Hell's Kitchen

I've watched Hell's Kitchen for several seasons now, and one thing strikes me: how many of the participants smoke--it seems about half, men and women. What a way to ruin tastebuds.

I'm curious, though. How many chefs in the real world smoke?

I'm curious, though. How many chefs in the real world smoke?

From my experiences in restaurant kitchens as a youth; the question was not if they smoked, but what they smoked.

I've watched Hell's Kitchen for several seasons now, and one thing strikes me: how many of the participants smoke--it seems about half, men and women. What a way to ruin tastebuds.

I'm curious, though. How many chefs in the real world smoke?

I would say most either have or do.

[Robin Garr]

I'm curious, though. How many chefs in the real world smoke?

Historically, lots of them. In modern times, most of the good ones I know either have quit, never started, or indulge sparingly. Smoke kills the taste buds, and more and more chefs are coming to recognize that.

Same goes for wine makers, by the way ... at least in Europe, the older generation almost all smoke. Their sons generally don't. Funny how excessive brett and a lot of other funky flaws seem to be diminishing in more or less linear relationship.

I'm curious, though. How many chefs in the real world smoke?

Historically, lots of them. In modern times, most of the good ones I know either have quit, never started, or indulge sparingly. Smoke kills the taste buds, and more and more chefs are coming to recognize that.

Same goes for wine makers, by the way ... at least in Europe, the older generation almost all smoke. Their sons generally don't. Funny how excessive brett and a lot of other funky flaws seem to be diminishing in more or less linear relationship.

I'm pretty sure smokers are responsible for the Iraq situation and the foreclosure crisis, too. They follow Bush, Cheney et all around and blow smoke up their ass.

Do you know hundreds of line cooks - many will become chefs- as well as chefs ? Have you spent thousands of hours in professional kitchens with them (and out back on break?)

(You'd be astounded at how many of the "celebrity" chefs do, in fact, smoke - but, you'll never see them doing it.)

Were you on your feet for 8-12 hours, sweating profusely, with no lunch break and the only possibility of a break coming if one needed to smoke? The chef would understand that.

I am just sick of the incessant vilification of smokers. It's a nasty, unhealthy habit.Can't we just leave it at that?

Let's make a deal America. I won't talk about your fat people and you leave all my damn good cooks, my smokers, alone.

Wow, Chef! Did you have an opinion about this that you wanted to share

I apologize for my rant, Robin.

This just happens to be a topic that sticks in my craw.

Let me quote from an article by wine educator Richard Gawel:

Perhaps as wine educators we should tell our students about things that really affect our ability as wine tasters. Examples are, the enormous variability between individuals (many hundred fold) in the number and distribution of taste receptors, which has been shown to directly affect how strongly we perceive tastes. Secondly individuals differ markedly in the amount and rate of saliva they produce, and this in turn has enormous implications for our perception of bitterness, sweetness, saltiness, astringency and particularly sourness. Lastly and more fundamentally, our perception of a complex product such as wine is determined by the interaction of tastes, aromas and tactile sensations produced by the various wine components. Knowledge of the nature of these interactions is where I believe the real focus of wine tasting education should lie.

I told my students for decades that the sense of taste is the one with the greatest variability among our species.

The key point being some people can taste, some people can't (the extreme here being ageusia.)

It's been many years since I read The Principles of the Sensory Evaluation of Food (and right now it's outside in a storage building but I believe that point is made throughout the volume.

Some people possess the ability to taste to a degree others can't even imagine. It doesn't matter if they file their taste buds daily with a rasp, that innate ability will still be there. The best chefs, wine makers etc. all have this ability. Lots of folks don't. Genetics.

I'm curious, though. How many chefs in the real world smoke?

Historically, lots of them. In modern times, most of the good ones I know either have quit, never started, or indulge sparingly. Smoke kills the taste buds, and more and more chefs are coming to recognize that.

Same goes for wine makers, by the way ... at least in Europe, the older generation almost all smoke. Their sons generally don't. Funny how excessive brett and a lot of other funky flaws seem to be diminishing in more or less linear relationship.

I'm pretty sure smokers are responsible for the Iraq situation and the foreclosure crisis, too. They follow Bush, Cheney et all around and blow smoke up their ass.

Do you know hundreds of line cooks - many will become chefs- as well as chefs ? Have you spent thousands of hours in professional kitchens with them (and out back on break?)

(You'd be astounded at how many of the "celebrity" chefs do, in fact, smoke - but, you'll never see them doing it.)

Were you on your feet for 8-12 hours, sweating profusely, with no lunch break and the only possibility of a break coming if one needed to smoke? The chef would understand that.

I am just sick of the incessant vilification of smokers. It's a nasty, unhealthy habit.Can't we just leave it at that?

