schools, such as The Culinary Institute of
America (CIA), Hyde Park, N. Y., discourage
smoking and provide help for students and
faculty who want to quit.
According to Judy Brandow, CIA’s director of
health services, the school participates in the
Great American Smokeout every November,
has smoking-cessation information available
at health and wellness fairs, has passed out
patches and gum provided by New York
state, and makes classes and programs of
the Council on Addiction Prevention &
Education of Dutchess County (N. Y.) Inc.
available to faculty and students. In addition,
through the efforts of the student
government, cigarettes are no longer sold in
the campus bookstore.
East Dundee, Ill., who cooks at an assisted-living center while finishing up his bachelor’s
degree in culinary arts in the online division
of The Art Institute of Pittsburgh. He tried
hypnosis, which didn’t work at all, and the
patch, which fell off in the heat and humidity
of the kitchen. He finally was successful
by taking Chantix for three months. “After
a few weeks on the drug, smoking wasn’t
attractive at all,” he says.
Recognizing the kind of situations that
make you want to smoke is one of the
first steps toward quitting, experts say.
“It’s a personal thing. You have to break the
mindset and do it for yourself,” says Phil
Fahrenbruch, CEC, executive chef at the
Frankenmuth Bavarian Inn, Frankenmuth,
Mich. He used the patch to help him finally
quit smoking in October 2009.
student at The Art Institute of Michigan,
Novi, Mich. “I realized that if I didn’t quit now, I
would miss out on a lot of things in life.”
Fowler also used Chantix as an aid in quitting.
“It worked very well for the cravings,” he says,
noting that he stopped taking it early because
it bothered his stomach.
Although the statistics aren’t encouraging,
the message from fellow culinarians who’ve
put the smokes down for the last time and
from experts who help people break their
addiction is: Quitting is possible. Millions
have done it, and you can, too.
Quitting means being free of yellow teeth
and fingers, smelly clothes and breath, and
that coughing, wheezing and shortness of
breath experienced during exertion.
Health also was of concern to Lynette
Maxey, RD, CDE, general manager of
nutrition and environmental services at
Paul Oliver Memorial Hospital, Frankfort,
Mich. “I’m a registered dietitian, for
heaven’s sake,” she says. “I knew better.”
WHY QUIT? HERE’S WHY
First, you have to really want to quit. For
you, not someone else, says Ed Emerson of
“The reason that quitting was so important to
me was because I noticed that simple acts,
like walking up the stairs, would leave me
winded. And at 25, if I am out of breath from
just walking up the stairs, what is 30 going to
be like, or 50,” says Jesse Fowler, a culinary
Chantix worked for her. “I took it for a couple
of months,” she says. “At the end of a really
busy day, I realized I hadn’t had a cigarette.”
That’s when she knew she’d done it.
The need for dental surgery is what convinced
Bruce Clarke, production chef at the University
of Richmond, Richmond, Va. “My dentist told
me I’d heal faster if I quit smoking,” he explains.
That was four years ago. He used the patch
and quit within a week.
In a 2008 survey, 50% of foodservice
workers in the 18-25 age group reported
smoking in the past month.
