Punk chefs and tat waiters

Why is it that the majority of those involved in the restaurant biz these days, or rather, the big fancy restaurant biz that very few can afford but nevertheless receives vast amounts of media coverage, have this lame, pseudo punk rock thing going on? Those of you who know what I mean know what I mean. In my city, you can’t get a job at a real restaurant without minimum 1.5 sleeves of tats and preferably some ear gauges and face piercings. In all major food publications and food tv, we see almost exclusively young chefs (not a very punk title, by the way) who seem to want to convey some kind of fuck the establishment aura while at the same time delicately ‘plating’ god knows what overpriced article of luxury food for their upper-class celebrants. The same phenomenon appears at Whole Foods across this country. Can anyone offer an etiology of this bizarre inversion of values? Where is the real punk food?

Cheffery, much like country music, is simply rock music, but several years behind; as pop-punk is to rock n’ roll, these fellows are to the service industry. Examining further, the roots are much the same as those of pop-punk; legitimately anti-authoritarian/rebellious “badasses” in the industry, such as Anthony Bourdain (compare to Black Flag or your oldschool punk act of choice), inspired a slew of psuedo-rebellious, goofy-lookin’ copycats (compare to Sum 41, The Ataris, et al) who wear lots of tattoos, do silly things with their hair, etc. etc., in the interest of appearaing to possess the legitimately creative, wild streak they so sorely lack. Also, it’s one of the only jobs you can get despite looking like a herpderp loser who chose to fight the man by spending most of his/her income on looking like a member of Good Charlotte, since people only have to taste you, not look at your half-silly-half-execrable visage of shattered dreams and fascile rebellion while withholding their disdain to appear professional.

Kill anyone who has ever spent more than 10 dollars on a meal.

WE ARE THE 99%!!!

I blame Guy Fieri. When there’s anything wrong with the food industry, blame Guy Fieri.

Also, CM Punk looks like a Waffle House line cook.

The food industry turns them into punks.

That perfectly describes Tommy, who almost won last season’s Hell’s Kitchen. I don’t understand it either. I don’t care if you’re a chef or not, but tatoos and excessive piercings really turn me off.

Wow, I was angrydrunk when I was posting in this thread. I don’t really care how you look if you make good food.

They are compensating for the fact that they’re waiters.

Sil, not only you’re back but you might have turned into a foodie? Things never change, eh? What are you doing these days?

The problem with restaurants these days isn’t the punk rocker chefs but the need to serve way too much food. They use quantity to justify the high price but most places I’ve been to, even high end places, tend to lack quality and has served to make us fat slobs. Clearly the best solution is to serve less for less, even if it takes a hipster chef to figure it out.

I am categorically not a foodie, which is something open in America only to the upper-middle class and beyond or people who work at nice restaurants. I can’t remember the last time I ate at a restaurant. Oh now I remember, it was almost two months ago, a very good Indian place which was like eating at these people’s house.

However, I cook for myself and others and am interested in gastronomy.

When it comes my personal life, I go to school. I’m also learning hebrew so I can convert to judaism and move to Israel. I was very drunk one night and looked at these forums to see if they were still active, and I saw a thread about people suddenly returning so I chimed in. And because I sometimes have questions that I wouldn’t know or care to ask other people, I decided to contribute this thread.

I don’t think you have to be a Jew to live in Israel.

You sort of do, unless you’re a descendant of some arabs who didn’t book after '48.

I know a guy who has tatts and piercings that works as a food prep guy at a high-end restaurant…he’s also a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to cooking. But he’s also one of the toughest (if not THE toughest) guys I’ve known. So, at least in his case, his swag isn’t just for show. >.>

Let me guess, he’s got so many rings on his fingers that they double as brass knuckes? :slight_smile:

Just kidding, of course.

Lol, possibly.

Waiter. There’s a bling in my soup.

I’ve wondered about that too when I watch those chef competition things on Food Network. It always seemed like the chefs that are tatted up and pierced are trying very hard to portray themselves as artists in the realm of chefdom and are somehow different from the stereotypical chef. Therefore their food is better.

I have started linking piercings, strange dye jobs, and tattoos to new age hippies since most people I know that fit that description are vegan or vegetarian. So maybe that’s why punk people work at Whole Foods. Clearly having one or two data points means I can extrapolate this as a conclusion. =p

I think that’s actually pretty true. Getting a discount or whatever on their food would be pretty great, plus it’s a place that will actually give you a job without really caring what you look like very much. I actually know a lot of wonky-looking kids who work at Whole Foods because they can get a job there, and the pay/whatever other benefits they get are apparently pretty decent.

I believe, Re: Whole Foods, that the powers that be of that corporation have decided/realized that the middle-aged wealthy white women who shop there are turned on sexually by the hard-bodied punk-looking bicycle dudes who stock the shelves, and that’s why they keep coming back and paying a premium on things they could easily buy at other, independent groceries with just as much variety/authenticity/whatever. It’s like the HBO of supermarkets. The same theory probably holds in explaining the waitstaff at these nice new restaurants serving vego-locavore-haute-fusion-money-cuisine bullshit, but I would be interested to discover just how and when this phenomenon got started.