Rewriting the Rules
The kitchen doesn’t have to kill you to teach you. The flame doesn’t have to consume you to make you a chef.
This is the moment where we decide who we are.
Not as line cooks. Not as chefs. Not as owners or servers.
But as people.
The old ways? The screaming. The hazing. The silence and sacrifice. The broken bodies and broken spirits?
They don’t make great chefs. They make great casualties.
We deserve better.
The people who walk through those kitchen doors deserve better.
The next generation, those who will inherit this industry, deserves better.
Here’s the thing:
A kitchen can be a crucible for mastery, discipline, belonging, and pride without being a war zone.
A chef can demand precision and still treat their team like human beings.
A shift can test your limits and still end with a handshake, a smile, and a sense that you’re growing, not just surviving.
Rewriting the rules means saying NO to ego masquerading as discipline.
It means calling out cruelty as cruelty.
It means honoring the worth of every person who puts on an apron and steps up to the line.
It means this:
– You can be passionate and balanced.
– You can lead and lift others, instead of breaking them down.
– You can build a team that doesn’t operate in fear, but in trust.
– You can create spaces where people don’t have to numb themselves to make it through the shift.
If this industry is to survive, it must evolve. Not because it’s popular. Not because it looks good on paper. But because it’s right.
Because the days of burning ourselves down for a plate must end.
Because no plate is worth a broken person.
Here’s the challenge:
If you’re an owner, chef, or manager, dare to break the cycle.
If you’re a line cook or a server, dare to ask for better.
If you’re a guest, recognize that every plate you’ve ever been served came from a room where people worked harder than you’ll ever know. Respect that.
The shift starts here. The shift begins with us. The shift begins when we acknowledge that creating beautiful food doesn’t have to mean creating broken people.
If you’ve felt this, if you’ve lived this, if you’re ready for a better way, share this. Speak this. Live this.
Break the silence. Break the cycle. Rewrite the rules.
More to come. Stay with me.
#justonelife
