How to Deal with Stress in the Kitchen

Working as a chef is often portrayed as highly stressful and filled with yelling and cursing. While it's well-known that reality TV shows tend to be edited to look more emotional and controversial than the events and conversations that really occurred, the intensity actually isn't that far off for cooking shows. Working as a professional chef can be very stressful, and you must have strategies in place to deal with the stress both on and off the job.

Organization and Mise en Place

On the job, one of the best ways to combat stress is to be organized and have everything ready before you start cooking. Once you know what dish you're making, get everything ready, chopped, pureed, and so on, so that you don't have to stop in the middle of the recipe to do yet another task.

When evaluating restaurants to see if you want to apply and work at one, look at how people in the kitchen handle placement and use of tools and ingredients. All kitchens can look a bit disorganized at first, but really observe what people do. If cooks are grabbing tools away from each other or running around looking for other ingredients because other cooks have swiped theirs, that's a sign the kitchen may be more disorganized than you'd want.

Pick Your Battles

Even with the best organization, you'll encounter daily struggles as you try to acclimate to the existing kitchen culture while still retaining what works best for you. Learn to pick your battles; if something truly annoys you, try to find out why people in the kitchen are doing it differently than you.

For example, if you're a diehard "never use soap on cast iron" person, you're going to find that in a professional kitchen, cast iron has to be washed with soap and water for health-inspection reasons. You aren't going to convince the health department to change this, so do not worry about this point of contention. There's a reason for the different treatment.

At the same time, if you've got someone who refuses to clean up after themselves, and that's affecting your work, then that's a battle you should fight.

Be Honest About Your Knowledge Level

Your first few days in a professional kitchen will likely make you feel woefully unprepared, no matter how much education you have. It's a normal reaction to being in a fast-paced, new environment. But even after you have started to get used to the way the kitchen works, you're going to find things that confuse you. Ask about them. Don't try to wing it because that could ruin a dish, at least, if not an entire evening for the staff and customers. It may seem more stressful at first to admit you don't know about something that everyone else seems to understand, but it will be less stressful once you get the information you need.

Have a Hobby

Outside of the kitchen, you absolutely have to have a hobby or something that gets your mind off work. You can't spend all your time rehashing what happened in the kitchen that day (some review is good, but eventually, your mind needs something non-cooking related so you can relax). There's a reason relaxing is also called unwinding -- it allows you to release tension.

Of course, a solid education is essential for anyone who wants to go into culinary work. If you’re interested in earning an Associate of Applied Science in Culinary Arts, consider ECPI University’s Culinary Institute of Virginia for your degree program. With accelerated courses and a year-round schedule, you could be in a professional kitchen sooner than you think! For more information, contact a friendly admissions advisor today.

It could be the Best Decision You Ever Make!

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