The unexpected star of this season of The Bear? Not a major spoiler but: Carmy’s nicotine gum. We see Carmy popping gum while toiling over menus and Sydney wincing as she tries some herself this season. As Vulture put it: “the most vibrant collaboration in Carmy’s life is between him and his nicotine gum.”

When you conjure up the image of a chef in your mind à la Carmy or Anthony Bourdain, you might think tattoos, excellent knife skills, and a dangling cigarette. At the iconic restaurant The French Laundry, Chef Thomas Keller (you can spot him in this season of The Bear) even infused custard with coffee and tobacco, and served it to Bourdain as a take on a mid-meal cigarette break. 

It is reported that 30 percent of cooks, servers, and food preparation workers smoke cigarettes. The relationship between smoking or vaping and high-stress work environments is much-explored, and if you have so much as tuned in for a single episode of The Bear and felt your heart rate climb, you can understand the need for a bit of stress-relief. 

Using nicotine not only provides a hit of dopamine, the chemical in the brain that induces feelings of relaxation and pleasure, but a smoke or vape break also allows you to step outside of your work setting. Being outside of the kitchen space to smoke or vape is a moment of relief, and is part of the social lives of those in the food industry–it’s an opportunity to commiserate and coexist. 

But back to the nicotine gum. This detail is interesting because while we see chefs that are smoking, we don’t often see chefs on TV who are quitting. In reality, there is a pretty compelling reason why those who work in food choose to quit: Smoking and vaping can impact your sense of smell and taste. 

Studies have found that smoking can dull or kill taste buds by altering the blood supply your taste buds are getting, and, similarly, smoking is associated with a significantly increased risk of olfactory dysfunction. While loss of smell and taste is unpleasant for anyone, it can more directly hinder professional success for a chef. In a field that encourages a refined palate, the inability to taste if something is sweet or umami could ruin a dish–-one study suggests that smoking chefs are prone to oversalting their food. Vaping does not resolve this phenomenon either, with reports of “vape tongue” or a loss of taste as a result of dry mouth and dehydration attributed to chemicals in vape liquid. 

Before you retire your apron altogether, there is good news. Smoking cessation can lead to significant restoration in taste and smell. In one study, smoking cessation led to rapid recovery of taste buds and an improvement in taste sensitivity in as little as two weeks after quitting. Similarly, studies suggest that only current smoking, not former smoking, is associated with a loss of smell, suggesting that the effects of smoking on olfaction may be reversible. 

Whether you like to cook, work in food, or just enjoy eating out, consider this one of many reasons to set down your vape–your taste buds will thank you. 

Feeling ready to quit? 

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