If you like food, hate pretentious irony, and think social misfits should get a chance to be successful, then you will probably enjoy this interview of Anthony Bourdain by Mark Maron.
If Bourdain is correct about people (and I suspect he is), people get involved with the cooking industry (around the 55th minute) for the same reasons they get into the scientific industry – and it is not for a love of food or science, though that may come later:
. . .chefs have this image of megalomania, and certainty, and they’re autocratic. . .but the reason most people become chefs in the first place. . .they sense very early on this inadequacy or awkwardness with communicating, working in a normal workplace where you have to relate to the outside world and interact in way that most people. . .can easily. . .most chefs are, like me, at root are pretty insecure, they found a safe place where there are other damaged people. . .who you can band together into a pretty rigid system. There are absolutes. There are certain things you must do. You have to do. There is good and evil at all times. They are nice an cleanly drawn. This is good. This is bad. On the other hand all their other foibles are tolerated. It is a very forgiving business. It’s open to people from anywhere in the world.
-Anthony Bourdain
Replace “chef” with “scientist” and this sounds just about right. Except for me, of course. I’m awesome. Right? Right? Guys?
*I did the transcription. Therefore, it is probably riddled with errors. Please remember error induced variation is the bread and butter of evolution.
The Finch and Pea 