The Chef Hermes Blog

Putting a Chef’s Life into Perspective for The Daily Mail

Posted by chefhermes on August 14, 2011 · 3 Comments 

The day after the ‘Glorious 12th‘ is usually a humdrum kind of day. The race to be the first to cook & serve the new seasons Grouse has faded and now it’s just another dish to do the mise en place for. Except on August 13th this year The Daily Mail published a story, I can only assume, in conjunction with Lotus PR about Heston Blumenthal. Mr Blumenthal has been the culinary darling of British media for some time with his off the wall approach to food and appearing to be the complete opposite of the other 3 star media chef Gordon Ramsay.

I’ll doth my cap to Monica Brown & Lotus PR, they did a good job. The news slowly appeared late on Friday night on the Mail website which in turn filtered it’s way through the various social networking sites. There was no scandal, salacious rumours or the woman scorned (well yet, anyway) about the whole thing. It appeared to be very civilised. But then as ever The Daily Mail puts it’s size nines right in it.

Despite the sad events in the Blumenthal household, the Mail decides that it would tag an article to the bottom of this story, maybe just to pad out the content to keep the editor happy, who knows? ‘Never Marry a Chef’ goes on to the chronicle the marital decline of several high profile chefs. Marco Pierre White, Rick Stein, Tom Aikens, Gordon Ramsay & the late Keith Floyd have all had difficult marital relationships but the Mail decides that, that isn’t enough. These chefs like so many others up & down the country are/were striving to put perfection on a plate for your enjoyment. It’s not an easy industry to succeed in & the pressures are massive. Statistically chefs are more prone to drink & drug abuse, heart failure & stress related illnesses than joe blogs public and as for your job? Well at best the government reckons you’ll only stay in that for about 18months before moving on to the next one.

Things like car insurance is loaded against you as well if you’re a chef, although this doesn’t seem to deter a lot of chefs I know owning a hot Audi, Porsche or M series BMW. Although drink and drugs aren’t anywhere near as prevalent as they were in the 90’s, it still doesn’t make a kitchen the romanticised place that the media seem to want to paint it as. Doubt me? Then follow some of the chefs on twitter for the more ‘raw’ experience. All in all, whilst it is sad that the situation that the Blumenthals are now in, I doubt very much that it was down to him being a chef, despite what the Daily Mail might say. But it is also happening up and down the country on an all too regular basis, just not played out in front of millions of fans.

Or to quote Adrian Oliver, chef patron of Margot’s Bistro in Padstow from Twitter:

a marriage fails..its not news ..its just bloody life..oh its a celebrity chef, my mistake it must be news..CELEBRITY OBSSESSED CULTURE!