Does being a chef ever become stressful?

I spent some time looking at getting into this field. Here is my reaction to your question:

Yes. It's often an exceptionally stressful job. You must turn our consistent quality, at rapid speed, in highly variable conditions, and with long work hours. It can certainly be stressful. As they say "If you can't stand the hear, get out of the kitchen". That said, it also depends somewhat on who you work with, as every kitchen will have a slightly different culture. If you love food and cooking, there are many sub-fields to consider: chef, kitchen staff, restaurant manager, food scientist, food journalist, critic (rare but real), and so on. You could also work in the food industry cultivating or preparing food products for restaurants. If you do choose to become a chef, you can get started now by working at a local restaurant for a couple of weeks to get a feel for the culture, and at the same time learning how cooking works (see if you can find a copy of either "On food and cooking" or "Cooking for Geeks").

I also asked a friend who has managed restaurants for quite a while. Here's his comment: "The only thing I would add is that different kitchens have different cultures. Some are very stressful and others are less so. I would advise the student to always ask to spend a little time in a kitchen before taking a position. I agree they should try to find a kitchen to spend some time in to get a sense of things. Even in this case, I would offer to volunteer for 2-3 days before committing yourself for any extended period of time."

Good luck.

It is stressful. The stress varies form kitchen to kitchen, depending on the culture and the chef. It is long hours, weekends and all major holidays. There are some days, in the middle of the rush that you are convinced that you can't do it another day, that you will not make another hour LOL. Then you get to closing, look around and say that was AWESOME !. You clean up, go home, and come back the next day.