(Restaurant News Release) The food service industry overall sees a higher-than-average suicide rate, highlighting the need for mental health support in high-pressure hospitality roles.
The nation’s leading science-based and data-driven service organisation that protects the public’s health, the CDC, ranked Chefs and bartenders significantly high in suicide rates, above many industrial and protective service jobs (i).
Heard is an 8-part podcast series that launches this month. It has been created to ignite conversation around improving negative kitchen culture and encouraging mental health in the hospitality industry. The series will explore the history of restaurant culture and investigate food media’s role in romanticising and normalising toxic kitchen culture.
These issues extend into the front-of-house. According to a study by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, 60% of servers at upscale restaurants struggled with at least one mental health issue (ii).
Employment records show the tangible impact of this emotional distress. In the first three months of 2024, nearly 3 million Americans resigned from leisure and hospitality industry roles; this is 204% above the national average quit rate (iii).
Heard episode one guest Chef Amanda Cohen believes these conversations can truly change how people are thinking; “Discussions and podcasts like this really are important. It really brings important issues to light and lets other people hear about them and know what other people are thinking about them.”
Chef Harold Villa Rosa agrees; “Without these types of conversations happening, we’re going to be stuck in the same thing that we’ve always done year in, year out. Our culture in the restaurant is always stuck in the past, but we never had a chance to think about the future and the next level of culinarians that are coming after us and how we can set them up for success.”
The Burnt Chef Project‘s survey of hospitality professionals revealed an overwhelming 86% expressed interest in receiving mental health training to better support themselves and their colleagues (iv). These findings underscore the urgent need for enhanced mental health support and open dialogue within the hospitality industry.
“I think podcasts like this are few and far between and important for the progression of furthering the restaurant and hospitality industry,” says Greg Baxtrom. “This industry is shockingly slow to change. We’re still using a 103-year-old kitchen organisation system from Escoffier.”.
The series also brings in outside expertise from mental health professionals like sports psychologist and anxiety and adrenaline specialist Dr. Tom Ferraro, physiologist Oliver Patrick, who is the clinical director for PILLAR at Raffles London at The OWO, and Dr Julie Gurner, who is an elite performance coach working with for high- growth startups.
Heard podcast host and food journalist Ryan Kings explains how we must recognise and support the importance of the restaurant: “The table is the stage of life, a space where we grow, and the importance of restaurants is often overlooked.”
“Restaurants are integral to culture and society. Sociologically, they provide a third place that is important for our well-being. They nurture and nourish us. They are the places we choose to celebrate, have a first date, propose, and say ‘I love you’ for the first time. They are also the places we go to digest and process bad moments in life. While technology, on-demand TV, and social media have created constant distractions, restaurants are still a space where we step away, converse, share, and sit together to break bread.”
The series highlights real-life examples of chefs and industry leaders trying to change the status quo in kitchens, including Amanda Cohen, Dirty Candy, New York (who banned tipping at her restaurant in an attempt to balance front- and back-of- house benefits and pay staff a living wage), J.J. Johnson, Field Trip Group, New York (who encourages restaurants to hire professional performance coaches to support their staff emotionally, Chris Shepherd, Southern Smoke Foundation, Houston, (who provides free mental health resources and financial support for chefs in need) and Elizabeth Tilton, OS Benefits, New Orleans, (a co-operative healthcare solution for the restaurant industry that reduces the economic burden of healthcare for employers and employees).
Ironically, while chefs dedicate their lives to nurturing and nourishing others, their own health and well-being are often negatively impacted by high-octane, adrenaline- fueled kitchens.
“Chefs should not care more about the carrot they are cooking than they care about themselves,” says King. “Let’s put some ‘rest’ in restaurants.”
Editors Notes:
Heard Podcast
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/heard-podcast/id1805839618
Images
https://tinyurl.com/HeardPodcastImages
Sources
i) Chefs’ suicide rate is 5 per 100,000 (ranks 18th overall as a high-risk category), the bartender rate is 47 per 100,000. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/wr/mm7250a2.htm
iii) https://www.hrdive.com/news/industries-with-highest-quit-rates/721216/
iv) https://www.theburntchefproject.com/_files/ugd/7991dc_520364afe95e4f61b01283ca310eeb80.pdf
About Ryan King
Food journalist Ryan King has 15 years of experience interviewing and writing about the world’s best chefs.
Podcast Episodes
Ep 1: The Industry’s Biggest Challenges – And Real Solutions: Top chefs break down the toughest issues in hospitality and share what’s actually working to create change.
- Features: Amanda Cohen, JJ Jonhson, Greg Baxtrom, Kenji Lopez, Chris Shepard, Harold Villa Rosa.
Ep 2: The Athlete’s Playbook for Mental Health: What chefs can learn from elite athletes about resilience, performance, and the dangers of ignoring mental health.
- Features: Sport Performance Psychologist, Dr. Tom Ferraro
Ep 3: The Science of Surviving the Line: A physiologist wires up chefs in the kitchen to measure the real physical toll of working the pass. The results? Eye-opening.
- Features: Physiologist and lifestyle manager, Oliver Patrick
Ep 4: How to Lead Like a Pro: A performance coach for high-growth startups reveals what great leadership looks like in high-pressure environments.
- Features: Executive Performance Coach, Dr Julie Gurner
Ep 5: Fixing Healthcare in Hospitality: The founder of the first restaurant-focused health care co-op in America on making benefits more affordable for owners and staff.
- Features: Elizabeth Tilton, founder of OS Benefit
Ep 6: How Food Media Fuels Toxic Kitchen Culture: A deep dive into how TV and social media glamorize harmful industry norms – and what needs to change.
- Features: Sociologist Ellen Meiser and chef Kenji Lopez.
Still in Production
Ep 7: Uses for Obsession with Ben Shewry: Ben has been a chef pushing for change in kitchen culture throughout his career, with his unique staff speeches and his recent book on how to tame and use obsession.
Ep 8: Debate with three chefs Valeria Chang, Oscar Lorenzzi and Daniel Garwood – three chefs get together to discuss all the issues presented in Heard and share how they are working to improve kitchen culture in their own restaurants.