🍴Fork the Hustle Culture

There was a time in my life where I dropped everything, got my passport and left the country for the very first time - completely by myself.

Alone at 25, I spent 3 months running around Southeast Asia and when I returned home I realized, I’d spent months without any significant amount of stress. Nowhere to be, no time table, no expectations.

Brevity has never been my thing, but stick with me here, I promise my point is a good one.

After that trip the realities of life started creeping in, I felt them hard. 

After I returned to the states, frustration and anxiety began seeping into every move I made. Suddenly I was possessed by road rage in traffic. At a dinner party, I forgot the one key ingredient for the meal. I was late to a birthday party. Stress was lurking everywhere.

The Media is abuzz with workplace “revelations” around wellness this year. Headlines are screeching “Avoid the Grind”, “How to find work/life balance” and even “shorter work weeks hailed as overwhelming success”

The world is finally awakening to the idea of “wait, maybe working harder is not the answer…" 

Let’s be honest, it’s about damn time.  

So, what does my Southeast Asia trip have to do with Tiny Spoon Chef?! I’m getting there. 

Jared, our Director of Operations, and I are continuously thinking about our team and our clients and how we can serve you best. We are actively growing here in Boston and we’re been tearing up I-95 gearing up to open our doors in Westport, Connecticut next month.

I’ve been interviewing a lot to try to find talented Chefs who share our passion for great food and saucy puns and you know what? 

No one believes this job is for real. Yup. Seriously. 

And why would they? There are plenty of industries who share the mentality that when you find someone talented or even someone who just needs the work, you should use ‘em up, work ‘em hard, and spit ‘em out. Those “salaries” are really 80+ hours a week in disguise for most talented beings. Some of it is intentional abuse and sometimes it’s that crazy idea that “this is just the way things are”. 

So when we say “Nope! You work with us and you’re only allowed to work 43 hours a week and we have a benefits package that pays more than 50% of your healthcare, all of your dental, we match you for retirement AND we pay for life and disability insurance for you. Oh, yeah, and you get vacations… and holidays with your family. We've been getting a lot of side eye lately. Apparently, we’re “full of it”. Who knew. 

Hustle culture has never been a part of Tiny Spoon Chef. Nor will it ever be while I have breath in my body. 

How does this loop back to you, as a Tiny Spoon aficionado?

Ever wonder why Chef Laura or Chef Juan are basically effervescent when they see you? It’s not a show and they’re not using their “customer service” voices with you. 

While Tiny Spoon has a part in that it’s also to do with their pets, partners and their personal lives. In my mind it’s all about balance. Someone who’s had time to be around the people they love and do the things they need to do outside work is going to show up and give 110% when they get in your kitchen. 

You know what else we want?

We want YOU to throw hustle culture out the g*ddamn window, too, because it’s just not worth it. 

We want you to have that elusive balance in life! 

We’re here to do our best to be the "ace in your back pocket,” your “chef BFF,” your “HEY, I didn’t know I wanted that!” teammate so you can actually focus on what you need to do.

We want meals to be such a breeze that you find yourself with extra energy and joy for nightly bath time with the littles.

We want you to invite the in-laws over for Passover or brunch because they can just stuff their faces with “chef food” instead of nitpick about your lack of cooking prowess. 

We want you to actually be able to focus on your run or in your yoga class instead of secretly making grocery lists.

Yup. We’ve got dreams for you too. 

So we’re all about the Anti-Hustle Culture and it’s not a story or a punch line. 

We caught the anti-hustle bug in 2013.

Call us trendsetters. Call us renegades. Call us whatever you want, just don’t call us at 11pm because we have work-life balance and definitely won’t be answering until the morning. ❤️

Looking to connect? Have a question?