All this medical food blogging has gotten me to thinking about the similarities between chefs and doctors.
What is the same
1. They’ve got the whites and the chef’s hat, we’ve got the greens and the caps and masks.
2. Both require intensive training with a clear hierarchy of ascent.
3. The chef and the surgeon are captains of their respective ships – the kitchen and the OR.
4. Skill with sharp instruments is necessary for both professions.
5. We both work long hours, including nights and weekends.
6. If we both do our jobs right, our clients walk out feeling better than when they walk in.
7. We have JCAHO, they have Frank Bruni.
8. A knowledge of organic and biochemistry is essential in both cooking and medicine.
9. Medicine and the culinary arts have many aphorisms and truths: For example, “If you hear hoofbeats, it’s a horse, not a zebra.” and “The oven can wait for the cake, the cake can’t wait for the oven”.
10. Classic texts: We have Williams Obstetrics, they have Lourousse Gastronomique.
11. Clogs. We love ’em.
What is not the same:
1. Doctors should not take care of family members, but chefs should (and do) cook at home
2. They don’t have to worry about malpractice.
3. They cause food poisoning, we cure it.
4. Iron Surgeon? Nah, it’d never fly…
5. We only talk about food (“A fibroid the size of a grapefruit”).
6. We call a thymus a thymus. They call it sweetbreads.
7. We call it fatty liver disease and treat it with a low fat diet and exercise. They call it Fois gras and treat it like a delicacy.
8. Let’s see…Clients leaving restaurants pay a $20 co-pay and their dining out insurance picks up 80% of the reasonable and customary cost of their meal? Hmm…
Category: Second Opinions, Food
Brilliant!
I’m very amused.
As a citizen of a country with universal health care, let me suggest an alternative to your restaurant fantasy: government funded “dining out insurance.”
Chefs make you say “Mmmmmmmmm”; doctors make you say “Ahhhhh”. Chefs butcher your meat while surgeons try NOT to butcher your meat!
In Yiddish we say “eyder dem doktor, beser dem beker” It’s better to spend money at the Baker’s place than at the doctor’s place.
I just discovered your blog recently and it has become a part of my regular procrastination rotation. I almost became a pastry chef, but chose instead to follow the path that leaves me cramming for a scary Neuroscience exam. Sometimes I like to play up the nurturing/taking care aspects of food and medicine. Other times I like to think that I am going tp karmically combat the obesity and/or diabetes that I might have caused on a more macro level. Now it’s just the close friends and family who are at risk, and only on post-test weekends…
i just found this post, and I work in a restaurant(I make the salads), and I want to be a doctor. I’ve definitely thought about the similiarites before!! Great post!
Clever! 🙂
what a similarities.i have ot surprised to find this much between both two.
but one thing i would like to recall.many time chef got a chance to improve their quality and replace their mistake but th surgeon also get only one chance.Am I right?
[…] often said that doctors and chefs have a lot in common. The Anesthesiaoboist thinks so too, and gives us a great list of similarities between […]