Chefs and Cooks - do you ever get 'cooked out'?

Question

Perhaps it is just me, but I've been cooking for 32 years - and cooking does not only mean sticking stuff on a stove, but constant reading, research, experiments in the kitchen and all the rest.(aurant).

I feel totally 'cooked out' at the moment. I have not lost my zeal and passion - I just feel 'cooked out'. Chefs and serious cooks - please share your experience of this phenomenon with me.

Answer 1

When I feel like that, I go find a wild recipe I've never tried--something that's different enough to get my creative juices flowing again.

I LOVE to cook, and I especially love trying new cuisine-types that aren't available in restaurants here.

Answer 2

I think everyone gets that way eventlualy about cooking. Consider it as opposed to other jobs. If your a hair dresser, you do not do 8 hours at work with hair to come home and have to cut your familys hair every night. The same goes for an accountant, or almost any other profession.

Being a cook is not as you say, throwing things in a pot and hoping for the best. You have to know how things work together, compliment or contrast each other.

I have had times when I go to a friends house and say I feel like cooking. They have told me, good luck finding anything in there. 30 minutes later I walk out, and they are amazed that what I am serving came out of their kitchen. It is an art and a passion. BUT... then you turn around and come home and you have to have meals for the family. People expect it all to be good, and we expect it to be good as well.

On my off times I tend to be roughest on myself. I have made a dish that I would rather not serve that other people just rave about, saying it is the best I have ever made. Who knows....

Enough rambling... I really am trying to offer some help. When I get that way, I usually find if I go back to the basics I get the passion back. Those dishes that I learned from Mom, or my Honey (grandmother). They remind me of the love and passion that these strong women put into their food, and it helps me get back the passion for my cooking.

Good Luck and Good Cooking!

Answer 3

Yeah I bake cakes and sell them out of my home along with my 40 hour a week job plus cooking everyday for my family so I do get 'cooked out' at times too. There will be several days where I just make a big quantity of something so that we have it the whole week so I don't have to cook. The last thing I want to do is come home from work, bake cakes, and cook dinner for the family after a long day. Other times I am in the kitchen 24/7 having fun and loving it. I think it comes and goes in cycles.

Answer 4

Yes Foggie, I think we all have episodes of that. Like Cheffy, I find the first thing that goes -- almost as an early warning sign -- is my own appetite: I become the most appalling, dispirited incidental nibbler. The other side of the coin is my quite clearly going into auto-pilot mode -- the job still needs to be done, regardless, after all -- and then the sheer routine-ness of that begins to disgust me, in the sense of being disgusted with myself.

Much as it sins against all the high tenets we all try to aspire to, I find skiving abruptly for a day -- handing over to my second in command at a moment's notice -- and freewheeling, doing exactly as I please with no responsibility to anyone but myself, mostly succeeds in blowing most of the cobwebs out of my head -- I as often as not just drive 30 miles at random into the countryside, have myself fed by some other poor stove-slave for once, and genuinely *enjoy* his efforts, almost like a revelation, and pootle about for the rest of the day like that. By night time, or back in the kitchen the next morning, though not exactly ready to dance the fandango there and then, I do tend to feel a bit more breezy again and, if needs be, I might repeat the medicine in a week or so's time all over again. By now, when I spot the early warning signs, I tend to 'do a bunk' pro-actively like that, before things actually go pearshaped for real. It tends to work for me... :-/

(I realise it's somewhat of a small-fry, homespun bandaid I use, but sometimes the small stuff has more effect than a big seismic undertaking?)

Edit: something was nagging me about what you said and then I realised a few remembered words of Ducasse's, offered in, perhaps, a reflective moment, had resurfaced, so I looked them up: "An ephemeral art, cuisine is a toil of every day where repetition is a quality [mastery], and a risk [routine]."

Maybe band-aid is all there is on offer.

All the best, as always, big man.

Answer 5

I love to cook, have since I was a kid...in fact, it is one of my hobbies, from Bento (a North Americanized version but, still!) to dinner parties,... I have edited charity cookbooks, serve holiday dinners to over 30 people...I have a little side candy project that I provide food favors at weddings...I do truly love all aspects from creating new dishes to whole presentation aspect...

There are times when I do get a little "over done" with cooking...

I have a family of five and a full time job as well...

I hate the feeling of "have to cook something." It's no fun when it's an obligation, whether to make a cake or 10 dozen cupcakes for one function or other...or when I have a pressing deadline for some wedding candies...that kinda sucks...

Joni Mitchell once said something similar to "I can't remember what it ever was I liked about music..." I would honestly hate to get to that point with cooking...

cooking is a functional way for me to recharge creatively...and my family and friends get the benefit of it!

I haven't gotten to that point and honestly hope I never do...but, there are days when I say "The heck with it! We're getting pizza/thai/chinese/japanese/indian/chicken!" and I'm almost immediately sorry because these foods don't quite hit the spot the way I think they should...

I think we all have times when we go "off" something, whether it be cooking or anything else... it only happens when it becomes a chore instead of a "want to" thing to do...

Answer 6

I've been a commis chef for 9 of the last 11 years. Anxiety gets in the way so my focus is learning rather than promotion. This is my first year of creating my own dishes: albeit only soups, starters and vegetarian meals. A little stress is good for me whilst too much can make me ill. My research is probably not in the same league as yours but I have a good collection of recipe books and I file my tried and tested recipes on disc. I have left this career for a few months on a couple of occasions and returned to it quite eager to get my hand back in. You sound to be in similar situation; simply that of needing to take a break and do other stuff for a while. Maybe you should spend a year doing voluntary work and get to see life outside the kitchen environment. Chef is part of my identity but it's not all there is to life, for me.

Answer 7

I ve been a chef for 17years now don't know if its the long hours and low pay or lack of inspiration but every chef Ive worked with goes through this every so often . it usually is cured by a holiday or a new job which is part of the reason a lot of chefs change jobs every couple of years.I'm feeling the same right now have been working a lot of hours feeling burnt out and suffering from a lack of creative ideas and generally cheesed off with cooking but I know that with some time away from work and I will be back firing on all cylinders if not maybe time for a change of job

Answer 8

The key for me is that I only do it professionally as a caterer and only to a very exclusive group of people. So my answer is, no, I do not. I love to cook and create. It's what I do best but, years ago I made a decision to keep this passion alive and earn my true living elsewhere (although it is related to the food service industry).
I don't think I'll ever get tired if cooking. For me planning an event and bringing it to fruition is a vacation in itself.

Answer 9

I feel similar to you. I'm fed up with cooking the same old things for the family.
I have cooked professionally (for a few years) and now domestically for and eternity.

I feel tired of cooking and get bored with it. Although I have a great love of food. I watch a lot of cookery programmes for ideas but it doesn't help me get out of the rut.

I like to eat out a lot now. I suppose it's because I am so busy and don't get the time to spend in the kitchen.

Answer 10

I used to cook professionally, and I still have the passion. But sometimes you just need a break. Order out, make mac & cheese, or Hamburger Helper or something. Just take a breather. I'm in that funk right now, and I make simple things but keep looking for recipes for new stuff.