Murder in the Kitchen

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Okay, way less preparation than I normally put into an OP, but this thought literally just popped into my head, and I thought it was interesting enough to post it: why aren't there more murders in restaurant kitchens? On paper, they're like the perfect environment; hot, high pressure, confined space, every single person has a large and sharp knife in their hand at all times, etc, and yet I've never heard of a kitchen argument turning deadly, which is not to say it's never happened, only that it's somewhat uncommon.

I've worked in restaurants off and on for years, and I've seen a handful of physical fights, but no one has ever gone beyond a bit of scuffling and maybe a thrown punch, and that was always over money or something unrelated to the actual cooking, and no one ever showed even the slightest intent on using one of the numerous deadly weapons lying about. Kitchens are also notoriously full of sketchy people, long having been seen as an employer of last resort, so you're not talking a population that's unfamiliar with or averse to violence, but the rarity of kitchen knife fights has got me thinking about the culture of the kitchen and reevaluating some of my own thoughts on weapon availability increasing the severity of violence that happens to occur.

For those who've never worked in a commercial kitchen and think it's crazy that I'm saying I'd expect more murders, you have to imagine what it's like crammed into a tiny room with no space when the temperature is well over 100 F, being screamed at for minor mistakes by chefs who will not get out of your face, and being expected to turn out perfection, every time, no exceptions, at a truly insane pace, for poor money and a damaged body. Hell, just watch Gordon Ramsey for 15 minutes and try to not think about killing him even a little bit, you just can't do it.

I have my own theory that it's easier to take criticism, even screaming, in your face, spittle-flecked criticism, when you have the means to silence said critic literally in your hand, but I'd like to hear if anyone else has thoughts before elaborating.

I've heard there is a lot of name calling in kitchens... the pot calling the kettle black.

I think that workers usually have an instinct to internalise workplace cultural norms and expectations. If a kitchen worker is expected to take verbal abuse with passivity (or at least non violence), the slave tends to become the kind of person who does that, regardless of background.

Well actually: if you get offed by your spouse there is known longstanding pattern to where in the house you will likely die.

Wives are most likely to get murdered by their husbands in: the bedroom.

Husbands are most likely to get murdered by their wives in....the kitchen!

The lady knows where all of the handy weapons are in the kitchen- that is doubtless part of the explanation.

How that translates to unrelated people working in a job situation in a restaurant I do not know.

Maybe the presence of food has something to do with it.The smell of a pizza in the oven calms everybody down.
I've seen a bus box go flying thru the air when the dish washer got pissed,but that's the closest to a fight I ever saw.

In a commercial kitchen there's usually too many potential witnesses nearby including a big audience in the dining area to see and/or hear it.

I wonder if there's a link between this and the high number of psychopaths as head chefs. Perhaps people in that spectrum of humanity have a sort of command over the workforce that pacifies violent rage. It could also be that the hatred the underlings collectively feel for the head chef creates a subtle feeling of camaraderie which stops people going over the edge.

My money is on the presence of weapons being the main factor. Calculated murders are unlikely and murders of passion are also unlikely because you are being constantly confronted with the spectre of death on every knife blade. The prospect of being jabbed by 5 sharpened knives is enough to pacify anyone.

The Op could be mistaken that murders dont happen in kitchens however. Does anyone have any statistics?

Maybe it happens more often than we know. Maybe the victims end up as lasagna, or meatloaf, and the restaurant patrons end up eating up the evidence, and the perpetrators don't get caught!

They may wind up in the smoke house,then they become succulent BBQ.Long pig.
My boss reminded me of the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld.He refused to do special orders,never,never ask for extra cheese.

I can pretty much guess where you are going with this.

Problem you are making an assumption based on perception only, which is never a good start.

Even if hypothetically there were less murders in kitchen, this is not to say those that work in kitchens would not commit murders, or kitchen wouldn't factor in some way in murders.

Correlation doesn't equal cause.

The public perception of crime is usually wrong anyway. This has been found in numerous studies.

The reality is the real world isn't like a kitchen it is not a single environment or scenario.

Of all the evidence across the world relating arms ownership or lack of, the only thing you can possibly conclude is inconclusive. There has never been consistent results, or general rules that can be established.

Eduard the 1st of England made a decree that all men were to carry daggers, it didn't change crime it just changed the nature of crime.

I have long thought that both side of these argument are wrong, as in there is no conclusive evidence that lack of weapon ownership right or ownership rights has general correlation let alone empirical relationship with crime or lack of. All you get is both side using scrap of information that support their argument without empirical evidence but for every scrap there is something that would contradict. Theory is vastly different from reality sometimes.

I happen to believe that culture in general plays a far bigger impact on crime, plus economic factors. Violence is obvious related to animal behavior, testosterone, frontal lobe, etc. So therefore where arms ownership helps or not would be dependent on those factors, as well as what happens in the moment, and the even leading up tot that point.

One of the principles of sound self defense is there are no set scenarios, or as I like to say "there are no scenarios". Of course you do practice situations, but at the same time you need practice for liveness adapting to the situation in the moment.

How you choose to stay safe ultimately is down to you.

There usually isn't a human body sized red chopping board in a kitchen so no one wants to flout food health and safety regulations or they'll be shut down.

Murder can happen in a variety of ways including poisoning.

Come to think of it, I've never heard of a disgruntled line cook coming back and shooting up a kitchen either, and like I said in the OP, that's kind of odd given the stress of the job and the personal conflicts that occur in professional cooking, which you'd think would lead to at least a few incidents. Still, it's the lack of stabbings that surprises me, I just really would have thought it would happen more often.

I liked my boss,most people didn't.He had a weird sense of humor that I totally got.I was the "smell"checker for the kitchen.If they thought something was off,they made me smell it.
One Halloween he made jello brains for the pie cooler out front,this disturbed the locals. It was awesome.

Hmmm...

How does the rate that chefs get killed by subordinate cooks compare to that of..say...supervisers of auto mechanics getting offed by their journeymen? Or CPA's by subordinate book keepers? How often do heads of surgery get deliberately stabbed with scapels wielded by subordinate surgeons?

Im sure that the stats would be hard to gather.

Though military officers in combat do get "fragged". Thats not unheard of. There might be stats about that.