Why Celeb Chefs Love Running Marathons

Co-owner of Eataly, investor on Restaurant Startup, former MasterChef Pro Runners Ask: Is My Agent Worth the Fee

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“I do think professional cooking and distance running are both about pace and control and enjoying the journey, as well as the goal of a final destination. They both obviously deal with understanding timing. I’ll often refer to a marathon as a half-shift of restaurant service.

“Speaking for myself, it gives me a mental easiness with having a job that requires eating and constantly tasting. It also is the only time (while running) that my mind isn’t constantly grinding through work related thought. It’s therapeutic in that way.”

Head chef at New York City’s Aldea

“The demands of the job, the stress, and the long hours kind of take a toll on your body. You need a way to release that tension. The little fitness that you do can be very inconsistent. But running has become something that is consistent for me. It has become a way of decompression. 

“I think more and more chefs and people in the industry are becoming more conscious of how they are treating their bodies. It certainly happened to me.

“The similarities do exist between running and cooking, especially when you are racing. The adrenaline, the pressure, the endurance. All of those are things you are experiencing in the heat of service in a kitchen on a Saturday night. We are addicted to that rush in our professional lives and so when you go in to the competitive phase in running it’s a similar world.”

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“I think mentally, working those long hours and getting through all your tasks is similar to a lot of ways that your brain works during a marathon. For me, I would draw the parallel of saying, ‘I have these 10 things I have to get off my list.’ It’s kind of like when you are running and you do that numbers game where you think about how many miles you have left.

“As a chef, I think exactly like an athlete. As a runner, I have a goal. I want to get to the end goal. I would say nothing is going to stop me. That is similar to how I approach cooking. Whether it’s in a restaurant or cooking on television or for my family. I am just going to get there to the end.”