Photo courtesy Jason Tesauro
In bars and kitchens, you’re on your feet all day — hot and sweaty shifts with short breaks or none at all. All that beautiful food, but you end up shoveling bread, cheese, fries or whatever you can scarf between handling tables and the rush. And when you’re in the weeds, there isn’t even time to pee, but all you’ve had to drink all day is a double espresso, so never mind. You feed the people, and then later, much later, you feed yourself, your dog and your kid, but first scrub the lid, order more squid, down a shot of amaro and do it all again tomorrow.
Welcome to the life of cooks, bartenders and much of the food and beverage industry.
It’s not peaches and creme brulee everyday out there — burn marks on the arms, dark circles under the eyes and cigs in the lungs.
What little is left in the tank isn’t likely to fuel a predawn run to a boot camp class. Instead of self care, to reward yourself as a cook or bartender is to rage (the preferred industry term) into excess. A doctor’s orders might be to rest, reset and restore, but the guests’ orders are a call to duty, hospitality and generosity. Your body needs green juice and REM sleep, but your restaurant buddy craves Red Bull and raw bar, so another bender is begun. It all adds up to accelerated deterioration, usually in the name of our delight.
Graffiato’s General Manager Kristel Poole put it like this: “There is no one else surrounded by vice and distraction more than us. We curse like sailors and need to unwind at the end of yet another 10-plus hour workday. We want to be healthy, but it’s not like we’re around good influences. Our ‘happy hour’ is midnight. Our morning is your lunch hour. We have crazy schedules that ‘normies’ don’t understand. We’re at work during your 6 p.m. yoga or just fell asleep before your 6 a.m. spin class. The world of healthy living caters to the 9-to-5 crowd, not us. And then you get into job-related stresses, because our work is active and physical. Our feet always hurt, our shoulders are tight, our backs are giving out, we have carpal tunnel from shaking cocktails and chopping onions. But where do we go when [getting] help means missing a shift?”
Thus, Chefs in Shape.
From Rene Redzepi’s Noma workouts to Sean Brock quitting binge drinking, the healthy chef is trending, and now it’s Richmond’s turn. Two months ago, I launched a secret Facebook group and put out the word: We’re all doughier than a Bottom’s Up pizza. Let’s get ripped! But you know how chefs are. That June announcement with a July 1 start date turned into August 1 and then some. On August 10, we all finally slipped into our sneakers and hit it. Now, people you’ve never seen out of chef's whites or bar T-shirts are pumping iron downtown and riding the Capital Trail.
Here’s how it works: Since no one had gear, Giant Bicycles and Pedal Power are graciously allowing us to borrow their bikes. Hunter Rhoades, owner of Richmond Balance, is leading our regimen of serious fitness training. We’ve got three standing workouts: two weekday gym sessions and one morning bike ride. Other rides and such are ad hoc. On the first day, we got weighed and measured for waistline and body fat. Not only were there no tears, the banter was sharp and rich. “Thirty-seven percent fat? If I were a cheese …” said one snarky restaurateur, “brie body!”
Our workout participants include:
- Jason Alley, chef/owner, Comfort, Pasture, Flora
- Brittanny Anderson, chef/owner, Metzger Bar & Butchery, Brenner Pass
- Michael Ashley, executive sous chef, Brenner Pass
- Julia Battaglini, owner, Secco Wine Bar
- Jay Bayer, owner, Saison, Saison Market, Flora
- Ethan Craig, bar manager, The Rogue Gentlemen
- Beth Dixon, beverage director, Comfort and Pasture
- Sarah Gaskin, server, Pasture
- Julie Heins, chef, Secco Wine Bar
- David Martin, general manager, Secco Wine Bar
- Kristel Poole, head bartender, Graffiato
- Plus local fiber artist, fashion designer and VCU professor Michael-Birch Pierce to provide both a queer eye and comic relief. “I’m straight skinny,” he said on weigh-in day, “but I’m gay fat.”
This approach works because it’s a strict no-judgment zone and everyone is all-in. “It’s a comfortable group of people,” Pierce says. “Makes it easy to get out of bed and get my ass over there. Hunter is a sick, twisted f---, obsessed with squats, but it works.”
Despite no formal gym routine since her JV softball days back when Jazzercise was a thing, Julia Battaglini and her GM haven’t missed a deadlift since we started. Says Battaglini, “Until now, the only exercise I got was throwing shade, jumping to conclusions and running at the mouth.” Secco is on the stick, but so is Flora, Pasture and Brenner Pass. Hmm, do we see a Top Chef meets Biggest Loser competition brewing in RVA?
Stay tuned through Richmond magazine. I’ll be posting updates here every other week along with fitness tips and recipes from our participating restaurants. Two weeks in, and we already see and feel a difference. Brittanny Anderson serves up the best pork chop in our city. She also pushes up barbells like her life depends on it. Support these cats and let them know if you can see progress.
