This is the Business English Podcast episode 565.
If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen.
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Hey Michelle, I got a question for you.
Hey, Lindsay.
Sure.
What's your question?
So do you watch any cooking shows?
Do you like those shows, like cooking competitions or anything like that?
I don't think I really watch those too often.
It's possible something could be on in the background, but I know some of them are pretty intense.
Because I hear the restaurant industry is really tough.
But I don't know one thing.
I think I used to watch more of those shows, but I don't like it that.
It's one thing when it's like a fashion thing and you can actually see the dress or you can see how something looks or whatever, but you can't taste the food.
You're just jealous.
You want to be one of the judges?
Yeah exactly, i want to eat it.
So maybe one day, with ai, we'll find out a way to oh my gosh, that would be insane.
That would be insane.
Probably Probably, we will.
That's a good point.
Yeah.
What about you?
Do you watch any of these shows?
Not this year, but in the past years.
I used to watch Tournament of Champions, where they have, like all the East Coast chefs and the West Coast chefs.
They face off and then there's one winner, one champion of the U.S. in terms of celebrity chefs.
They're kind of fun to watch.
I mean, it's not like I marked my calendar and say, I have to be home to watch.
They're fun.
They're light.
Right.
It's nothing too serious.
Nothing.
Yeah.
So it's kind of fun in that way.
It's also good to pick up some tips, right?
Like cutting onions and things like that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um, So today we're going to teach an expression about intensity and what people can handle, and it deals with the kitchen, or that's the word in it.
So, Lindsay, what is the expression?
Yeah, the expression is this.
If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen.
Yes.
Yeah.
So do you hear this?
Well, yeah.
Apparently it's... apparently it was made famous by president harry truman so that made that he made it popular so interesting okay yeah i know i've heard it On those cooking shows, literally, right?
There's some more literal use, but we don't have to just stick with the literal use, because President Truman was talking about it.
I don't think he was talking about cooking, Michelle.
No, probably not.
But this is a really common popular expression, don't you think?
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, so what does it mean, Michelle, exactly?
Yeah.
Yeah.
It means if something is too intense for you, you should stop doing it or you should not be in that situation.
You should get away from it.
Yeah, for sure.
For sure.
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Okay.
Definitely.
So again, the phrase means if something is too intense, yeah, stop doing it.
Right.
Get out of the kitchen.
Get away from the heat.
Right.
Right.
And some situations, the thing, the call for you to be very tough.
So this is about it's used to talk about endurance in certain situations, certain jobs, certain experiences.
Yeah.
So let's give some examples.
Well, I know being a night nurse is hard, but if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen.
Yeah.
There's some very intense jobs like ER, being an ER worker or a night nurse, or maybe working in the fashion industry if it's so competitive.
What does that look like?
Yeah.
The fashion industry will try to rip you apart.
So think about it.
If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen.
Reminds me of the movie Devil Wears Prada again.
Yes.
Yeah.
Isn't the sequel coming out?
I cannot wait.
I can't, I can't wait.
And Meryl Streep's in it, right?
She is so good.
So good.
Oh my gosh.
Okay.
I'm going to that on day one.
All right.
All right.
Or this one.
I don't get why famous people are always complaining.
If they can't take the heat, they should get out of the kitchen.
Right?
Yeah.
This is interesting.
It's always kind of this debate over, you know, when anybody hears a celebrity complain about anything.
Right.
You know, they're like, well, they get everything.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's true.
Mm hmm.
Mm hmm.
Um, there are 300 people at this audition.
Hey, if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen.
Yeah.
Any competitive situations?
I would imagine, like ballet dancing or maybe competing to get on a Broadway show would be really competitive.
Any kind of performance related?
You spend some time in that world, Michelle.
Yeah.
Um, I...
I don't know.
I want to say I kind of got out of the kitchen.
I mean, it wasn't like... I mean, I still perform, but I wasn't going... I didn't want...
I don't know.
I just didn't want to live my life like that.
Yeah.
So it's tough.
But do you think the expression is a little bit harsh?
It can be.
But I think in those contexts, ER, work, night nursing, fashion, auditions...
I think people like well, like you said, like you got out of that industry because you didn't feel good about it.
Like people enter that because maybe they have a certain personality and they're ready for it.
They expect it.
So I think it sounds harsh to us.
Right.
But maybe to them, it's just this is what it is.
Kind of.
Yeah.
However, if somebody is, you know, feeling.
I could imagine like, OK, a ballet class.
Yeah.
Right.
And you're not doing a great job and something you know and I could see if the coach or the teachers is like all right, if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen.
Like I could see that being like a pretty ego crushing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But yeah.
So it's kind of interesting.
I mean, this is all about. pressure being on you.
Like we said, certain jobs, certain roles that are notorious for that kind of pressure.
The restaurant industry um, I think, is one of them, even though yeah, I mean so it's a lot more literal.
Um yeah, I mean yeah I, I think kitchens are known for, and certain chefs have been called out and even, like legal action, has been executive chefs.
I know there was some woman in Boston, an executive chef, that got in legal trouble, I think, for the way she treated her kitchen staff at a really well-known restaurant.
I don't remember her name, but. the heat can really get high in the kitchens, right?
Especially like very fine dining kitchens.
Um, cause there's a lot of ego in there and just a lot of pressure and things move so fast, you know.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, politics is another one for sure.
I mean, you really have to be a certain type of personality to want to go into politics.
Oh, I mean, that is Yeah, I mean, um, but we also have to know ourselves, right?
When we put ourselves in situations, if we can truly handle what comes along with them.
