Culinary Drug Addicts

Alcohol, drugs, and cooking- All chefs do it. The one who doesn’t is either Cinderella or a socially awkward lunatic. In Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain informs future chefs and food lovers about the realities of the culinary world. One of the main topics he covers throughout the novel is the excessive use of drugs in the culinary world. Anthony Bourdain stresses this to express chef’s ambition and curiosity that make them more likely to experiment with drugs than people in other careers.

As a child, Anthony would spend his “first few weeks in France exploring underground passageways, looking for dead Nazis, playing miniature golf, sneaking cigarettes,” and a bunch of other ludicrousness the average child would never do. Anthony was also “largely unimpressed by the food” (Bourdain 10). Professional chef, John Higgins stated that “sensitive and creative types are often attracted to the job of a culinary artist” (Kane). Anthony Bourdain naturally possessed these qualities and was forced to try new foods from different places around the world. Becoming a chef was a definite no-brainer.

As Anthony began to mature and gain more culinary experiences, he began to experiment more with drugs such as crack, meth, Alcohol (of course), and marijuana. Although Anthony experiences may just be unfortunate and coincidental, he was not the only chef who experienced drug problems in the culinary world. According to Jason Sheehan, who was also a professional chef, more than ninety-five percent of culinary employees regularly used drugs (Sheehan). Like Anthony, Jason has worked in various types of culinary kitchens and has seen thousands of chef (if not all) experiment with drugs. With the average chef working sixteen to seventeen hours a day seven days a week, stress can build up quickly. This often leads to chefs looking for something to sooth the pain; which, more often than not, are drugs (Kane).

After publishing the book, Kitchen Confidential, Anthony became world known. He left the culinary kitchen and became a celebrity chef, an Author, and a food journalist (Bourdain 307). Drugs have practically disappeared. Towards the end of the novel, Anthony does contradict his argument by stating that there are “clean kitchens”, but “very unlikely”. Anthony strongly believes that only a few can survive the life of a chef in good condition and would recommend it to the committed (Bourdain 294).

Bourdain, Sheehan, and Higgins would all agree every great chef has to have the right type of personality. Great chefs must be creative, curious, and ambitious. While these qualities make a phenomenal chef, it also creates prime targets for drugs. Without chef’s ambition and curiosity there would be no great chefs. However, without a chef’s ambition and curiosity drug use in the culinary world would be unheard of. Unfortunately, every chef’s talent is also their weakness.

Works Cited

Bourdain, Anthony. Kitchen Confidential. Update ed. N.p.: Ecco, 2007. Print.

Grohol, J. (2008). Substance Abuse Amongst Chefs. Psych Central. Retrieved on January 13,

2014, from http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2008/04/21/substance-abuse-amongst-chefs/

Jason Sheehan,. N.p.. Web. 21 Nov 2013. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2009/07/21/the-addicts-in-the-kitchen.html