Mental health on the menu: S’pore start-up wants to help restaurant owners and workers cope

SINGAPORE – For chefs and restaurant owners, it is the never-ending grind of finding and keeping employees, and dealing with high rents and other costs that keep increasing.

For people who work in restaurants, bars and cafes, it is the pressure that comes with having to be switched on all the time to deliver good service, and the stress of working long hours, exacerbated by, again, the manpower crunch.

The high-octane world of food and beverage is not for the faint-hearted. And it can take a toll on mental health. This is especially so in what has so far been a tough 2024, when people are cutting back on dining out because of cost-of-living increases, economic uncertainty and the promise of stretching their dollars more effectively on trips overseas.

Half, a local start-up that organises workshops, seminars and events to build mental wellness and resilience, is organising a workshop targeting people in the food and drink industry. AnyONE: F&B x Mental Wellness will take place on July 31 at Sago House, a bar in Duxton Hill.

The idea, say Half co-founders Rebekah Lin and Cynthia Chu, is to provide a safe space for people in the industry to talk about their personal and professional struggles, and to ask questions.

Members of the industry have come together to help. Three veterans will be speaking at the workshop: Chef Willin Low, who owns Relish in Singapore and Roketto in Niseko, Japan; Ms Jess Hutchinson, a hospitality consultant who co-founded No Sleep Club, a bar in Keong Saik Road; and Mr Ivan Kuek, co-founder of Stellar M, which supplies coffee-making equipment.

Lumo Bar & Restaurant in South Bridge Road is sponsoring the two-hour event, which has places for 20 to 30 participants. Registration for the free session is via

tinyurl.com/half-wellness

.

Ms Lin, 38, hopes this will be the start of a series of workshops for the industry, targeting the different issues and stressors owners and employees face.

In 2019, she helped organise a similar session at No Sleep Club. At the time, a representative from Samaritans of Singapore, which provides emotional support for people in distress, shared suicide prevention tips with participants, mostly bartenders.

Ms Chu, 34, says: “Some of them said they were on suicide watch for a colleague or friend. Or they knew someone who was suffering from anxiety and depression. Bartenders are the best storytellers, but no one listens to them.”

Any hope of organising follow-up sessions was torpedoed by the pandemic. But when the two quit their jobs – Ms Lin in finance and Ms Chu in marketing – to start Half in January, they decided to revive the idea.

Ms Lin says: “One thing that keeps coming up is the long working hours. People are time-strapped. How are they going to find time to go for therapy?”

They have planned the session for 3 to 5pm, usually a lull time for restaurants.

In the last few years, more chefs have spoken up about the toll the industry takes on mental health.

One of them is American chef Sean Brock, 46, who runs multiple restaurants and has appeared on television shows such as The Mind Of A Chef in 2013 and Chef’s Table in 2019.

He has spoken about how the long hours and hard partying after had wrecked his body. At one point, he battled an autoimmune disease that threatened his eyesight. Three friends turned up at his doorstep in 2017 and flew him to a rehabilitation centre, where he got sober.

Another American chef and restaurateur, James Kent, who ran two successful restaurants and a bar in New York, and who died of a heart attack on June 15 at age 45, became an advocate for mental health in the industry.

This happened after he suffered a series of panic attacks while working at three-Michelin-starred Eleven Madison Park. He took up running, and worked on prioritising work-life balance.

A New York Times story quotes him as saying: “Before running, I only had professional goals. I was like, ‘I want to be the best, learn from the best, and run these incredible restaurants.’ And then I got to the point where, without the personal goals, I was on the floor thinking I was going to die.”

That is the message the organisers and speakers want to get across to participants.

Chef Low says: “I hope the message people will leave the session with is this: You are far more important as a person than your work or your ranking on restaurant lists or the number of awards and stars you have.”

The 52-year-old, who is semi-retired, says he often gets calls from chefs wanting advice for the struggles they face.

He says: “Many people in the industry struggle with stress and depression, without any opportunity or outlet to seek help. For chefs and owners of standalone F&B businesses, it can be a very lonely journey. I understand that because I was once in that position.

“The business can be very cut-throat. People management, staff shortage and bad business are all part and parcel of the industry. I hope participants realise they aren’t the only ones facing these issues. Successful restaurants face them too. Just because no one talks about them doesn’t mean they aren’t prevalent.

“Start by talking to someone. You don’t need to carry this burden alone.”

Ms Hutchinson, 37, says: “At the workshop, I will be sharing my own experience – from finding a good therapist to attending a course to learn more about mental wellness and resilience. My hope is to let people know there are safe spaces to be open and vulnerable.”

As a supplier of coffee-making equipment, Mr Kuek, 46, has seen how the daily grind can wear a cafe owner down. He knows of several who closed their cafes recently.

“Quite a few of my customers are feeling burnt out,” he says. “I hope we can give people some options for how to cope with stress. We can be a sounding board, a safe and open space for people to talk about the challenges and stress they face. There is a community that supports them. It could be as simple as ‘Let’s go for a run together.’”

Moderating the session is Ms Lee Ying-Zhi, 39, trade marketing manager for Suntory Global Spirits, who sees some glimmer of hope.

She says: “The burnout and lack of stress management can lead to unhealthy eating habits or excessive alcohol consumption. But recently, I’ve noticed more and more F&B folks managing their personal alcohol consumption by creating healthy boundaries around it. It’s a positive development.”

Chef Alysia Chan, 43, culinary manager overseeing procurement and menu development for restaurant group Ebb & Flow, says she plans to sign up for the workshop. She, too, has struggled at times in her career.

“Being part of a brigade and leading a brigade each presented a different set of challenges,” she says of her previous jobs. “The biggest one I remember facing was when I received multiple resignations on the same day. I spiralled pretty badly after that.”

Mental health needs to be addressed for the future of the industry, she says, adding that its workforce is often overlooked.

She says: “Discussing mental health issues has always been taboo in Asian culture, although it has become less so in the past five years. But in the hyper masculine world of F&B, where putting on a brave front is a sign of strength and fortitude, people are even less inclined to admit they are struggling or reach out for help.

“I think it’s hugely important to have peers from the industry you can talk to about these things.”