TV shows like The Bear give chefs the respect they "deserve" according to a MasterChef winner.<br /><br />Michelin Star-recommended restaurant owner Simon Wood, 47, says the drama-filled kitchens on the show are true to life.<br /><br />Simon, a father of four from Saddleworth, Manchester, said: “I have seen all the things that happen on these shows at some point - even in the space of 40 minutes,<br /><br />“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.<br /><br />"It can be just as intense in real life, <br /><br />“You get stressful moments where all the cheques arrive at once, or someone drops the sauce, burns the food and cuts their fingers.<br /><br />"The flare-ups between each other [are realistic].<br /><br />“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.”<br /><br />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. <br /><br />Simon was a data scientist for almost 20 years before he quit his job and took on a career in hospitality. <br /><br />He became a professional chef aged 38 in 2015 when he won the amateur version of MasterChef.<br /><br />Since then, he has opened two restaurants the first WOOD Manchester, opened in 2017, then, WoodKraft, in Cheltenham, which opened in 2018. <br /><br />WOOD Manchester was Michelin-recommended in 2019 and has won the double AA Rosette award.<br /><br />He says he related to the show because his busy restaurants serve upwards of 2,000 people on a weekly basis. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />“People don’t realise how tough it is - The pressure chefs are under is phenomenal," he said. <br /><br />“One of the most overlooked parts about being a chef is consistency.<br /><br />“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."<br /><br />He said Boling Point and The Bear give chefs the respect they deserve. <br /><br />He said: “People appreciating our hard work and skill set is always welcome.<br /><br />“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,<br /><br />“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.”
