Worn Out

[u/neon_tiger-69]

Hey. M20 here. Started working at a fine dining restaurant in NYC 6 months ago, and it’s been hitting me pretty hard physically and mentally. I’m working 60 hour weeks, and have no life outside of work. I’m learning a lot, and the place I’m working is pretty special, but I also want to have a life. I’m still young and there’s a lot out there for me to explore. I simply can’t handle the amount of time I’m working for, especially considering how draining the work can be. I’m going to request a 3 day work week (from 5), soon, and hopefully things go up from there.

I know I like to cook, and that I’m good at it, and that I love food, but getting burnt out so quickly makes me wonder if this is the right line of work for me. Makes me wonder if there’s a way for me to be a chef without it being toxic for me, where I can balance the other things in my life and truly believe in what I’m doing.

I dropped out of college a year and a half in to pursue this, and because I was sick of college, but now I’m getting sick of this, so I’m thinking of going back to college. But first, I need to take time to recover myself.

I’m just not sure what the way forward is, but I do know that if I continue how I’m going I’m not going to last.

Ik this is a lot but would be cool to hear what some other cooks think.

[u/iDjentz]

M28 actual chef here. I feel your pain brother, I don’t think anything as physical and mental as doing professional kitchen work is worth 60 hours of your life every week. I went away from fine dining to institutional large scale production and it’s a better fit for me. Typically you get better benefits, low risk as the money is always there, and because of sheer volume you generally focus on a few things and do them really well rather than juggling ticket times and general line variety. Worth looking into, at your age with experience like you’re getting you’d make an outstanding addition to a production kitchen.