this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2026
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Yes, and no.
Some jobs were hell and some were amazing, but I was always happiest cooking for the family (kids are grown and gone, so now it's mostly the two of us).
I like the diversity of what I can prep at home, sometimes (when we're flat out at the restaurant) seeing what i can week out that's good with no ingredients.
Basically it's the different challenges at home vs. the daily grind that make the difference for me. Some days I like the consistency that work brings, and sometimes it's just something to check off a list so I can get home and do 'some real food'.
So your job is cooking?
That makes a lot of sense. A lot of the 'stress' of my job comes from people - asking permission, considering stakeholders, working around their needs - that it's quite freeing to "JFDI" something, knowing that it's only me that cares or is affected.
The venn diagram between "work" and "play" for me has a lot of intersecting area, but the distinctions are mostly clear. Guessing it's the same for you - especially with the extra depth that cooking for family involves.
Absolutely, it's amazing how much each spect of the career has different disciplines - for example when you can set up an event from soup to nuts, so to speak: Make a menu, get a budget, get the product, gat the cooks to produce it, execute the event, and then reconcile the costs, feedback from the guests (and your boss/business owner) and have everything go as planned has each its own sense of satisfaction and heartburn.
This year marks 40 years, everything from McDonald's to 4* 5 Diamond restaurants, several countries and 3 continents, which finally led to us opening a humble little BBQ joint ran by just us 2 (and a couple neighbor kids during high season) and it took all that experience (and, luck!) to survive the opening 4 months before COVID, lol.
Cooking at home is more simplified, and more satisfying.
Oof, that must have been brutal. I understand the satisfaction and still try to recognise and store up the good days, but something like Covid is a blindsider that took so many businesses out.
Hospitality here in the UK suffered hugely, even to the extent that the government created an ill-founded system called "eat out to help out" and paid people to eat at restaurants. (And did cause more spreading of the virus). I'm lucky to live close to several good food pubs, but they're still struggling and gradually closing as costs rise.
I'm in Spain and it's an absolute bloodbath I'm the UK, so many chef's & pub owners I know are struggling. hopefully there will be relief before there is nothing left but big chains with mediocre beer and food.
COVID did some damage to the hospitality section here, a lot of local institutions were over their heads with loans and the it was compounded because the Gov. would not let them get rid of personnel-evn though they were shut! We were lucky in that regard because we hadn't hired anyone yet.