November 18, 2025 • 15 mins
In this solo episode, Furqan shares the moment he realised it was time to walk away from restaurant kitchens and the five signs that tell many chefs the same truth
After years in high-pressure environments including Noma and Mugaritz, Furqan found that passion alone couldn’t survive a system built on exhaustion, repetition, and imbalance.
Today, as an R&D chef at the Basque Culinary Center, he helps chefs build meaningful careers beyond the pass and this episode breaks down exactly how to recognise when it’s time for change.
You’ll learn:
• The early warnings of burnout chefs often ignore
• The five signs it may be time to step away
• Why leaving a top kitchen isn’t failure
• The myths that keep cooks trapped in unhealthy systems
• Realistic next steps if you’re scared or unsure
Whether you’re a line cook questioning your future, a student unsure about the industry, or a chef dreaming of R&D, education, storytelling, or sustainability — this episode is for you.
A career in food doesn’t have to mean a life in service.
There are other paths. This is where they begin.
🎧 Fugitive Chefs is your window into alternative culinary careers and bold food innovation. New episodes every Tuesday.
👉 Follow, rate us on Spotify, subscribe & comment on YouTube, and share with someone who needs this.
🎙️ Hosted by Furqan Meerza
📸 Instagram (host): https://bit.ly/4dtiyTv
🎧 Instagram (podcast): https://bit.ly/43ndATO
🔊 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3F6j25A
🍏 Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/43vBtbT
🔗 Join the Fugitive Chefs Circle : a free community for chefs navigating life beyond restaurant kitchens.
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Have you ever finished a service, sat on a milk crate
behind the restaurant and wondered, is this really what I
signed up for? You still love cooking, but your
passion that got you here feels bodied under fear, exhaustion,
repetition. And I get it because I've been
here myself. I am.
Farkhan and I worked at some of the hardest, most demanding
kitchens in the world. Norman Copenhagen, Muguritz in
Spain. And today, for the past three
(00:20):
years, I work as an R&D chef at the Bass Culinary Center.
And from this transformation that I've made, I help other
chefs in a way to their careers around the food system, but
outside of restaurant kitchens. In this short episode, I will
share how I realized it was timeto leave restaurant kitchens, 5
signs that you might be ready to, and what real options exist
once you leave the restaurant kitchens.
So if you're questioning your part, stay with me.
(00:40):
This one's for you. Welcome to Fugitive Chefs, a
show for chefs who love food butwant to build creative,
meaningful careers beyond the restaurant kitchens.
And this episode is a little different because it's not a
usual long interview format. It's shorter, about 10 minutes,
(01:03):
but it's very personal because before fugitive chefs became a
community, it was just me tryingto figure out how to make food
mean something again once I leftthe restaurant kitchens.
And if you're watching this, youprobably feel that too.
So I myself spent years chasing the dream, starting working,
pushing for perfection. You can hear my story on the few
episodes back when I shared about my whole personal journey
of how I became a fugitive chef in the beginning of October.
(01:26):
I shared that. And this shift really happened
when I was working at Noma, as Ihave said in many of my
interviews. And I was surrounded by
brilliance, by really amazing staff, by really tainted people,
but also by burnout. And the service was electric.
The ingredients were world class.
The producers were meeting were like the best producers you can
imagine in the world. But I was serving food to people
I did not relate to. And this was a big factor for me
myself. Many chefs I've spoken to on the
(01:48):
journey relate to that, but there are many also who don't.
So again, this is just my version of what I think are the
signs that you feel that you must leave restaurant kitchens.
And there's a lot of careers beyond that.
And that's the whole motive of the podcast, right?
And for me, it was, yeah. This unrelation of feeling that
you don't fit there came from I was serving to people who were
in most cases, yeah, people who can afford this kind of a meal,
(02:10):
first of all, who book months inadvance.
They're also passionate people coming from our trade itself,
restaurant chefs, cooks coming to to eat over there to inspire
themselves. But again, a lot of people who
do not understand food, who do not understand what it is to
dine in a place like this, to appreciate the people who are
serving you, but just have money.
And that being the only factor in many cases.
