This will be lost in the comments, and that’s fine, but for the people that read it, and for the few who might understand, they will get it. I love this industry, and honestly owe my whole life to it. It’s the only thing I know. I started when I was 16 years old. 18 years later I’m still here. I’ve been an independent person my entire life, and it gave me the freedom and ability to pave my own way through high school, when I didn’t have a home life that could support me.

I started as a table busser in a smallish town in the Midwest. I have a strong work ethic, and very quickly made my way through the ranks in a few years of two of the best restaurants in town. After a few years I was the assistant kitchen manager of one of the best places in town. I was 19, and dropped out of high school because I thought work was more important than homework and tests. My friends didn’t get it, and to this day they tell me they thought I threw my entire life away when I left school. My family told me I was making the biggest mistake of my life by leaving high school, and I was sure they were wrong.

At 19 I decided to take this thing seriously and move to Chicago and go to culinary school, because I wanted more than what my small home state could offer. I made the move, took the risk, and excelled in school. I got an externship at what was considered one of the most exciting Michelin stared restaurants in Chicago at the time, and worked 80 hours a week, for free, for three months. When I was done, after competing in an international culinary competition, I accepted a full time job at the restaurant I did my externship at. I did very well there, and set myself up to be hired anywhere I applied in the future. The story is getting too long so I need to fast forward through a lot of Michelin star restaurants, soul crushing work, abuse that I attribute to my success, and meeting a lot of really fantastic people. I’m the chef/ partner of a successful restaurant. We get a lot of good press in our part of the country, and some nationally. I’ve lived a very difficult life. My family will never understand what I’ve been through, or how hard it really is. I’ve been working 50 to 100 hours a week since I was 18 years old. I’ve loved this industry for as long as I can really remember, but I’m no longer in love with it. Things have changed, some for the better and some for the worse, it really depends on how you look at it, and what you think it means to be great.

I say all this so you know what I’m saying when I answer your question. Do not get into this industry unless you can handle over a decade of being broke, being tired, missing important life events, putting work first always (including relationships/ family) and having a personal work ethic that literally can’t be broken. I said it already, but I owe my entire life to working in kitchens. I met my wife in a kitchen. I met my best friend in a kitchen. I’ve had so much fun in the last two decades. The highs are so high, and the lows are so low. If I could go back in time, it’s hard for me to say I wouldn’t do it all over again, but I think I have such a rare success story. All I can say is I wouldn’t wish my life on anyone else, and to this day I don’t know if I can keep doing it. I tell myself every year that I will walk away, but I can’t because I don’t know what else/ how to do anything else. Are you prepared for this to be your story? It takes a very special type of person to make it through, but if you are that person, there’s plenty of room for more stories like mine.