For Craig Strippel, the stress of being a chef was cushioned by drink and drugs. Here, he talks about his recovery from a problem that plagues the restaurant industry
I first talked to Craig Strippel back in the spring on the day before he was due to run in the London Marathon. Anyone who signs up for those 26 miles has a kind of reckless determination, but for Strippel, who had worked as a head chef in Cornish hotels and restaurants for much of his career, the challenge had become a very singular mission. That mission had begun just seven months earlier when, aged 37, Strippel had been within one small step of taking his own life.
Sitting in a cafe in London, he could recall that evening in September 2018 both as if it were yesterday and as part of another existence entirely. At the time he was working on his own in the kitchen at a hotel restaurant near Penzance. It had been a long hot summer and Strippel had, for as long as he could remember, been in the habit of trying to drown all the tiredness and stress of the kitchen in alcohol.
There are side effects with every job, but with chefs it was usually drugs and alcohol
Related: I’ve been honest about alcohol. But the drinks industry hasn’t | Adrian Chiles
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