(02:30):
And for me, this became the first spark of not relating to
it. I was very proud of where I was.
I mean, at the age of 22 back then, 23 back then, if I'm
working at a restaurant like Norma as a staff and not, not
just starting over there. I was employed over there on
this my second, third week into Norma.
So of course, it was a very big proud feat, which also connects
to not wanting to leave it, you know, So eventually the anxiety,
(02:52):
the health issues started, whichI have again, deep dived into.
But yeah, I tried to take a rest.
I took even a break from Noma. And over there, the restaurant
staff was super supportive. Team Chef Kenneth, who was
heading the team at that point, he was very supportive of this
this, this break that I asked for.
But the craziest part was that leaving did not feel like
liberation. It felt like betrayal.
When I ultimately left Noma, it felt like, yeah, I mean,
(03:14):
everybody wants to be there as as even interns and I had a job
over there and I'd give that up.So it felt like sort of a
betrayal. And most people would tell me or
or just me telling myself, you know, that you made it.
You made it to to what is the the heights of success in a
culinary career? Why would you leave it?
But for me, the success did not align with my values.
It doesn't it has to mean alignment for many people's
(03:36):
success doesn't have to mean alignments.
Maybe alignment with other people's aspiration, other
people's image, imagination of what a career in kitchen looks
like. But for me, it was not aligning
with my values. And, and one, just just one
sudden day, I realized that if being in the best restaurant in
the world still doesn't mean success and still leaves you
empty, maybe it's time to redefine what best means, like
what, what is the best in each person's case.
(03:56):
And so for me, this is, this is an episode about how do you know
your for yourself that it's timeto leave?
And I'll break those break this down into 5 signs I've seen
again and again in myself and inhundreds of chefs that I have
spoken to through the interviewsI have made to the messages I
get on my Instagram. I try to respond to everybody
and connect with them. And these are the five major
signs I would say I have seen. And maybe this is an
(04:18):
introspection for you yourself who's listening or watching this
episode, if that is something. Yeah, that you could that could
bring value to you. And the first sign is that you
wake up unhappy more days than not.
So that heaviness before service, that's really not
weakness because it could be confused with like you've been
working long hours. You've been, of course, that is
a factor as well. Of course, not sleeping or
working long hours is the fact as well.
But I feel this, this discontentof, of being unhappy.
(04:42):
It's data from your health. So you're from your system
telling yourself to take a break.
So, and sometimes it could be a break from work, a vacation or
whatever that is. But if it's repeating itself, if
it's happening very often, that's one sign that your
present environment and most cases work because as chefs, we
spent more hours than anything of our week at work.
So that is the first signs that maybe restaurant kitchens are
(05:03):
not the place for you at this point.
Second is your environment isn'thealthy.
Look around yourself. Is there verbal abuse?
It may be impossible hours, it'sconstant exhaustion and it's the
language used at work. It's the way your career looks
like from from that restaurant'sperspective.
And none of this is basically paying your dues because we have
grown up in an environment wherewe've been told you have to pay
(05:24):
your dues to climb the restaurant ladder.
You know, no, don't confuse thatif you see abuse around you and
your environment is not healthy in general at kitchen at the
restaurant you're working at, ifthe person who's heading your
team is not somebody aspired to be, it's not the bright place to
be. And it's very it's very easy
calculation, right. Third is I would say very
important. It's you have stop creating
yourself. So most of us get into this
(05:45):
profession not just for earning a salary, because of course this
is not the right profession if you want to just make money.
So you get there for passion, you get there for creating, for
being a creative person yourself.
And if the place you are doesn'tpermit that doesn't have a
program for you to be able to create, to be able to provide
inputs to the creative idea of the restaurant, maybe it's not
your place. Maybe you're too young into the
(06:05):
Korean, that's fine. You need to train.
But if there's nobody listening to you, every input is valuable
in a in a restaurant kitchen. And if that environment doesn't
allow you to do that, I think it's not the place for you to be
yet. So once this one, this
creativity dies, that fire goes out in a person's passion.
And that's something Joseph Youssef himself said on the
podcast, that he was not somebody who got burnt out by
kitchen hours. He was somebody who saw that he
(06:26):
was it was not the place where people were being creative.
