I’ve always known that being a chef is no easy pea – even if I didn’t, I have so many loved-ones who cared to tell me so.

Long hours of standing in a hot, humid, greasy, male-dominated & harsh environment – all these are things which I didn’t mind. But, what I wasn’t quite ready for was the amount of pain associated to bodily injuries sustained in the kitchen.

It was an overly eventful in the kitchen 2 weeks back – besides the normal cuts, I sustained bad burns (from caramel) on 4 of my fingers. My left index finger suffered the most damage – with a $1 coin-sized blister. The pain gets so intense at times I find myself awoken in the middle of the night. It also doesn’t help that I can see the pain my parents feel when they see me in such a state – NOT GOOD. And despite being crippled, I have to push on for my 6-day school week – allowing no healing time at all.

I know, this is part of the risk associated to this passion and it is something every chef has to go through at one point (or multiple points) in their career. I am not complaining….but I must admit that on nights when I lay awake due to the pain – I start asking myself if it is all worthwhile.

Proverbs 3:5