Chefs, Cooks & Cigarettes

[Pontormo]

"How can he maintain excellence and consistency and continue to grow at the same time? He asks himself this all the time. Keller drags on his cigarette, and a new image comes into his mind. Grant's scallop dish."--Michael Ruhlman, The Soul of a Chef

When I head from the Metro and walk towards the National Gallery of Art, I hurry through the part of Washington, D.C. known as Penn Quarter.

After decades of still nothingness, this part of the heart of the city is starting to pump. Condos fill cavities of abandoned office buildings where the removal of scaffolds reveals thick white organic form clinging to the grid of the newly cleaned facades.

First came the coffee shops and tea rooms, then the new restaurants whose kitchens open to parking lots and wide sidewalks where I pass. Always, always, it seems, there's a skinny guy in a white jacket and checkered pants leaning against the wall smoking.

Sometimes he isn't skinny. But so far, he's always a he and he's always smoking.

This is something I want to ask you about, especially you who work in kitchens or have worked in kitchens or sell things to people who work in kitchens.

I would like to know if you smoke or if you have an opinion about professional cooks who smoke.

Did you start before you ever entered a kitchen? Or was it so inherently part of that culture that you just picked it up?

Are you a non-smoker in a kitchen with many smokers?

Are a non-smoker who does not believe smoking is all that prevalent in the culinary world?

Have you quit or tried to quit? Has quitting affected your relationships with colleagues or interactions in the kitchen?

How does smoking affect the life, work and professional skills of a cook?

I would think smoking would compromise one's judgment of flavor, interferring with both smell and taste, yet major figures in the culinary world smoke. Marcella Hazan, for one, so I guess I am opening this topic up to teachers and cookbook authors, too.

Autobiography?

Observations?

Thoughts?

Edited November 4, 2005 by Pontormo (log)

[alexw]

I have cooked for 16 years, and smoked for more.

the main answer for you many questions, as a smoker in a kitchen, I have found my palette more sensitive than most non-smokers I know, maybe this is just blind luck, but my job has never been affeced as a cause.

Also when working as a junior chef, if a smoker went up to the chef and asked to go for a cigarette, even the hardest of chefs coldest answer would more often than not be, "yes but be quick about it", non-smokers may ask to go for a 5 minute sit down and a coffee and this would be laughed at and they would be told to merely bring the coffee back to their section and get on with it. harsh but true.

as long as you remember to wash your hands when returning to a kitchen then I see no problem, as a Head chef I do feel the necessity to carry breath mints also, as I am quite likely to be requested into my restaurant to discuss my food with one of my guests on occasion and feel I shouldn't breath stale smoke on them, not really proffessional in a 5* environment.

[andiesenji]

With the cost of cigarettes going up all the time, I am surprised that so many people who aren't making big salaries continue to light up, including people in the food service industry. One local restaurant recently cracked down on all their employees and informed them that they could not smoke outside the kitchen door. A kitchen employee tossed a lighted cigarette into the dumpster after a break and a few minutes later there was a fire in the dumpster that spread to the back wall of the building. The place was closed for three weeks and lost money over a big holiday weekend.

I stopped eating at another place where the main parking lot was in the rear and that entrance was right next to the kitchen door. One needed a gas mask to walk past the area where the employees smoked and I am very sensitive to tobacco smoke.

I ran into the manager at Smart & Final last week and he asked why I hadn't been in for awhile and I told him my problem with it. He said his mother had also mentioned it and he is now considering how to handle the problem. Non-smokers far outnumber smokers in this area for some reason and people are used to going to restaurants and not have to contend with cigarette smoke.

There are a couple of things going through the state legislature that would require smokers to stay at least 25 feet away from the exterior doors of any commercial building, 50 feet away from any medical facility.

Personally, I am really put off when I see nicotine stains on the fingers of anyone involved with preparing or serving food.

[Megan Blocker]

I've noticed that people who work in professions that are by their nature nocturnal (waiters, chefs, cooks, actors, unemployed writers, rock stars ) tend to smoke more than their daylight-dwelling counterparts. I wonder if the nicotine, a strong stimulant, helps to balance effects of the unnatural working hours? If this is the case, it would naturally follow that people who keep odd hours would therefore smoke more than those who don't, and that smoking would, over time, become a part of the cultures surrounding those professions...

This is based on purely anecdotal evidence, but it makes some sense to me.