It was a place where people justrepeat.
Possibly there's one or two people on the top who who
create, but the rest of the staff is just repeating.
It's monkey see, monkey do in his words.
And yeah, that's one sign I would say, which means that
restaurant pigeons are not giving you what you're looking
from your carrier. The 4th 1 is your pay doesn't
match your talent. So that's again one more thing.
(06:47):
If you think, if you feel and for that very good ways to yeah,
go for interviews, apply to other jobs, apply to other
carriers could be within restaurant kitchens as well.
You have to see if you're what you're being paid in, where you
are, in your environment, in your surrounding, if that
matches the talent that you haveor what you bring on the table
Now that sometimes that could beyou have a path and you have an
idea what you want to achieve from this restaurant.
You want to learn a certain skill or you want to learn
(07:08):
something from from somebody whoworks over there.
And that's why you're like somehow compensating that less
pay for that time with that person.
But in a long term scenario, this is never a good yeah
relationship as an as an employer and an employer.
So I would say it's very important that we also talk
numbers. We chefs mostly ignore this
fact, but it's important that wespeak, speak numbers, be
comfortably about what we are supposed to be paid, speak
(07:30):
comfortably at at appraisals andat yearly revision of salaries.
And I feel, yeah, if your dream is to open something or, yeah,
your your skills need more for your skills need to be
appreciated more. And yeah, if you think that your
same skills can earn far more inR&D or education or product
development or some other business venture, I would say,
yeah, it's not the right place to be in restaurant kitchens if
your pay doesn't match your talent.
(07:51):
And lastly, you're not moving towards your own goals.
So a lot of us get in restaurantkitchens could be to open a new
restaurant yourself to to get into food, to understand the
food world, to possibly, yeah, cook better.
Whatever it is, whatever whatever it is that you had
started your career in or has modified that goal itself.
If your everyday job doesn't take you towards that goal,
what's the point of it? Yeah, if your dream is to open
(08:13):
something or be a culinary teacher or to start a venture to
do pop ups, to do create products in food, if your
career, if your restaurant doesn't take you towards that, I
wouldn't say it's a place to be.I feel in today's fast moving
world, every step you take and every step you take in your
career has to amount to something and has to go towards
something. So I would say that is why it's
it's about getting control rightAnd to be honest with yourself,
(08:36):
just just just think about what you've heard right now.
These 5 tips that I've said likeI'll repeat them again.
First one, you wake up unhappy more than more days than not.
Second one, your environment is not healthy.
Third, you've stopped creating yourself. 4th, your pay doesn't
match your talent and 5th, you're not moving towards your
own goals. So be honest to yourself.
And if two or two or more of these boxes ticked, it's time to
pause and look beyond the pass. Most chefs, I would say, don't
(08:58):
stay in the kitchens because they love it.
Yes, it is a good. Yeah, It's a very romantic story
to get into the kitchens, lovingthe heat, loving the kitchens,
loving what you've seen on television, what you've read in
Anthony Bourdain's books. But they possibly more more
likely stay because they're scared.
And this is from somebody who has spoken to chefs and realized
that most chefs are there in that profession because they're
scared. Because they're scared of.
(09:18):
Yeah, uncertainty, possibly financial problems, possibly
this whole phrase of I will leave and I will become
irrelevant. And I've seen this at and I, I
can't share names over here, butI've seen this from top level
R&D chefs in massive restaurants.
These people stay so long in thecircle, like in ham, like a
hamster, that you have this major fear of being irrelevant
(09:41):
once you leave the restaurant structure.
And that, that, that fear is what makes you smaller than who
you are. And all these misconceptions and
only a Michelin star can lead you to success or only being on
the 50 best lead list can lead you to success.
Or I need another degree to pivot.
Many chefs thing that because I have got into this trade, which
is very much about operations, very much about my skills, I
possibly need another degree to kind of, yeah, make the
(10:05):
difference and, and pivot to a different career.
