June 8, 2018 in Madison Magazine
The suicide death of chef, author and world-renowned TV host Anthony Bourdain shook the food-loving world today, but it also spotlights rising concerns about depression and suicide, issues all too familiar to chefs and food service workers.
Patrick DePula, owner and executive chef at Salvatore’s Tomato Pies, calls Bourdain’s death a tragedy, but says suicide rates in the food industry are “exorbitantly high” and something workers have to deal with every day.
According to DePula, stress and a demand for perfection can contribute to an environment that can be “difficult to come to terms with.” He said food industry workers “seem to be in the public eye constantly” and that one mistake can lead to constant and viscous criticism broadcast all over the internet.
“The things that are said are sometimes so unbelievably terrible,” he says. “And people don’t realize that there are human beings behind these dishes. There are people who work long hours in kitchens. There are people who are intensely proud of things they create, and sometimes they get it wrong.”
Data from a 2016 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report show cooks and other food service workers are among occupations with the highest rate of suicide. According to the data, 13 out of 100,000 workers commit suicide.
DePula says these numbers do not surprise him at all. He describes what he calls a sense of entitlement felt by the public that “breeds an environment detrimental to the food service worker.”
This critical and stressful environment is something workers have to deal with every day, Depula says. He noted one interaction with an angry customer that “rattled” his general manager for days.
“That kind of thing becomes so personal and so emotional,” he said. “We are human beings … There is no such thing as perfection.”
DePula — who at 10 years old lost his father to suicide — calls depression an illness that is “all-encompassing,” regardless of personal success. He says his thoughts are with Bourdain’s 11-year-old daughter, who will have questions she will never be able to answer.
DePula says he hopes Bourdain’s death brings the issue of suicide in the industry to the public’s attention. He emphasized the importance of time off of work and access to resources to cope with stress as ways of managing the “sometimes thankless” industry.
“It seems like every few months there is someone in this industry who this tragedy happens [to],” DePula says. “It’s a tragedy, and it’s time for reflection and time to see where we are going as a people.”
Lawrence Andrea 