As far as taste buds go...I've heard it both ways (smoking dulls them/smoking piques them). I know that my father needed his spicy food to be even spicier when he was smoking than when he had quit for a while (he went back and forth before quitting for good a few years ago). Similarly, my mother's fiance is a heavy smoker, and he drowns everything in too much pepper (though this may be a preference rather than a result of smoking; he hasn't quit, so I've never observed if it changes when he's not smoking).

Does anyone know more about the science of taste? I'm going to go see what I can find!

Edited November 5, 2005 by Megan Blocker (log)

[Pontormo]

Thanks, Megan, I had never considered the relationship between smoking & the late hours many cooks work.

And I would be grateful were you to look into the business about taste. I had always assumed smoking dulls sense of taste insofar as the sense of smell is linked. However, it may be that the non-smoker is far more aware of the smell of cigarettes clinging to the clothes and hair of smokers than a smoker is.

It was interesting for me to hear Alex say his/her palate remains superior to most. This, of course, may be due to a greater sensitivity to begin with (and thus career choice) as well as years of experience and training.

I also appreciate hearing about smoking breaks (never would have occurred to me) and about restaurant owners trying to crack down on the hazards of cigarettes on the premises.

I know that people who do not start smoking before the age of 21 rarely become smokers. I wonder if that fact is significant here. Alex says s/he (sorry, I don't want to make assumptions) began smoking before entering the kitchen.

At the risk of being simplistic, is there any relationship between the early age that many cooks begin their working lives and smoking? I know a lot of high school students smoke because it seems cool and grown up. If one is shouldering a great deal of financial and professional responsibility early on, is smoking another "adult" activity, or at least a way to relieve some of the pressure?

Bound to elicit groans, but smoking and eating are not unrelated. Many quitters say they start gaining weight after giving up cigarettes and turn to chewing gum as a substitute for both.

However, I actually am not as interested in the reasons or explanations at this point, so much as I am in facts and experiences.

Edited November 5, 2005 by Pontormo (log)

[markovitch]

i started cooking in kitchens @ 16.

i was a 2 pack a day smoker within months. like Pontormo said, i was in a situation where if i wanted to sit down, i had to ask for a smoke break. no smoke? no break.

i quit smoking 2 years 3 months and 28 days ago, and i haven't been granted a break since (different chefs, restaurants over the years)

no smoke? no break.

Edited November 5, 2005 by markovitch (log)

[Pontormo]

[andiesenji]

I am surprised that cooks are not allowed to take breaks unless they smoke.

I don't think that is the case in California because the law mandates minimum breaks and employers suffer major fines if they are not in compliance and that is so even if they employ undocumented aliens and a complaint is filed by a 3rd party.

The fast food place across the street from my office (a sub shop) was fined and closed for two weeks in 2003. The pharmacist in the building heard two of the employees talking about working without breaks and reported it. Shortly afterward the place had a new owner and the folks who work there now get regular breaks.

Some California laws are ridiculous but we do have some good laws that protect most workers.

Regarding taste, I have noticed that some people who smoke use a lot of salt in their food.

After one acquaintence stopped smoking he remarked that his blood pressure had gone down quite a lot. I told him that I thought it had a lot to do with him using much less salt on his food. Apparently his doctor told him the same thing when he asked.

His wife had some adjustments to make because he started almost obcessive exercising - to take his mind off nicotine cravings. He finally calmed down, but for a while would jump up immediately after a meal and jog around the block to make up for an after-meal cigarette!

He says that everything tastes good to him now, and things that he really didn't notice have become very tasty. He can taste more subtle flavors now.

[Zach Holmes]

I think in just about every state there is laws governing mandatory breaks, but in most kitchens I have worked in, cooks generally dont take breaks because there is always something you should be doing instead. taking a break would just put you behind. I am a non-smoker, and dont sit down more than 10 min in any 12 hour shift, and its more of my choice than my chef's.

but that tends to be more smaller restaurants, the corporate places make their employees take breaks, but then again, they have larger staff, which means more chances to take breaks

Edited November 5, 2005 by Zach Holmes (log)

[ruthcooks]

...as long as you remember to wash your hands when returning to a kitchen then I see no problem, as a Head chef I do feel the necessity to carry breath mints also, as I am quite likely to be requested into my restaurant to discuss my food with one of my guests on occasion and feel I shouldn't breath stale smoke on them, not really proffessional in a 5* environment.

←

News bulletin for smokers. It's no secret from non- or ex-smokers that you smoke, even if you chain-eat breath mints. You don't have to breathe in my face for me to notice the smoke. The odor lingers in your hair, your clothes, your car and your home. It's a nasty habit, and yes, I've been there once or twice.

