Kitchen Wisdom

A collection of commentary, stories, rants, raves, recipies and wise words. Please share your stories, we would love to hear them!
This may potentially be the opposite of traditional wisdom, but whatever, it’s at the least truth.  Smoking is bad for you. I know it, you know it, there is a veritable assload of proof of it.  So why do we smoke?  At least 70% of the restaurant industry considers themselves smokers.  There are a variety of reasons… here are a few that I’ve compiled (in no particular order, as the value of each reason changes based on the situation). 1.  We are bored.  On slow nights, there is nothing like a cigarette to get out of the restaurant for a few minutes and have something to do with your hands instead of just standing on the line or in the dining room doing nothing. 2.  We are social.  It’s fun to stand around for a few minutes and shoot the shit with your coworkers.  Whether you need to bitch, laugh, get amped up or just relax. 3.  We need a fucking break.  Sometimes, you just need 5 minutes to get out of the kitchen and woosah.  Sometimes you just need to be alone for a minute in your head.  Maybe you need to get mentally organized and focus.  Maybe you need to put your life outside the kitchen away in its box for the night.  Regardless, sometimes you just need a few minutes to yourself and this is better than sitting in the stall in the bathroom pretending to drop a deuce. 4.  You can “hate fuck” the shit out of that cigarette when you’re mad, and it makes you feel better.  5.  Something was so good, that you just need to top it off with a long, slow cigarette.  Like a great meal, great service, or sex.  Knowwhati’msayin? If you’re in the industry and you smoke, what do you think? Why do you smoke?

This may potentially be the opposite of traditional wisdom, but whatever, it’s at the least truth. 

Smoking is bad for you. I know it, you know it, there is a veritable assload of proof of it. 

So why do we smoke?  At least 70% of the restaurant industry considers themselves smokers.  There are a variety of reasons… here are a few that I’ve compiled (in no particular order, as the value of each reason changes based on the situation).

1.  We are bored.  On slow nights, there is nothing like a cigarette to get out of the restaurant for a few minutes and have something to do with your hands instead of just standing on the line or in the dining room doing nothing.

2.  We are social.  It’s fun to stand around for a few minutes and shoot the shit with your coworkers.  Whether you need to bitch, laugh, get amped up or just relax.

3.  We need a fucking break.  Sometimes, you just need 5 minutes to get out of the kitchen and woosah.  Sometimes you just need to be alone for a minute in your head.  Maybe you need to get mentally organized and focus.  Maybe you need to put your life outside the kitchen away in its box for the night.  Regardless, sometimes you just need a few minutes to yourself and this is better than sitting in the stall in the bathroom pretending to drop a deuce.

4.  You can “hate fuck” the shit out of that cigarette when you’re mad, and it makes you feel better. 

5.  Something was so good, that you just need to top it off with a long, slow cigarette.  Like a great meal, great service, or sex.  Knowwhati’msayin?

If you’re in the industry and you smoke, what do you think? Why do you smoke?

  1. kitchenwisdom posted this