Dinner dates at 1 am (if you’re lucky). Messages left unread, and calls unanswered till well after midnight. Evenings, weekends, Valentine’s Day, Diwali, Christmas, scheduled holidays of most kinds are cancelled (it’s their busiest time!). Bottomline: Dating a chef is brutal.
Okay, maybe that’s a bit harsh, but chefs themselves will tell you: a romantic partnership with anyone who works in a kitchen requires some serious expectation (and time) management. Every single chef we spoke with said it takes a special kind of person to understand the demands of their job. Every career demands a bit of work-life juggling for success. But some professions—doctors, nurses, soldiers, firefighters—have it tougher. Chefs are, in a way, shift workers, so their circadian rhythms are misaligned with those of the rest of us regular folk with regular jobs. They are on call more often than not even if they’re not saving lives, unless you count the odd Heimlich.
There are some positives, of course. As industry insiders, chefs can always snag that table at the booked-out hotspot, they know the best places for after-hours drinks and meals, and are clued into the off-the-menu specials. And they do still meet people (mostly from the hospitality industry, because who else would understand their schedule better), fall in love, and deal with the ups and downs of juggling knives and lives. Head to The Nod to see what works for Mumbai’s top chefs.
