I can’t see how a chef could get fat. It’s a sauna in the kitchen, you’re running around and you’re always two seconds away from assaulting someone.
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“Delicious food” does not really describe the engineering that makes processed food addictive. Processed food can be divided into fifty subcategories - such as texture, sweetness, unami, etc. and changed to bring most of these subcategories into a range most people find optimal. Taste is only one component of Doritos. You love their saltiness, mouthfeel, colour and crunch. Ketchup is, from a food engineering perspective, an almost perfect food.
People are still largely responsible for their overeating, not exercising, lack of balanced diet and the subsequent health problems. But this should be tempered with some compassion and an understanding of addiction. You don’t see the fifty psychologists working to keep you involved with social media. And you don’t realize how much study and science has been used to make you want your favourite guilty snack.
Restaurant food relies on better ingredients and proven prep techniques. But more so on salt, sugar and fat, which people have craved for over ten thousand years.
(You could read The Doritos Effect or Salt, Sugar, Fat for more rambling on this topic.)
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There’s a huge difference in body shapes between culinary and pastry - if you eat a lot of sugar and fat while standing still making frosting and tasting ice cream and cake, what do you expect is going to happen?
So that’s one factor, but it has been a dramatic real-life demonstration of sugar intake. Most pastry chefs walk around looking like their asshole is trying to inhale their pants.
But if you are on hot side, always in cardio mode in the equivalent of a 114 degree sauna, chugging water nonstop, and looking at food as widgets in an assembly line and don’t have an appetite because you are spitting shit out out all the time doing tastings, what happens to your body then?
It’s the lazy executive guys - who are eaters, not chefs - who get fat, since they just do paperwork and walk around “testing” food.
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And everyone around you as incompetent imbeciles conspiring against you.
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I forgot you’ve worked in the industry.
But yes, it’s true.
If you’ve worked in a kitchen before going to Basic Training, you’ll be completely unfazed by the drill sergeants. The DSes aren’t even allowed to say a lot of what chefs can get away with.
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My old tree cutting buddy is also my eating buddy. Like drinking, but food.
So, at 50 years old, he’s a big ole mf’r. 6’5", about 280ish. Natural result of a life well lived, but also strong as an ox. Like, I’ve seen him ragdoll people like a pitbull with a sock.
He knows good food. And if necessary, will double or triple order.
Now the guy who’s 5’5" and 280? No. Don’t do it. He doesn’t care.
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Yup. I’ve worked with soldiers, prisoners on work release, every kind of drug user you could imaging, but they are always suprised on the first day by how people can utilize profanity like a paintbrush in a kitchen.
Dudes, thanks so much for writing this post and sharing the read. There is SO much going on there. It’s as you wrote: we are ultimately responsible for fighting our fight, but it’s worth acknowledging that it’s NOT a fair fight.
It never is when someone has a financial initiative instead of a moral one.
I’m happy to pull back the curtains. One story that has stuck with me is brownie mix. When it was originally created, it had dehydrated eggs, so all you had to do was add water.
People didn’t like it. But when they changed the instructions to add an egg, people felt like they were the ones making it and sales have shot up ever since, since “home-made” is healthier.
I remember hearing about that. Heck, Bob Hoffman had a great scam. He had one powder and 5 labels. The “weight gain” powder told you to mix the powder with cream, the “slim and trim” powder said water, the muscle builder was milk, etc. Great way to diversify your market with the same product.
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I hate myself for reflexively thinking that’s a good idea. Dammit, Bobby.
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Oh dude, it just keeps going. In the late 90s, there was a product on the radio called “Metabolife”. It was a weight loss powder. The way it worked was, 3 hours before bed, you drink your metabolife mixed in water and then make sure you don’t eat until the morning. Overnight, the metabolife melts the fat away!
…or MAYBE it’s because you quit f**king eating 3 hours before bed.
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As I recall, back in the 1970’s all Hoffman protein powder was soy (except Protein from the sea and some beef protein powder, maybe liver too).
My attempt at adding protein powder in the late '60’s and very early '70’s was adding Carnation non-fat dry milk to a glass of milk.
I believe that if you become a calorie burning machine you can eat just before going to bed. I did that more often than not. I was targeting 6 protein meals per day. One of them must be close to bedtime.
I eat in the middle of my sleep cycle: I get up to have a Metabolic Drive shake. I also have one right before going to bed.
But for the majority of the population: some fasting goes a long way.
I’d like to bring up how fucking ridiculous it is, that nutritious food is more expensive/seen as luxurious in comparison to garbage.
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Been on a cruise lately? We go Royal Caribbean a few times a year. It’s like this and worse.
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That’s interesting because ketchup is disgusting.
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Thems fightin’ words.
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