How Geoffrey Zakarian Feels About Working With His Family Every Day

Work-life balance is at the top of many people's minds these days, with a recent study by employment agency Randstad finding that 57% of workers today would not accept a job that would negatively affect their work-life balance. But according to an exclusive interview with Daily Meal at the New York Wine and Food Festival, for chef, restaurant owner, author, and frequent food show judge Geoffrey Zakarian, that's simply not his biggest priority.

"There's no such thing as life-work balance," Zakarian says. "I just work. When things are wrong, I fix it. When things are good, I try to make it better. It's just what you're doing all day long. It's like being on a ship. You're always trying to steady the ship."

Zakarian works with his family in various capacities nearly every day, tying into this ongoing balancing act — but while family businesses can be some of the most successful endeavors, working collaboratively with family can also be overwhelming. When asked about his feelings about the amount of crossover between his work and his family, Zakarian bluntly noted, "I don't have a choice. They're there every day."

Mindfulness is originally a piece of Buddhist meditation, but has become a common term in recent years in the general public and on social media, used to describe, according to the UC Berkeley Greater Good project, "maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment through a gentle, nurturing lens." It involves trying not to stress about the future or overthink the past, but it can be hard to practice when you're in a career that demands constant forward-thinking and only has space for the most pressing thoughts at any given moment.

The practice can look different in many peoples' lives, but Zakarian says that based on his understanding of mindfulness, he doesn't feel that it's part of his family's life at all. "There's no such thing as mindfulness in my family," Zakarian says. "No one's mindful because they're always working."

That said, there are some ways the acclaimed chef and entrepreneur lightens the load on himself — while he says his mother always made everything from scratch when he was a kid, Zakarian tends to buy bread store-bought. And to be fair, his hard work has certainly paid off: From Zakarian's carnoli risotto recipe to nearly anything else he cooks, he's earned his spot at the top.