Where do we come from?

One must start with this thought: women began cooking without the incentive of money.

Men, on the other hand, knew that whatever they would be doing with their hands and brain – and that included cooking – they would have to earn a living with it.

This gender divide is apparent throughout the history of humankind and has encouraged stereotypes of women as natural caregivers and meal-preparers. It is only at the turn of the 20^th century that women began to enter the workforce and lots of men and women are still struggling with the idea of women earning money and awards with their cooking and their creativity in food.

For decades, French gastronomy had a huge impact on how gastronomy evolved worldwide, and so I will start with a bit of French gastronomy history.

In the late 60s and early 70s, a very talented French chef named Paul Bocuse and his male colleagues in gastronomy highlighted how chefs – and the art of cooking as a whole – were lacking recognition and credit. Chefs typically spent their days in hot, dark kitchens without most customers learning their names or faces. Of course, as men earned a living through their cooking, they felt it necessary to gain more recognition.

How did they make it happen?

These famous-to-be male chefs adopted a familiar human strategy: adding value to something, by devaluing something else – and that’s precisely what they did.

When asked to make a TV appearance, Bocuse and his team argued relentlessly that their cuisine was much more elaborate and creative than that of female home-cooks and even of their female peers.

Now, it’s undeniable that in France – just like around the world – women have always been cooking professionally whether it is street food in South America and Asia, or in small auberges in the French countryside, feeding workers as well as tourists.

yet those chefs from “La nouvelle cuisine” movement referenced the inspiration they got from their mothers and grandmothers while neglecting to mention any professional female cook as their mentor or equal.

Inventing and imagining new dishes was a male thing – so they declared many times. (truth is Bocuse had spent much of his apprenticeship in Eugénie Brazier’s kitchen, a woman owner 2 restaurants both rewarded 3 Michelin stars!)

In the late 60s and early 70s in France, there were, indeed two other major issues that impeded the progression of female chefs.

Issues that existed in many other gastronomies and are still relevant in some parts of the world.

Women were not widely accepted into professional cooking schools and would not leave home to train in fine dining restaurants on the other side of the country. They instead learnt cooking at home, usually with their mothers and grandmothers. It was impossible for them to learn about new techniques that their Mothers and or Grandmothers didn’t know about nor exchange with other professional cooks.

A large number of those female chefs received no form of salary for their work in a professional kitchen. This often despite not even choosing to enter the profession themselves, as cooking jobs would typically be introduced to them by their husbands. It was common that men would inherit old properties and transform them into a restaurant or hotel. Similarly, it was common practice that the man’s parents would own a restaurant and the mother would pass on her teachings to her new daughter-in law. This meant that the majority of female chefs were not registered in national official archives as they received no pay checks, no tax was paid from their non-existent salary and they did not contribute to a retirement pension scheme.

 

What is out there today.

Even though female chefs are still fighting to reinstate their position as creative professionals in the kitchen, to make heard their views and ideas on the future of food and to be paid as much as male chefs, the landscape is a bit different today.

The public no longer favors the archaic image of the egocentric macho male chef as the figurehead of fine dining and gastronomy. It’s outdated and most importantly, doesn’t make sense anymore. In today’s world, gastronomy needs to make sense for all, for chefs, for their customers but also for the whole population, uniting people instead of separating them. Dining out needs to make sense, restaurants need to prove they are key to the well-being of the community they are part of. And female chefs embody all that! Why? Well…mainly because they represent the other half of the world population but also because girls are good at school and tend to study all kinds of different subjects before choosing a career in food. Their approach on things is therefore nurtured by different experiences and learnings. They start their career in food older and that’s now an advantage.

In many countries, female chefs have left the family businesses. They now attend culinary schools, travel, train in some of the best restaurants in the world and make a living from it. They are ready to put themselves first in their relationships or to build modern working partnerships with their loved one.

It’s still very hard for women to get their ideas financed and hard to finance their ideal restaurant. Therefore, by virtue of this, women have successfully developed a strong capacity for adaptation and a will to develop another kind of system, another kind of restaurant. Female chefs need to be super-efficient and so they are! They do more with less and are key players in the reinventing of the restaurant scene. In their often-smaller restaurants, they sport a style of management often more practical, causing less harassment in the workplace. Some female chefs even decided that all members of the team would earn the same wage – regardless of hierarchy – and decided to share ownership. It is evident that female chefs are more inclined to be inclusive and have gender-balanced and diverse teams working alongside them. Plus, many spend on products rather than on rent or the interior design of their restaurant.

They built a network. After decades of isolation one from another, social media and zoom meetings have made it possible for overwhelmed female chefs – who often double as mothers whereas male chefs still don’t get much involved in their children’s education –  to get to know each other, exchange ideas and support each other.  Several groups of female chefs and new media for women working in food were established over the last couple of years. Je Dis Non Chef and Elles sont food in France,  Mujeres en gastronomia in Spain, Girls in food podcast, Restaurant Her website in the US…There is even a female chef in France, Manon Fleury, who started a group to go and teach about gender in culinary schools.

 

What is missing.

Self-confidence, big dreams and marketing.

Chef Anne Sophie Pic (3 Michelin Stars) is among the few female chefs who opened restaurants in several countries ( France, Switzerland, UK, Singapore) and Pic is becoming a brand with “daily Pic” and ” Pic delicatessen”.  She is an example of big dreams and should be celebrated for it.

Women, however, needs to devote more time to talk about what they do.

It’s happening slowly as not being taught to dream big and to be self-confident, women still don’t promote their work as loudly as men. And this is an era where communication is key! Female chefs need to communicate.

We need women to show their character preferably without smashing the other girls around! We need “Fraternité” among women and them lifting each other up.

Most of all, we need to invent a marketing for female chefs. The stereotypes are still strong. Female chefs like Dominique Crenn ( 3 Michelin Stars in San Francisco, USA) developed an interesting marketing strategy. She spoke a lot about gender but fought against gender-based prizes. she is making food political and is not afraid to express her views on social and political issues. She is not afraid to speak up!

Another interesting example is chef May Chow in Hong Kong (Asia’s best female chef in 2017): reinventing Chinese food while expressing  strong views and promote LGBT issues.

 

Money and investors.

How do you get a Michelin star?  By spending a considerable sum on products, front of the house team and interior design until you get a star or some kind of recognition. Only then you can raise the price of your menu to what it actually costs. In my view, we need a private fund dedicated to women entrepreneurs in food, sponsored by big food brands that want to have an real impact on society.

Women need also to better value their time, work and creativity. When women submit a loan application, they tend to ask for less than men and on the other side, they tend to put smaller prices on their menus.

Last but not least, women need to learn to trust other people to do part of their job. They need to delegate more and accept not to always be there in the kitchen.

As for us all, what should we do and could we do to help?

Well, first we need to finance and create gender balanced teams, festivals, conferences, panels… and eat our way through the world by discovering what female chefs are cooking. Value their food by accepting to pay their menus the same prices as the male chefs menus.  Female chefs need promotion and here you are, able to help! READY, STEADY, EAT ! THE POWER OF YOUR FORK HAS NO LIMIT… and to make it easier for you I would love to create an international app mapping female food business around the world.