International Women’s Day: Celebrating Female Chefs

Ahead of International Women’s Day on March 8, The Staff Canteen speak to some of the culinary industry’s successful female chefs about how the stigmas of the kitchen are changing, how both genders is the perfect brigade mix and why significant accolades are still singling out women with their ‘Best Female Chef’ awards as opposed to simply ‘Best Chef’.

Picture a ‘chef’ in a busy restaurant kitchen and you might imagine a scene we often see on TV; pans clattering and temperatures rising with a male head chef directing his staff. Of course, this stereotype is already being shattered by successful female chefs like Angela Hartnett, Alice Waters, Clare Smyth and Monica Galetti, who have built incredibly successful and influential careers in the industry.

Yet, it’s never been more important to celebrate and encourage women working in this high pressured culinary world. In 2016, the Office of National Statistics announced that - although there are 250,000 professional chefs in the UK - only 18.5% (46,000) are female, a decrease from 20.5% in 2015.

Despite these statistics, female chefs, restauranteurs, sommeliers and entrepreneurs have all been making an impact in the industry. Including Australian founder and executive chef of Balls & Company, Bonny Porter, who was the youngest ever finalist on Masterchef Australia: The Professionals at the age of 23.

Like others, Bonny sees ‘cheffing’ as a very male dominated industry. Which is why, in honour of International Women’s Day on March 8, she is hosting an event to celebrate some of London’s most influential women from all corners of the industry.
The evening will see respected chefs Margot Henderson, Olia Hercules, Sandia Chang, Freddie Janssen, Emily Dobbs, Tania Steytler and Roz Bado each cooking a dish inspired by women who have shaped their lives.

“Gender inequality is a very real issue particularly amongst chefs,” said Bonny. “With female chefs, woefully, few and far between. I think it’s time we celebrated those who do fight to be seen and make their mark in this profession.”

So why are there so few women entering the industry? Restaurant kitchens are often seen as environments where women are not welcome; a testosterone filled workplace with physically demanding work, unsociable hours and a ‘macho culture’.

“In the majority of kitchens I have worked in, being a woman has not been an issue,” said Bonny. “It’s more of a stigma that means, as a woman, you do have to fight that much harder, work that much longer to get where you want to be. It’s almost unspoken, no one ever says you need to work harder, or that you can’t be in that section because you’re a girl, but intuitively you know you need to fight tooth and nail to make any headway.”

Respected chef, cookery writer and co-founder of Clerkenwell’s Rochelle Canteen, Margot Henderson said she has never found it an issue being a woman in the kitchen, but understands a problem some female chefs might encounter.
“Men always find it hard for me to tell them what to do,” said Margot. “I have to convince them that I am right. I want the onions sliced like this and they go, ‘oh really?’ and I have to say, ‘look, this is my place and you do it how I want it.’”

But women can be just as strong and capable in the kitchen as male chefs, and can do as much butchery as pastry.
“I was very strong in the kitchen,” said Margot. “I could do as many shifts as anyone else. I was fast. I wasn’t weak and afraid of the hard work at all. It’s not an easy job, you’ve got to be prepared to stand up, lift things and get burns.”

“Women always think they get stuck doing pastry. While it’s an incredible discipline - so learn it while you can – push yourself to get on the meat side. The fun bit is being on the stove. You know, you’re in the power zone and that is an exciting place to be.”

Breaking out of the stigma that kitchens are scary places where ‘men are chefs’ is crucial to encouraging more women to join the industry.