So sometimes, like you just have to be honest with yourself about something, if something is right for you,
And also Lindsay.
I just want to say that sometimes you might just hear the first part of the expression.
We did a whole episode about this a long time ago with really popular expressions.
Sometimes you just say the first part because everybody knows the second part.
So you might just hear someone say, if you can't take the heat.
Yep.
And then they stop and you get it.
You understand exactly what they're saying, right?
Yeah.
Yes, that's a good point, Michelle.
I love that.
So true.
You might be more likely to hear that, because people think it's kind of I don't know painstaking to complete the expression in a way.
It takes a long time to say it and it gets in the way of the rest of what you want to say in some ways.
Right?
Yeah, it's really interesting.
Yeah.
And there are some similar ideas.
You could say this industry is not for the faint of heart.
The financial industry, yeah, is not for the faint of heart.
Working on the trading floor down on Wall Street is obviously not for the faint of heart.
Yeah, luck can go wrong.
Yeah, lose a lot of money.
Or that's the nature of the game.
She's a tough boss, but that's the nature of the game.
Yeah, or you, let's see, you have to have or you've got to have thick skin, right?
You've got to have thick skin around here.
Trust me though, it's worth it, so thick.
So what does that mean?
Yeah, what is that?
Sounds disgusting, i know, i right it's strange, at least weird.
It just means that nothing can penetrate you, in a sense like yeah, if you have thick skin, things don't get to you.
People's comments um, you don't feel hurt as easily as other people do, maybe.
Right yeah, you might hear somebody in an interview using this like A celebrity interview.
Oh, how do you handle all of the comments that you get from the press?
Oh, well, you have to have thick skin.
Yes.
Yes.
And another one I just thought of was cutthroat, which I think we used earlier.
Right.
A certain industry could be very cutthroat, which is basically very competitive.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, and I feel like a lot of these industries tend to be big and tend to center around large cities.
I think of New York for some reason.
But LA is big too obviously, with Hollywood, you know Broadway probably ballet, all centered around the big metropolitan centers, because that's where the competition is the heaviest.
Right.
That's where everyone goes to make it, quote unquote.
Yeah.
Wall Street is there, too.
So interesting stuff.
All right, Michelle, let's go into a role play.
So here we are close friends talking about our jobs.
OK.
All right.
Here we go.
I just didn't realize the restaurant industry would be so tough.
I cry almost every night.
I hate to say this, Michelle, but if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen.
I'm not trying to be harsh.
I just hate to see you like this.
Thanks.
I mean, I know this isn't for the faint of heart you have.
You have it tough too.
Yeah, nursing is no joke, but that's the nature of the game.
Yep, you've got to have thick skin, yeah.
So sometimes your friends just kind of get.
You'll punch you on the arm and say like hey, tough love, are you in the right place?
Right, like if you made the right career choice right yeah yeah yep, exactly so, Yeah.
So I'm telling you, I cry almost every night.
And instead of just saying, oh, you know, it's okay.
It'll get better.
No, no.
You are going to be giving me some tough love, which is another great expression.
We could do a whole episode on that.
We should, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I hate to say this, Michelle, but if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen.
And I said, ouch.
So why?
Why did I say out?
Because you're being very direct when you say that to someone.
I'm basically suggesting you quit your job.
Right?
Yeah, that's what I'm doing.
Yep.
I'm suggesting that maybe you're in the wrong industry.
Um, and most of the time friends kind of just want, I mean, a good friend will tell you the truth.
I believe that um, a good friend will not be afraid to tell you the truth, but a lot of friends will sometimes just want to make you feel better and want to give you like a sense of false hope of maybe it's fine.
You'll get better.
It'll get better, but that might not be the right answer, right?
Maybe you are in the wrong industry.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah, for sure.
And then I said, I'm not trying to be harsh.
I just hate to see you like this.
And you said, thanks.
I know this isn't for the faint of heart.
And then you flipped over to my work situation.
And I liked how you changed your intonation.
There is very important for our listeners to hear that.
Right.
So you said, thanks.
I know this isn't for the faint of heart.
You have it tough, too.
Right.
So and you said, yeah, nursing is no joke, which we just did a whole episode about.
No joke.
Yeah.
But that's the nature of the game.
So it's just saying that's how it is.
Yeah, exactly.
And then you said, yep, you got to have thick skin.
Yeah.
So we used a lot of our expressions today.
I mean, I think a big connection skill coming out of today's episode is honesty with your friends.
So be careful with that one.
That one's definitely going to be – that's when you really want to be blunt.
Like you kind of – it's like you're shaking the person.
Like I don't want to see you like this.
Like you can change.
Like you don't have to do this, right?
You have to decide.
Yeah.
If your friend is ready to hear that, they might not be ready yet.
Yeah, especially if it's their lifelong dream to work in that industry.
I mean, you know the history of your friend.
That's a very touchy situation.
Yeah, but sometimes they are ready and they need to hear it.
Right.
So it just depends.
So this definitely centers around connection for sure.
Oh, the nature is certain industries are just a certain way and they're not going to change for you.
The whole industry is not going to change or be different for you as you're entering that industry.
Right.
You're going to hit those, those roadblocks or those challenges night, definitely.
Uh, all right guys, check out episode uh 556.
That was don't slack off.
Learn these ways to talk about low energy at work, all right um, good one.
I think we already did the takeaway.
Yeah, i think we did, michelle.
Well, that's it for today.
We are all set.
I'll see you next time, all right.
All right bye lindsey, bye guys, bye.
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