And the truth is, I would say you already have everything you
need. You have discipline, you have
precision, you have leadership, you have sensory understanding,
you have a global understanding of food systems, you understand
people, you are very good at people resolving, like resolving
situations and people skills. Possibly if you work at, at a,
(10:25):
at a sous chef level at a restaurant where you deal with
clients, you deal with allergenson the fly, a lot of the
situation handling you learn in the restaurant.
So you have all these skills andall of these skills are
transferable to a different carrier.
Honestly, believe me, the problem is not you.
It's not that you lack something.
It's a narrative and it's the narrative that you want to give
to yourself as as somebody building a carrier.
(10:45):
So what would I say that you need to do next now that once
you've figured out, if you stay on the video, I guess you
figured out that yes, restaurants are not for me.
What's next? For some of them, it's a full
break. For some of them it's a full
break. If you can afford that,
volunteering somewhere. For myself, once I left Noma, I
spent two months at permaculturefarm in Germany just learning
about permaculture. I always felt that I was, yeah,
(11:06):
serving great food and great produce, but never really knew
how to produce that right. So I think I don't want to
become a full time farmer, but Ithink being aware about how
these things grow was something which I needed at that point.
And I did that. You could travel, you could
reflect, you could take a break with friends and family.
So that's that's one part for many of them.
It's a side project. I would say you're safe for a
smarter way if you have an idea where you want to pivot next.
(11:28):
And maybe it's doing pop ups. Maybe it's maybe it's you're
somebody who's just, for example, you're somebody who's,
I don't know, you're a South African living in Denmark and
working in restaurants. And you think, OK, wow, South
African cuisine is getting some importance and some yeah,
attention. What if I host workshops of
South African cooking classes inDenmark?
Maybe that's a pivot you want tomake as a full time career.
(11:48):
Be consultant for South African restaurants in Denmark.
But before that, while you have your day job, while you have
your day, the evening restaurantjob, you can possibly on the
weekends do some small things and do a cooking class for
people you know around with yourInstagram.
Push that around and see if thatis a credible way to to earn
money before you pivot and before you make that massive
step. But the key is to treat your
(12:10):
creativity like muscle, not a job title.
So you have to train that 10 muscle.
And when you stop seeing yourself as just a chef, that's
where you open no new doors for yourself.
Those doors can be R&D, education, retelling.
So all the content creation, it could be food tech, you could be
somebody who's helping, I don't know, oven companies to make
more efficient ovens for restaurants.
(12:30):
But I have done a full episode about this of what parts are out
there, do more of them. I will put them up in the
description. But all you need is your
expertise. So your expertise and whatever
that is, if you can find a way to pivot to make their expertise
all like 80 percent, 90% of whatyou do, I think that's where the
real yeah, the goal lies, ratherthan just working for somebody
(12:51):
who has a certain vision, which is very narrow and your
expertise doesn't fit in that vision and trying to just, yeah,
trying to excel in that. I feel that's where we all get
sort of lost, you know, of beinglike hitting a wall again, again
and not moving Fast forward it. So I would say your value is not
really tied to a kitchen. You are as relevant outside.
If you're somebody who's talented, you're as relevant
(13:11):
outside the kitchen, then in thekitchen, which has these stars
or whatever that is, it's tied to more about how you think
about food or how you think about people, the skills you've
learned, the expertise you have built for yourself.
And yeah, I think that's all I want to share in this small
episode, something just to inspire you to kick this
conversation. I think there's not enough
content when you look up on YouTube or Spotify or Instagram,
(13:33):
whatever you look for. Kitchen burnout, there's a lot
of these yeah, reels and complaining videos and funny
videos, which honestly, I don't find very funny of like the
abuse around kitchens. But there is not enough content
on on what else is out there. So this is the effort with this
video to find kind of help you out to figure out if you're
somebody who fits in kitchens. And if you do, honestly, I'm not
against people who work in restaurant kitchens.
(13:53):
Also, there's a lot of change you can make while switching
restaurant kitchens. There are those who permit you
to be creative and there are those who don't.
So maybe that's the pivot you need.
But for those who really want toseriously look for carriers
outside restaurant kitchens. And I'm here for that because
I've made the transformation myself.
