Amber worked at Quay in Sydney before heading over to work in Michelin starred restaurants in London. She loves being a chef and is a passionate advocate for the industry. She has also seen the dark side of it. After acknowledging her own alcohol demons and coming out the other side, the recent loss of her friend and mentor to depression and self-medication pushed her to do something more to help others find their way out of the dark. She founded The White Jacket Effect to address mental health issues in the hospitality industry and hopes to raise awareness and ultimately produce a shift in attitude for the better. Amber lives in Sydney with her husband and I was lucky enough to fit in a chat to her on the phone two days before their first baby arrived.
Thank you for being keen to talk, Amber. I was interested when I read the article about The White Jacket Effect because of the conversations I have been having lately with chefs where that it seems as though there has been a shift in certain venues to think more positively or with more intent about the mental health of their staff. So when I read about what you are doing, I thought it was so timely and perfect.
I have heard that before, it wasn’t my intention to do it because of any sort of climate. I struggled with alcohol for quite a lot of my career. I didn’t know that it was a problem until quite recently and I realised I had to do something about it. I took myself off to a hypnotist which was thankfully very successful. With the help of my husband, who also gave up drinking, I haven’t had a drink for over two years now. That was really the beginning of my journey. My chef mentor was very proud of the fact I was able to give up drinking and we used to talk all the time about how we could help the industry with coping with the pressures. We obviously love the pressure and the perfectionism and the drive that comes along with it, that’s what we really crave, but being able to deal with them without going to a bottle or drugs or however else people let off steam. We used to talk about how we could make it sustainable; how could we make cheffing, this thing that we love, something that we can do into our old age and be more healthy.
Unfortunately, my mentor took his life at the beginning of the year. He had been suffering from depression. He self-medicated pretty heavily, pretty much from the minute he walked into the kitchen when he was younger, I would say, but that is the culture. That’s what chefs do, or did. Reflecting on our conversations and feeling very powerless in the fact I didn’t know where to send him to get the help he needed, that’s when I set up The White Jacket Effect because I wanted to get a group of friends together and just educate ourselves with a bit more knowledge about mental health and what to do in situations like that.
Was it just this year you set it up?
Yes, the first event I did was in Sydney in April and I was only really planning to do that one event just to raise awareness in my community of friends, but it was so well received so I thought why not do some more. My husband and I found out I was pregnant so we thought we’d better do it quickly. We did four events in different states over the next few months and really made a huge impact in the east coast of Australia I think, and even further. I’ve had some really beautiful emails from people reaching out saying they want to do their own events in their own towns and communities. I’ve been working with people in Hobart and Perth to do their own events.
There is obviously a need for it. What happens at your workshops, what do your events look like?
They all have the same template. The first thing I do is introduce the Mental Health First Aid Course, which is a course I’m actually finishing tomorrow. It gives you the tools and the confidence and education on how to have a mental health first aid conversation with someone you’re worried about. I think that was the thing I was lacking with Richard. As soon as I found out he wasn’t doing well I didn’t know what to say. It’s a very powerful course and once you are accredited, you’re a mental health first aid officer for three years. Similar to physical first aid but it’s for mental health. So I get a trainer talking about that and introducing it to the community and then I have someone come from a local drug and alcohol service to normalise the conversation that it is ok to say I’m not doing so well but to point out that you’re not alone because there are a lot of professional organisations set up to help. For some reason the kitchen culture doesn’t like to talk about those things.
I was going to ask whether that’s because it has been traditionally a male-dominated environment, but then you’ve been through it too, so why do you think that is?
It’s a very push-on, you’ll be right, suck it up mentality and I guess it would come from being a male dominated industry…why do I think that is? I don’t know. It is proven that men are generally less likely to reach out for help in whatever case because they are brought up to be tough and not cry and those sorts of things. I guess breaking down that stigma and being able to say what they’re feeling is what it’s all about and a way that we can prevent things from happening in the future.
I would love people to be inspired by what I have done and do the same in their own communities. That was why I called it The White Jacket Effect because I was wanting it to spread and if people can start a conversation in their community and be a little vulnerable and show that it’s ok to talk about these things, I think it could really have a big impact nationwide
It’s interesting, I’ve only just thought of this now, but hospitality has that aspect of feeding other people and not necessarily nurturing them, but it’s creative and delicate in fine dining and the aesthetics of putting up beautiful plates and then you have that toughness to it as well. I hadn’t really thought before of the dichotomy of hospitality looking after other people, but often not looking after themselves or each other.
