Restaurant culture has long been defined by aggression and long hours – and mental and physical breakdowns. But a new generation of chefs are breaking the mould
Last Christmas, Stuart Ralston, chef-owner at Edinburgh’s highly rated Aizle, had a revelation: he was exhausted. After two decades of 15-hour days and three years at his first solo venture, the 35-year-old was physically and mentally spent. “And that’s not where I wanted to be for the next 20 years,” he says.
Acutely aware that, in particular, he was not spending enough time with his young son, Ralston began to question the damaging chefs’ bravado he had bought into. “When I was coming through, Gordon Ramsay and Marco Pierre White were idols. It was a badge of honour to say I’ve worked this-many-days-in-a-row or so many hours. In places I trained, I don’t remember owners ever caring how many hours the staff worked or whether a chef had done 20 days straight.”
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