Let's make a deal America. I won't talk about your fat people and you leave all my damn good cooks, my smokers, alone.

Wow! So smokers caused the Iraq mess. Who woulda thunk?

Personally, I don't care if chefs shoot heroin. I asked a legitimate question out of curiosity.

And yes, I've been on my feet many times for more than 12 hours slinging food. And I do remember the smokers getting all the breaks, stepping outside for a smoke while the rest of us had to take up the slack.

[ And I do remember the smokers getting all the breaks, stepping outside for a smoke while the rest of us had to take up the slack.

Yeah!

Ah, Larry, you went right to MY complaint! I never smoked. And I never got the two or three (or five!!) five0minute breaks that my fellow line cooks got. I'd like to say it didn't bug me, but it did. And I know people who started smoking so they COULD get those breaks. I also know that my bosses wouldn't have put up with me just stepping outside for five minutes to NOT smoke. The only cooks that got break were the smokers.

That said, I was at a nice resort recently for an elegant dinner. Every course but one was over-salted. My first thought was that the chefs/cooks were smoking too much.
Salt. The easiest way to "find" flavor? Add salt. Ruin it for your diners.
b

I used to joke that I should take up smoking for the breaks, but luckily I didn't or I'd be staring at grass roots by now. Lung cancer claimed both my father and grandfather (at age 46).

Everyone has a drug of choice (tobacco, booze, caffeine, pot, misc. other drugs--even sugar), so in my original question I'm really not slamming smokers. I'm just curious how it affects their tastebuds, which could also affect their livelihood. I also wonder about the number of doctors who smoke.

I'm currently reading Anthony Boudain's The Nasty Bits in which he describes junkets around the world and how he abused his body with no sleep and lots of food, booze and tobacco. The world he describes is inhabited by lots of smoking chefs and worse. It's a real hoot to read and hard to put down.

Ah, Larry, you went right to MY complaint! I never smoked. And I never got the two or three (or five!!) five0minute breaks that my fellow line cooks got. I'd like to say it didn't bug me, but it did. And I know people who started smoking so they COULD get those breaks. I also know that my bosses wouldn't have put up with me just stepping outside for five minutes to NOT smoke. The only cooks that got break were the smokers.

That said, I was at a nice resort recently for an elegant dinner. Every course but one was over-salted. My first thought was that the chefs/cooks were smoking too much.
Salt. The easiest way to "find" flavor? Add salt. Ruin it for your diners.
b

Have a second thought. Nobody has ever accused me of "over-salting." I smoke.

[Jenise]

Have a second thought. Nobody has ever accused me of "over-salting." I smoke.

Joseph, you didn't address this to me, but all the smokers I know (and I was once one) have warped taste buds. Among non-cooks, smokers are the most likely to prefer salty fried food, bury fried eggs in Tabasco sauce and put two lumps of sugar in their coffee--they need extreme flavors to get through. Though the professional cooks I've known personally have always dined at a higher level than that, they often have a similar tendency to underappreciate subtlety and consistently find balance that I've always attributed to smoking. There have been exceptions, and I'll accept your claim that you're one, but there's just no way that you can coat your mouth with tobacco and not be affected by it.

Have a second thought. Nobody has ever accused me of "over-salting." I smoke.

Joseph, you didn't address this to me, but all the smokers I know (and I was once one) have warped taste buds. Among non-cooks, smokers are the most likely to prefer salty fried food, bury fried eggs in Tabasco sauce and put two lumps of sugar in their coffee--they need extreme flavors to get through. Though the professional cooks I've known personally have always dined at a higher level than that, they often have a similar tendency to underappreciate subtlety and consistently find balance that I've always attributed to smoking. There have been exceptions, and I'll accept your claim that you're one, but there's just no way that you can coat your mouth with tobacco and not be affected by it.

I agree - that's why I don't put tobacco in my mouth.

However, I made the only really relevant point in all this with my quote in a preceding post in this thread.

Some folks could never pollute their taste buds with anything stronger than spring water and not taste as well as a chef who gargled daily with thumbtacks and licked sandpaper every evening.

The variability in ability to "taste" varies, as he mentions in the article up into the hundredfolds from one individual to another.

To me it's just astounding that a sense variation - any sense - could be that great in a single species. Perhaps we really are more than one species.

The book I mention, Principles of Sensory Evaluation of Food, with Maynard Amerine of U.C. Davis as the principal author, is really a very instructive text. He was one of my first heroes when I moved to California in 1968. I really wanted to go to Davis.

Sadly, he died about ten years ago.

Here's his obit in the NY Times.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.h ... A96E958260

(I have been accused of under salting my dishes on occasion [easier to fix than the other] - don't use any on food set before me. I drink my coffee black and eat my eggs fairly plain.)