And I want to share that with people as far as wide as I can
within the audience. And yeah, if this resonates with
you, share this with somebody who you think could relate to
(14:14):
this as as a community within chefs.
I feel it's very important to yeah, help each other out in
this in this small world. And this podcast and the
community behind it exists to help chef rebuild their careers
to make it more creative and more human.
After all. So watch or listen to more
stories in the episodes that I have around here.
It's stories of chefs who have made this transformation.
As well like me and join the Fugitive Chef circle.
(14:34):
You will find a link in my bio on the description down here.
It's a space for mentorship ideas and next steps.
We are hosting small mentorship groups, coaching 1 to 1,
resolving the carrier doubts forpeople.
So please join the circle. And remember, leaving the
kitchen doesn't really mean leaving food, it means you're
ready to create differently. I'm Farkhan and see you in the
next episode.
Have you ever finished a service, sat on a milk crate
behind the restaurant and wondered, is this really what I
signed up for? You still love cooking, but your
passion that got you here feels bodied under fear, exhaustion,
repetition. And I get it because I've been
here myself. I am.
Farkhan and I worked at some of the hardest, most demanding
kitchens in the world. Norman Copenhagen, Muguritz in
Spain. And today, for the past three
(00:20):
years, I work as an R&D chef at the Bass Culinary Center.
And from this transformation that I've made, I help other
chefs in a way to their careers around the food system, but
outside of restaurant kitchens. In this short episode, I will
share how I realized it was timeto leave restaurant kitchens, 5
signs that you might be ready to, and what real options exist
once you leave the restaurant kitchens.
So if you're questioning your part, stay with me.
(00:40):
This one's for you. Welcome to Fugitive Chefs, a
show for chefs who love food butwant to build creative,
meaningful careers beyond the restaurant kitchens.
And this episode is a little different because it's not a
usual long interview format. It's shorter, about 10 minutes,
(01:03):
but it's very personal because before fugitive chefs became a
community, it was just me tryingto figure out how to make food
mean something again once I leftthe restaurant kitchens.
And if you're watching this, youprobably feel that too.
So I myself spent years chasing the dream, starting working,
pushing for perfection. You can hear my story on the few
episodes back when I shared about my whole personal journey
of how I became a fugitive chef in the beginning of October.
(01:26):
I shared that. And this shift really happened
when I was working at Noma, as Ihave said in many of my
interviews. And I was surrounded by
brilliance, by really amazing staff, by really tainted people,
but also by burnout. And the service was electric.
The ingredients were world class.
The producers were meeting were like the best producers you can
imagine in the world. But I was serving food to people
I did not relate to. And this was a big factor for me
myself. Many chefs I've spoken to on the
(01:48):
journey relate to that, but there are many also who don't.
So again, this is just my version of what I think are the
signs that you feel that you must leave restaurant kitchens.
And there's a lot of careers beyond that.
And that's the whole motive of the podcast, right?
And for me, it was, yeah. This unrelation of feeling that
you don't fit there came from I was serving to people who were
in most cases, yeah, people who can afford this kind of a meal,
(02:10):
first of all, who book months inadvance.
They're also passionate people coming from our trade itself,
restaurant chefs, cooks coming to to eat over there to inspire
themselves. But again, a lot of people who
do not understand food, who do not understand what it is to
dine in a place like this, to appreciate the people who are
serving you, but just have money.
And that being the only factor in many cases.
(02:30):
And for me, this became the first spark of not relating to
it. I was very proud of where I was.
I mean, at the age of 22 back then, 23 back then, if I'm
working at a restaurant like Norma as a staff and not, not
just starting over there. I was employed over there on
this my second, third week into Norma.
So of course, it was a very big proud feat, which also connects
to not wanting to leave it, you know, So eventually the anxiety,
(02:52):
the health issues started, whichI have again, deep dived into.
But yeah, I tried to take a rest.
I took even a break from Noma. And over there, the restaurant
staff was super supportive. Team Chef Kenneth, who was
heading the team at that point, he was very supportive of this
this, this break that I asked for.
But the craziest part was that leaving did not feel like
liberation. It felt like betrayal.