If you're touching or breathing around my food, please don't smoke.

[petite tête de chou]

There's some interesting opinions here Does smoking kill the palate?, Love my Marlboros.....

[markovitch]

...as long as you remember to wash your hands when returning to a kitchen then I see no problem, as a Head chef I do feel the necessity to carry breath mints also, as I am quite likely to be requested into my restaurant to discuss my food with one of my guests on occasion and feel I shouldn't breath stale smoke on them, not really proffessional in a 5* environment.

←

News bulletin for smokers. It's no secret from non- or ex-smokers that you smoke, even if you chain-eat breath mints. You don't have to breathe in my face for me to notice the smoke. The odor lingers in your hair, your clothes, your car and your home. It's a nasty habit, and yes, I've been there once or twice.

If you're touching or breathing around my food, please don't smoke.

←

Do you demand non-smoking cooks when you eat out? I wonder how often that works out for you. what if the waiter is a smoker? can they serve your food? what if the farmer smokes? I'm quite sure every smoker knows they emit odor. there's no need for a 'news flash'

As for rules and regulations, they really run counter to the alpha-personality on the line. Ask for a break when you don't really 'need' one is going to get you laughs, not breaks.

Mandatory breaks are conterintuitive to me--15 minutes right after service before you start cleaning and prepping doesn't make sense-- i'd rather work through it and go home 15 minutes earlier. But when you're pulling a double or a triple, even non-smokers should get a chance to rest their dogs for a minute. I'm also not insinuating that my situations are at all indicative of the world around, this is just my work history.

Stepping for a smoke is just one of the few drugs you can cop to fiending for while working. maybe back in the 70s and 80s you could beg off to get another kind of fix, but not in any house i've worked in.

[Chris Amirault]

Folks, we're dancing quite close to the line between strenuous debate and ad hominem attacks -- not too big a surprise given the thread topic. Let's avoid personal commentary, ok?

[Eden]

no smoke?  no break.

Maybe you could flash a pack of candy cigarettes, and go lean against the wall with a faux cig hanging out of your mouth?

[markovitch]

no smoke?  no break.

Maybe you could flash a pack of candy cigarettes, and go lean against the wall with a faux cig hanging out of your mouth?

←

i'd make the food smell like bubbleicious!!! hahaha

[Luckylies]

I smoke and I think probably most of the guys I work with do too. only the sous chefs can sneak off for more than a few minutes without anybody noticing (or caring). where I work now I would have to go through a mall and around a corner, at least a 5 min trip just to get out of customer sightline...it just does not happen. i'm thinking of coating myself in nico patches and caffine pills and ridding myself of my two largest distractions...

[maggiethecat]

Somewhere , I remember Bourdain saying that if he has a fault, he undersalts,

because he knows that his smoker's palate might be suspect.

Can fifty million fumeur Frenchmen be wrong? Sure. And I remember my mother saying that after she quit, her tastebuds were all of a twitter. But cooking professionally is a stressful job, and like cops and air traffic controllers. the narcotic effects of nicotine , and its memory-enhancing properties fit the drug profiles of the ladies and gents that do the real hustle in the real restaurants.

[M.X.Hassett]

In the eG qa with Bourdain he said:

"A lot of us underseason--erring on the side of safety with customers as we ourselves love a lot of salt and crunchy black pepper and are afraid of blowing the patrons out."

direct link: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...indpost&p=52894

[Pontormo]

Thanks for the terrific link on smoking and palate!

Are there any cooks, chefs, busboys, servers or suppliers out there who would like to weigh in on the proportions of smokers to non-smokers in the restaurant business? Breakdown in terms of jobs held?

[Pontormo]

Now, a single short conversation does not a scientific survey make, but yesterday as I was headed off to see the guild statues of Orsanmichele currently on a brief visit to the National Gallery of Art (check these guys out!), I saw the sous chef of Zola leaning against the wall outside of his kitchen, a few hours before dinner.

Sadly, he had not heard of egullet.

However, he was not amused by some of your reports that smokers were the only ones who got breaks in their kitchens.

He said that in his kitchen, laws and the rights of workers are taken very seriously and everyone gets the requisite number of breaks.

When asked about his own palate, he did light up (face, that is; cigarette was nearly a stub at this point) and assured me he had been smoking a very long time and his sense of taste was as sharp as ever.

As to demographics, he reckoned that 4 out of 5 in his kitchen were smokers.

