When I worked as a pastry chef apprentice my boss would listen to Art Bell when we went in at 1-2 AM to start baking muffins and shit for the complimentary Continental breakfast at the resort/condo complex/assisted living place I worked at.
Served 200-300 people a day off-season. 1000+ on season.
If I had not messed up my mixing shoulder working chocolate and the like I'd still be baking. It feels good to feed people.
It really does. I hate it when I have to make like 30 fucking pizzas in a lunch period because feeding a hundred people by myself is a fucking lot but when it's a regular amount I think I actually like my job. I like preparing ingredients and I like cooking things and using what I know about cooking to make things taste good and have a pleasing aesthetic and texture. The other people who did pizza before me don't bother cooking this spicy sauce for a spicy chicken pizza but I did yesterday and it ended up so good that this cook from downstairs who doesn't usually eat pizza because most of them have pork on them ended up getting like 4 slices and told me I did a great job. It's really gratifying to put a little bit of effort into making something taste good and have people respond to that positively