When I ultimately left Noma, it felt like, yeah, I mean,
(03:14):
everybody wants to be there as as even interns and I had a job
over there and I'd give that up.So it felt like sort of a
betrayal. And most people would tell me or
or just me telling myself, you know, that you made it.
You made it to to what is the the heights of success in a
culinary career? Why would you leave it?
But for me, the success did not align with my values.
It doesn't it has to mean alignment for many people's
(03:36):
success doesn't have to mean alignments.
Maybe alignment with other people's aspiration, other
people's image, imagination of what a career in kitchen looks
like. But for me, it was not aligning
with my values. And, and one, just just one
sudden day, I realized that if being in the best restaurant in
the world still doesn't mean success and still leaves you
empty, maybe it's time to redefine what best means, like
what, what is the best in each person's case.
(03:56):
And so for me, this is, this is an episode about how do you know
your for yourself that it's timeto leave?
And I'll break those break this down into 5 signs I've seen
again and again in myself and inhundreds of chefs that I have
spoken to through the interviewsI have made to the messages I
get on my Instagram. I try to respond to everybody
and connect with them. And these are the five major
signs I would say I have seen. And maybe this is an
(04:18):
introspection for you yourself who's listening or watching this
episode, if that is something. Yeah, that you could that could
bring value to you. And the first sign is that you
wake up unhappy more days than not.
So that heaviness before service, that's really not
weakness because it could be confused with like you've been
working long hours. You've been, of course, that is
a factor as well. Of course, not sleeping or
working long hours is the fact as well.
But I feel this, this discontentof, of being unhappy.
(04:42):
It's data from your health. So you're from your system
telling yourself to take a break.
So, and sometimes it could be a break from work, a vacation or
whatever that is. But if it's repeating itself, if
it's happening very often, that's one sign that your
present environment and most cases work because as chefs, we
spent more hours than anything of our week at work.
So that is the first signs that maybe restaurant kitchens are
(05:03):
not the place for you at this point.
Second is your environment isn'thealthy.
Look around yourself. Is there verbal abuse?
It may be impossible hours, it'sconstant exhaustion and it's the
language used at work. It's the way your career looks
like from from that restaurant'sperspective.
And none of this is basically paying your dues because we have
grown up in an environment wherewe've been told you have to pay
(05:24):
your dues to climb the restaurant ladder.
You know, no, don't confuse thatif you see abuse around you and
your environment is not healthy in general at kitchen at the
restaurant you're working at, ifthe person who's heading your
team is not somebody aspired to be, it's not the bright place to
be. And it's very it's very easy
calculation, right. Third is I would say very
important. It's you have stop creating
yourself. So most of us get into this
(05:45):
profession not just for earning a salary, because of course this
is not the right profession if you want to just make money.
So you get there for passion, you get there for creating, for
being a creative person yourself.
And if the place you are doesn'tpermit that doesn't have a
program for you to be able to create, to be able to provide
inputs to the creative idea of the restaurant, maybe it's not
your place. Maybe you're too young into the
(06:05):
Korean, that's fine. You need to train.
But if there's nobody listening to you, every input is valuable
in a in a restaurant kitchen. And if that environment doesn't
allow you to do that, I think it's not the place for you to be
yet. So once this one, this
creativity dies, that fire goes out in a person's passion.
And that's something Joseph Youssef himself said on the
podcast, that he was not somebody who got burnt out by
kitchen hours. He was somebody who saw that he
(06:26):
was it was not the place where people were being creative.
It was a place where people justrepeat.
Possibly there's one or two people on the top who who
create, but the rest of the staff is just repeating.
It's monkey see, monkey do in his words.
And yeah, that's one sign I would say, which means that
restaurant pigeons are not giving you what you're looking
from your carrier. The 4th 1 is your pay doesn't
match your talent. So that's again one more thing.
(06:47):
If you think, if you feel and for that very good ways to yeah,
go for interviews, apply to other jobs, apply to other
carriers could be within restaurant kitchens as well.
You have to see if you're what you're being paid in, where you
are, in your environment, in your surrounding, if that
matches the talent that you haveor what you bring on the table
Now that sometimes that could beyou have a path and you have an
idea what you want to achieve from this restaurant.