[Patrick S]

I've noticed that people who work in professions that are by their nature nocturnal (waiters, chefs, cooks, actors, unemployed writers, rock stars  ) tend to smoke more than their daylight-dwelling counterparts.  I wonder if the nicotine, a strong stimulant, helps to balance effects of the unnatural working hours?

←

Maybe. I worked 3rd shift at a state psychiatric facility for several years, and I'd say about 3/4 of us were smokers (I quit ~3 years ago). I'm not sure how we compared to other shifts, but there were certainly a higher proportion of smokers on 3rd shift than in the community at large. The job was also extremely stressful, which reinforced the urge to smoke.

[Busboy]

I've noticed that people who work in professions that are by their nature nocturnal (waiters, chefs, cooks, actors, unemployed writers, rock stars  ) tend to smoke more than their daylight-dwelling counterparts.  I wonder if the nicotine, a strong stimulant, helps to balance effects of the unnatural working hours?

←

Maybe. I worked 3rd shift at a state psychiatric facility for several years, and I'd say about 3/4 of us were smokers (I quit ~3 years ago). I'm not sure how we compared to other shifts, but there were certainly a higher proportion of smokers on 3rd shift than in the community at large. The job was also extremely stressful, which reinforced the urge to smoke.

←

I think working nights is another symptom, not the cause. Waiters, chefs, cooks, actors, unemployed writers and rock stars don't play by "their" rules and take a certain pride in showing it. There's a feeling of apartness and an outlow mentality that comes with working odd hours, not having a "real" job and being in a creative, high pressure profession that brings a disdain for the way other people live. As Harry Dean Stanton eloquently puy it in Repo Man, "Ordinary fuckin' people. I hate 'em." I had a bit of that attitude as a waiter and when I worked on political campaigns -- at the time, another high-smoking profession.

Of course, the flip side of the argument is that people with "outlaw" tendencies end up in off certain professions, but then you get into a chicken/egg question.

[Megan Blocker]

Of course, the flip side of the argument is that people with "outlaw" tendencies end up in off certain professions, but then you get into a chicken/egg question.

←

Exactly - which I sort of alluded to in my post - it starts as a habit that combats sleepiness, and ends up as part of a culture, that culture attracts people drawn to doing things against the perceived norm, and, ba-ding, smoking is rebellious, and so is cooking.

Or something.

Hmmm...

Edited November 7, 2005 by Megan Blocker (log)

[Patrick S]

I've noticed that people who work in professions that are by their nature nocturnal (waiters, chefs, cooks, actors, unemployed writers, rock stars  ) tend to smoke more than their daylight-dwelling counterparts.  I wonder if the nicotine, a strong stimulant, helps to balance effects of the unnatural working hours?

←

Maybe. I worked 3rd shift at a state psychiatric facility for several years, and I'd say about 3/4 of us were smokers (I quit ~3 years ago). I'm not sure how we compared to other shifts, but there were certainly a higher proportion of smokers on 3rd shift than in the community at large. The job was also extremely stressful, which reinforced the urge to smoke.

←

I think working nights is another symptom, not the cause. Waiters, chefs, cooks, actors, unemployed writers and rock stars don't play by "their" rules and take a certain pride in showing it. There's a feeling of apartness and an outlow mentality that comes with working odd hours, not having a "real" job and being in a creative, high pressure profession that brings a disdain for the way other people live. As Harry Dean Stanton eloquently puy it in Repo Man, "Ordinary fuckin' people. I hate 'em." I had a bit of that attitude as a waiter and when I worked on political campaigns -- at the time, another high-smoking profession.

Of course, the flip side of the argument is that people with "outlaw" tendencies end up in off certain professions, but then you get into a chicken/egg question.

←

A related possibility, which I will pull out of the air and offer almost entirely without empirical support, is that chefs tend to be more sensation-seeking than the average Joe. There are plenty of studies showing that smokers tend to rate higher than average on the "sensation-seeking" dimension on personality assessment tools. My very limited personal experience would tend to support the view that chefs also tend to be more sensation-seeking than the average Joe -- more interested in pursuing and experiencing all sorts of thrills, whether pharmacological, sexual, travel, and so on. So it could be that there are a lot of smokers in the culinary world because smokers are sensation seekers, and sensation seekers are more likely to have a great interest in food.

Edited November 7, 2005 by Patrick S (log)

[Pontormo]

Patrick: I just saw your second, interesting post and want to thank you for the link to the study on thrill-seeking and smoking.

(Compliments on the rhetorical gesture of your apostle/philosopher, too.)