'It shows we deserve respect' - Masterchef winner and restaurant owner hails The Bear and Boiling Point

TV shows like The Bear give chefs the respect they "deserve" according to a MasterChef winner.

Michelin Star-recommended restaurant owner Simon Wood, 47, says the drama-filled kitchens on the show are true to life.

The owner of WOOD Manchester and father-of-four from Saddleworth, said: “I have seen all the things that happen on these shows at some point - even in the space of 40 minutes.

“People love the drama that comes with high-end hospitality, and I think it’s all shown in drama TV programmes like The Bear and Boiling Point. It can be just as intense in real life.  You get stressful moments where all the cheques arrive at once, or someone drops the sauce, burns the food and cuts their fingers. The flare-ups between each other [are realistic].

“Also, most definitely the shouting, swearing, raw intensity, you see in these programmes, I think, is all very factual - It’s true to the life of a functioning kitchen.”

The latest season of The Bear season was released last month and is about a young award-winning chef returning to his hometown, Chicago, to manage the chaotic kitchen in his dead brother’s sandwich shop.

Simon was a data scientist for almost 20 years before he quit his job and took on a career in hospitality. He became a professional chef aged 38 in 2015 when he won the amateur version of MasterChef. Since then, he has opened two restaurants, his highly-acclaimed Manchester spot in 2017 and then, WoodKraft, in Cheltenham, which opened in 2018. WOOD Manchester was Michelin-recommended in 2019 and has won the double AA Rosette award. It is also currently in the running to be named the best restaurant in Manchester. 

He says he related to the show because his busy restaurants serve upwards of 2,000 people on a weekly basis. He said he prefers Boiling Point though, which follows an evening's service in the kitchen on a popular restaurant's busiest night of the year.

“People don’t realise how tough it is - The pressure chefs are under is phenomenal," he said. “One of the most overlooked parts about being a chef is consistency. The one thing TV doesn’t show all the time is that, as a chef, your cookery has to be consistently perfect - that’s what brings in the customers and gives you your rewards."

Simon believes Boling Point and The Bear give chefs the respect they deserve.

He said: “People appreciating our hard work and skill set is always welcome. I know you can say ‘it’s only someone’s dinner’, but when guest have a sense of entitlement they sometimes have, you have a need for reviews, also people are paying good money, there is a lot customers forget when eating in,

“It can be very frustrating as a chef when people undermine you - These programs which show true to life what its really like as a chef give us some well-deserved respect.”