To celebrate International Women's Day, we asked female figureheads in the hospitality industry what advice they would give to anyone wishing to be successful in their career.
We wanted to know what they think is most important to remember when training to be a chef, a front of house manager and everything in between.
Dominique Crenn, chef owner, Atelier Crenn, Petit Crenn, Bar Crenn
Three Michelin-starred Dominique Crenn said that when she left France, “it was a very difficult time in any job for a woman to be really at the forefront of an amazing job - it was not the time. France was very bureaucratic and it was hard to get things done.”
But when she went to San Francisco, she felt that things were different there.
“It was the kind of place where I could be who I wanted to be and not have any pressure from the community or the society to fit the mould that they wanted me to fit, I could really be who I wanted to be.”
“This was my father's advice to me: be humble, go out there and just kick some ass.”
The city also boasted many female-led kitchens, which inspired Dominique.
She cited Nancy Oakes and Joyce Goldstein as examples, but said that “a lot of women were at the forefront of amazing restaurants.”
Knowing that she was free to blossom in what she loved most is what drove Dominique to settle in California.
“I got into cooking because it's always been a passion of mine and I think that was something where I could perhaps express myself. It was a language. It was a platform. So that was the reason,” she said.
Dominique Crenn's advice:
“You need to know yourself. You need to know who you are before you do it.”
She added: “When you start to get to know yourself and you know who you are and you are confident with yourself, when you go out there just understand that no one and nobody is better than you, but you're not better than them.”
“This was my father's advice to me: be humble, go out there and just kick some ass.”
Mariana Chavez, pastry chef, Jamie Oliver's Fifteen Cornwall
Mariana Chavez is the pastry chef at Jamie Oliver’s 15 in Cornwall, where she creates visually-arresting desserts, often using vegetables rather than fruit.
Her experience of being a woman in a male-dominated environment has mostly been positive, though on one occasion, she told us, things turned sour. "This guy, he was sabotaging everything I did. He added ingredients, he changed the temperature on the oven. He was awful."
Mariana Chavez's advice:
"You have to work really hard and don't let people stop you. There is more and more diversity in the kitchen, I think things are changing now. We have good examples of great women chefs and we need more good examples.
