What were the best and worst aspects of cooking in restaurant kitchens?
Both the best and the worst of cooking in a restaurant is the pressure. The atmosphere is totally high stress, the adrenaline rush, the constant pressure for excellence, the hostility and anger in that race for meal service excellence. The Gordon Ramsay show ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ shows that atmosphere. Watching that show for the first time, I was struck with how true to life the tension in the kitchen was represented. The best thing about that pressure is that when you come out of it, if you continually rose to and met the challenge, you will have cultivated great skills in the kitchen and become a cook with a super work ethic and where cooking time, presentation and speed are concerned you are a changed person. Comparing home to restaurant cooking, nothing outside of a restaurant kitchen compares to the pressure of cooking for the public. Cooking at home whatever the size of guests, even at the last minute, is an absolute breeze after surviving and thriving in that atmosphere!