It doesn’t seem right, does it, but it is certainly true. The feeling that you crave being a chef is pleasing someone. My husband always talks about the first job he had and he used to watch over the kitchen bench and see the people eat and watch their facial expression and see them love it and that’s really what makes you feel wonderful about your job; it’s what makes you want to get up in the morning. I suppose I’ve got a little bit off track now, but I was thinking about how the social media aspect of it these days has really smashed that to smithereens because everyone thinks they are a critic and they can so easily say such hurtful things and just press send. It can really devastate someone who has been working 80 hours, hasn’t seen their family, hasn’t eaten properly and is trying their best to get that nice dish up and then one comment can be devastating.
Of course. There is obviously a need for what you’re doing, but after the events, what support do chefs have to change? I read in the article that you found it difficult initially going out with chef mates and colleagues because it wasn’t the same if you weren’t drinking because of that culture and it is obviously that bigger culture that is the problem. I guess you can’t really tackle the bigger culture, but if people come to you to make a change, how do they then go back into that environment?
It’s funny you say that because I’ve often wanted to be able to change the culture of drinking in Australia. Even in my family life, I found it difficult, not just at work because Aussies have a drink at every celebration and every meal. I wouldn’t discourage that goal at all, and I would love to tackle it one day, but to break it down into a smaller chunk to tackle hospitality is the path I’ve chosen because it looks a bit more manageable. I think it’s going to happen restaurant by restaurant. If there’s a restaurant manager or leader or owner who is willing to lead by example and say, let’s have a couple of nights off where we have a non-alcoholic staffie, that’s a step in the right direction. One of the girls who is coming to the Mental Health First Aid training with me tomorrow is from Bennelong and they’ve stopped giving out alcoholic staffies in the evening after work all together. I think they get a Gatorade. The money they save from not giving out a beer, they give a monthly chef of the month prize.
That’s great.
I spoke to her about it and asked how the chefs take it and of course they’re not particularly happy about it, so it’s a hard nut to crack. I get that it’s nice to have a drink after a hard day’s work. It would be really good if we could find a way to make it acceptable to have one or the other.
I think I mentioned to you about talking to Dan Hawkins at Prince Dining Room in St Kilda and he as Executive chef and Dan Cooper as head chef are real leaders of doing that amongst their staff. Dan Hawkins was saying they went through a phase of instead of having a knock-off frothy, they were going to the 24-hour gym and having a protein shake. He has a bubbly nature and I can imagine him convincing everyone to do that and I think you need people in those positions who are respected who think it’s a really good idea to choose some healthier options.
Exactly. It’s very much lead by example. I think we’re tending to have more open-minded young kids coming into the industry now who are more likely to want to do those sorts of things. The more I talk about this topic, the more complex it gets, but the older generation, the people who have been brought up in that hard, push-on mentality, I think that the approach we need for them, is to tell them that you don’t need to suffer in silence, you can reach out and it’s ok to ask for help, whereas the young people are probably more susceptible to going to the gym and having protein shakes.
Absolutely. As well as the events and that public arena of people being able to come and hear you, how else might people access what you’re offering?
It’s funny because this has all happened so very quickly and I never expected to be sitting here talking to you about how else people can reach out to me, but I think the answer I can say, especially considering I’m about to have a baby, is that I would love people to be inspired by what I have done and do the same in their own communities. That was why I called it The White Jacket Effect because I was wanting it to spread and if people can start a conversation in their community and be a little vulnerable and show that it’s ok to talk about these things, I think it could really have a big impact nationwide and I certainly don’t think I could do it all myself. That’s what I would encourage. I have got a little team together and we are working on a three-month package that we are going to trial online. The vision is to lift the mental health of an organisation. So we’re going to assess the organisation’s mental health star rating, if you like, at the beginning, then we’ll do this package where we will introduce some structures and procedures into the workplace and then assess them at the end and hopefully we will have raised the rating. That’s very much in development mode at the moment, but it would be fantastic if we could offer a solution to the industry as well as raise awareness.
I really want to tell you how humbling it is to get the comments from people who have emailed me. They bring tears to my eyes. It is so amazing, because just from me standing up and saying a little bit about myself, they’ve had the courage to do such great things. It is just so beautiful to think that we could really make a huge shift for the positive in this industry. At the same time, I really want to be clear that I love the industry. The fast-paced pressure is what draws me to it and I don’t want to change that in any way. I think it’s important to say that there are things that need to remain the same to get that creative drive but at the same time, we need to be able to handle the pressures healthily.
P?hotography credit: Bambi Photography