One of the quotes I like to use in speeches, such as at the recent Gourmet Vietnam Awards, goes like this: ”You don’t have to be a bit crazy to be a Chef, but it often helps”. Every kitchen has its rituals, which help organise and subdue the chaos. But then there is that ritual nobody puts on the prep list.
Substances used to take the edge off. The pill to stay sharp, or to come down, or to sleep. The thin white line, snorted to feel less, or to feel anything at all at the end of a full-on shift. Addiction in professional cooking is not a niche problem, but a reasonably common and hidden part of kitchen life. It does not care whether the restaurant is a humble neighbourhood grill, or a white tablecloth temple of tweezers.
How widespread is it, really?
If you zoom out from “Chefs” to the broader world Chefs work in, the data is blunt. In the United States, the accommodations and food services industry has had some of the highest reported rates of past month illicit drug use among full time workers. At 19.1 percent in analysis of national survey data, it also showed the highest rates of past year substance use disorder in that same report.
Alcohol is not a side note either. Research using national household survey data has found restaurant workers reporting heavy alcohol use at roughly double the rate seen across all industries in that analysis. On the mental health side, large hospitality surveys regularly report high levels of distress. One widely cited hospitality survey from The Burnt Chef Project reported that 80 percent of respondents had experienced mental health issues because of their role.
None of this proves that “all Chefs are addicts.” It does show that kitchens operate in an environment where risk is disproportionally high, and where the line between coping and dependency gets crossed more often than dining rooms will ever notice.
Why do kitchens create the perfect storm?
Addiction rarely starts as a cartoon villain. In kitchens it often starts as a very practical solution to an impossible schedule. Here are the classic ingredients:
Long Hours & Fatigue
When your body clock is treated like an optional garnish, sleep becomes a negotiation. Work related stress research in Chefs links workload and long working days with poorer health outcomes and stress.
Intensity & Adrenaline
Service is a performance with heat, speed, and criticism baked in. Your brain learns that high alert is normal, and normal feels flat.
Culture & Access
After shift drinking, “just one” with the team, staff nights that turn into staff mornings. Add in easy availability of alcohol in hospitality settings and the path gets smoother than anyone admits.
Pain & Injury
Burns, cuts, repetitive strain, standing for hours. Self medication can begin with sore feet and end somewhere darker.
Personality Type
Many Chefs are driven, proud, perfectionist, and stubborn, characteristics that thrive under pressure. Those traits build great plates, but they also make asking for help feel like failure.
What it does to Chefs, and to everyone around them?
Addiction does not stay politely in the back of house. For the Chef, it can mean anxiety, mood swings, unreliable sleep, declining performance, and injuries. Plus that constant private math problem: “How do I get through today.” It often comes with shame, which is an excellent fertilizer for secrecy.
For the team, it can mean inconsistent leadership, unpredictable shifts in tone, more mistakes, more conflict, and the slow normalisation of chaos. People either walk on eggshells or learn to shout back. For owners and managers, it shows up as turnover, absenteeism, accidents, inventory loss, guest complaints, and the grinding cost of replacing skilled people.
The human cost is worse, but the business cost is what usually forces the conversation. For families especially, it is the unforeseen second shift. Broken plans, emotional distance, financial stress. And that awful feeling of watching someone you love disappear while still standing in front of you.
Suicide risk, the part nobody likes to say out loud
Not only since the suicide of multi-hyphenate American Chef and television personality Anthony Bourdain (June 8th 2018) did the issue of Chef suicides enter mainstream discussion. Substance use and mental health struggles increase suicide risk, especially when combined with isolation, exhaustion, and a workplace culture that treats suffering as a badge.
Occupational data in the United States has shown elevated suicide rates for Chefs and head cooks compared with many other occupations. In CDC analysis of 2021 data, Chefs and head cooks were reported at 66.5 deaths per 100,000 for males and 32.9 per 100,000 for females. Cooks were also elevated.
Those numbers are not “kitchen gossip.” They are a public health signal. If you run restaurants, you are not just managing food. You are managing risk. If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, contact local emergency services right away. Do not wait or hesitate.
What actually helps?
Professional kitchens are built on systems, procedures, prep, and more prep. Addiction prevention is the same idea, just less photogenic. The goal is not to have restaurant owners act as analysts and mental health counsellors. Neither is it to create the perfect kitchen brigade. The goal for the people in charge must be to create and run a place with an environment where talented people do not need to numb themselves to keep cooking. To put humanity before profits, and mental balance before performance.
Because the best dish any restaurant can serve is a team that makes it home in one piece. And then comes back the next day ready for a new challenge.
Image Credit: https://churrascophuket.com (AI Generated)
_ _ _
© CHURRASCO PHUKET STEAKHOUSE / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Reprinting, reposting & sharing allowed, in exchange for a backlink and credits
Churrasco Phuket Steakhouse serves affordable Wagyu and Black Angus steaks and burgers. We are open daily from 12noon to 11pm at Jungceylon Shopping Center in Patong / Phuket.
We are family-friendly and offer free parking and Wi-Fi for guests. See our menus, reserve your table, find our location, and check all guest reviews here:
https://ChurrascoPhuket.com/
#Churrascophuket #jungceylon #phuketsteakhouse #affordablewagyu #wagyu