Vì sao nhiều ẩu đả trong bếp ăn nhà hàng?

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The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that there are 2.53 million cooks and chefs in the United States. Of those, one in four reports experiencing physical violence (bạo lực) in the workplace—roughly 632,500 victims. While shocking, this figure fails to account for the psychological (tâm lý) and sexual (tình dục) violence that also plagues commercial kitchens (bếp ăn nhà hàng). Workplace harassment (quấy rối) and bullying (bắt nạt) is not limited to the United States and has been documented in Scottish, English, Scandinavian, French, Malaysian, Korean, and Australian kitchens. Why is violence so prevalent (phổ biến) in kitchens, and how has it become a behavioral (hành xử) norm? Using data from 50 in-depth interviews with kitchen workers and analysis of food media, this article shows that while kitchen workplace violence can be attributed to typical causes, such as occupational stress (căng thẳng nghề nghiệp), there is an overlooked source: the normalization (bình thường hóa) of violence through food media. By exploring television shows, like “Hell’s Kitchen,” and chef memoirs, like Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential, readers will see how bullying and harassment are romanticized (lãng mạn hóa) in these mediums, glorified (tuyên dương, ca ngợi; tô son điểm phấn) as a product of kitchen subculture, and consequently normalized in the kitchen.