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 in the workplace—roughly 632,500 victims. While shocking, this figure fails to account for the psychological and sexual violence that also plagues commercial kitchens. Workplace harassment and bullying 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 in kitchens, and how has it become a behavioral 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, there is an overlooked source: the normalization 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 in these mediums, glorified as a product of kitchen subculture, and consequently normalized in the kitchen.

美国劳工统计局估计，美国有 253 万厨师和厨师。其中，四分之一的人报告说在工作场所遭受过身体暴力——大约有 632,500 名受害者。虽然令人震惊，但这个数字未能解释同样困扰商业厨房的心理和性暴力。工作场所的骚扰和欺凌不仅限于美国，在苏格兰、英语、斯堪的纳维亚、法语、马来西亚、韩国和澳大利亚的厨房中都有记录。为什么暴力在厨房如此普遍，它是如何成为一种行为规范的？本文使用对厨房工人的 50 次深度访谈数据和对食品媒体的分析，表明虽然厨房工作场所暴力可以归因于职业压力等典型原因，但有一个被忽视的来源：通过食品媒体使暴力正常化。通过探索电视节目，如“地狱厨房”和厨师回忆录，如 Bourdain's厨房机密，读者将看到欺凌和骚扰如何在这些媒介中被浪漫化，被美化为厨房亚文化的产物，并因此在厨房中正常化。