You want to learn a certain skill or you want to learn
(07:08):
something from from somebody whoworks over there.
And that's why you're like somehow compensating that less
pay for that time with that person.
But in a long term scenario, this is never a good yeah
relationship as an as an employer and an employer.
So I would say it's very important that we also talk
numbers. We chefs mostly ignore this
fact, but it's important that wespeak, speak numbers, be
comfortably about what we are supposed to be paid, speak
(07:30):
comfortably at at appraisals andat yearly revision of salaries.
And I feel, yeah, if your dream is to open something or, yeah,
your your skills need more for your skills need to be
appreciated more. And yeah, if you think that your
same skills can earn far more inR&D or education or product
development or some other business venture, I would say,
yeah, it's not the right place to be in restaurant kitchens if
your pay doesn't match your talent.
(07:51):
And lastly, you're not moving towards your own goals.
So a lot of us get in restaurantkitchens could be to open a new
restaurant yourself to to get into food, to understand the
food world, to possibly, yeah, cook better.
Whatever it is, whatever whatever it is that you had
started your career in or has modified that goal itself.
If your everyday job doesn't take you towards that goal,
what's the point of it? Yeah, if your dream is to open
(08:13):
something or be a culinary teacher or to start a venture to
do pop ups, to do create products in food, if your
career, if your restaurant doesn't take you towards that, I
wouldn't say it's a place to be.I feel in today's fast moving
world, every step you take and every step you take in your
career has to amount to something and has to go towards
something. So I would say that is why it's
it's about getting control rightAnd to be honest with yourself,
(08:36):
just just just think about what you've heard right now.
These 5 tips that I've said likeI'll repeat them again.
First one, you wake up unhappy more than more days than not.
Second one, your environment is not healthy.
Third, you've stopped creating yourself. 4th, your pay doesn't
match your talent and 5th, you're not moving towards your
own goals. So be honest to yourself.
And if two or two or more of these boxes ticked, it's time to
pause and look beyond the pass. Most chefs, I would say, don't
(08:58):
stay in the kitchens because they love it.
Yes, it is a good. Yeah, It's a very romantic story
to get into the kitchens, lovingthe heat, loving the kitchens,
loving what you've seen on television, what you've read in
Anthony Bourdain's books. But they possibly more more
likely stay because they're scared.
And this is from somebody who has spoken to chefs and realized
that most chefs are there in that profession because they're
scared. Because they're scared of.
(09:18):
Yeah, uncertainty, possibly financial problems, possibly
this whole phrase of I will leave and I will become
irrelevant. And I've seen this at and I, I
can't share names over here, butI've seen this from top level
R&D chefs in massive restaurants.
These people stay so long in thecircle, like in ham, like a
hamster, that you have this major fear of being irrelevant
(09:41):
once you leave the restaurant structure.
And that, that, that fear is what makes you smaller than who
you are. And all these misconceptions and
only a Michelin star can lead you to success or only being on
the 50 best lead list can lead you to success.
Or I need another degree to pivot.
Many chefs thing that because I have got into this trade, which
is very much about operations, very much about my skills, I
possibly need another degree to kind of, yeah, make the
(10:05):
difference and, and pivot to a different career.
And the truth is, I would say you already have everything you
need. You have discipline, you have
precision, you have leadership, you have sensory understanding,
you have a global understanding of food systems, you understand
people, you are very good at people resolving, like resolving
situations and people skills. Possibly if you work at, at a,
(10:25):
at a sous chef level at a restaurant where you deal with
clients, you deal with allergenson the fly, a lot of the
situation handling you learn in the restaurant.
So you have all these skills andall of these skills are
transferable to a different carrier.
Honestly, believe me, the problem is not you.
It's not that you lack something.
It's a narrative and it's the narrative that you want to give
to yourself as as somebody building a carrier.
(10:45):
So what would I say that you need to do next now that once
you've figured out, if you stay on the video, I guess you
figured out that yes, restaurants are not for me.
