Being a chef isn't a career, it's a personality defect.<p>For starters, just the wonky working hours mean that the people working in the field are some level of social misfit. Then you have an actual meritocracy--on steroids. You have an absurd number of extremely time sensitive tasks that you will either accomplish or you <i>WILL</i> get replaced.<p>Bourdain talks about the social dysfunction in restaurants quite a bit. Yes, many of these chefs <i>ARE</i> raging assholes. However, it's not like your subordinate chefs are sweetness and light, either.<p>The end problem is that the number of high end restaurants to work at is extremely limited relative to the number of chefs being produced. Consequently, the subordinate chefs can't just pack up and go to a different restaurant that isn't run by an asshole. Until that happens, nothing will damp down the asshole syndrome in the high-end restaurants.
> The UK's chef's union, Unichef, told the Guardian the accounts highlighted the need for greater diversity in kitchens - including more women - to help stamp out what it described as a "playground bullying" culture.<p>I think women are just being intelligent and self-selecting themselves out of that garbage.