying he wanted a job like mine – a head chef. This trend worries me. Is technology making us lazy? Is it reality TV shows? What do you think? Am I over-exaggerating? I hope to find a diamond in the rough – a young, enthusiastic person eager to learn without expectations, someone with genuine passion for cooking. For these people, I suggest following your dreams, finding a mentor, and learning. If you ask me if I would become a chef again, I would say no, not in this day and age.