What's next? For some of them, it's a full
break. For some of them it's a full
break. If you can afford that,
volunteering somewhere. For myself, once I left Noma, I
spent two months at permaculturefarm in Germany just learning
about permaculture. I always felt that I was, yeah,
(11:06):
serving great food and great produce, but never really knew
how to produce that right. So I think I don't want to
become a full time farmer, but Ithink being aware about how
these things grow was something which I needed at that point.
And I did that. You could travel, you could
reflect, you could take a break with friends and family.
So that's that's one part for many of them.
It's a side project. I would say you're safe for a
smarter way if you have an idea where you want to pivot next.
(11:28):
And maybe it's doing pop ups. Maybe it's maybe it's you're
somebody who's just, for example, you're somebody who's,
I don't know, you're a South African living in Denmark and
working in restaurants. And you think, OK, wow, South
African cuisine is getting some importance and some yeah,
attention. What if I host workshops of
South African cooking classes inDenmark?
Maybe that's a pivot you want tomake as a full time career.
(11:48):
Be consultant for South African restaurants in Denmark.
But before that, while you have your day job, while you have
your day, the evening restaurantjob, you can possibly on the
weekends do some small things and do a cooking class for
people you know around with yourInstagram.
Push that around and see if thatis a credible way to to earn
money before you pivot and before you make that massive
step. But the key is to treat your
(12:10):
creativity like muscle, not a job title.
So you have to train that 10 muscle.
And when you stop seeing yourself as just a chef, that's
where you open no new doors for yourself.
Those doors can be R&D, education, retelling.
So all the content creation, it could be food tech, you could be
somebody who's helping, I don't know, oven companies to make
more efficient ovens for restaurants.
(12:30):
But I have done a full episode about this of what parts are out
there, do more of them. I will put them up in the
description. But all you need is your
expertise. So your expertise and whatever
that is, if you can find a way to pivot to make their expertise
all like 80 percent, 90% of whatyou do, I think that's where the
real yeah, the goal lies, ratherthan just working for somebody
(12:51):
who has a certain vision, which is very narrow and your
expertise doesn't fit in that vision and trying to just, yeah,
trying to excel in that. I feel that's where we all get
sort of lost, you know, of beinglike hitting a wall again, again
and not moving Fast forward it. So I would say your value is not
really tied to a kitchen. You are as relevant outside.
If you're somebody who's talented, you're as relevant
(13:11):
outside the kitchen, then in thekitchen, which has these stars
or whatever that is, it's tied to more about how you think
about food or how you think about people, the skills you've
learned, the expertise you have built for yourself.
And yeah, I think that's all I want to share in this small
episode, something just to inspire you to kick this
conversation. I think there's not enough
content when you look up on YouTube or Spotify or Instagram,
(13:33):
whatever you look for. Kitchen burnout, there's a lot
of these yeah, reels and complaining videos and funny
videos, which honestly, I don't find very funny of like the
abuse around kitchens. But there is not enough content
on on what else is out there. So this is the effort with this
video to find kind of help you out to figure out if you're
somebody who fits in kitchens. And if you do, honestly, I'm not
against people who work in restaurant kitchens.
(13:53):
Also, there's a lot of change you can make while switching
restaurant kitchens. There are those who permit you
to be creative and there are those who don't.
So maybe that's the pivot you need.
But for those who really want toseriously look for carriers
outside restaurant kitchens. And I'm here for that because
I've made the transformation myself.
And I want to share that with people as far as wide as I can
within the audience. And yeah, if this resonates with
you, share this with somebody who you think could relate to
(14:14):
this as as a community within chefs.
I feel it's very important to yeah, help each other out in
this in this small world. And this podcast and the
community behind it exists to help chef rebuild their careers
to make it more creative and more human.
After all. So watch or listen to more
stories in the episodes that I have around here.
It's stories of chefs who have made this transformation.
As well like me and join the Fugitive Chef circle.
(14:34):
You will find a link in my bio on the description down here.
It's a space for mentorship ideas and next steps.
We are hosting small mentorship groups, coaching 1 to 1,
resolving the carrier doubts forpeople.
So please join the circle. And remember, leaving the
kitchen doesn't really mean leaving food, it means you're
ready to create differently. I'm Farkhan and see you in the
next episode.
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