In the spotlight: women chefs are at the top of their game but is this a true reflection of the industry?

of your colleagues could change attitudes. Gordon Ramsay famously said, “women can’t cook to save their lives,” earlier in his career, but it was experiences with women employees like Clare Smyth and Angela Hartnett that led him to change his mind. Ramsay later ate his hasty words in an interview with The Telegraph saying: "Women definitely learn much quicker and they bring a far greater level of patience and tolerance to a kitchen than any male chef I've ever met." Anna Hansen is chef-patron of the critically acclaimed The Modern Pantry and author of The Modern Pantry Cookbook. She thinks that kitchen conditions are equal for men and women but often that means equally bad. “I think I was lucky,” she said, “and this isn’t about being a female chef – I came through some nice kitchens run by nurturing people, but I wouldn’t have worked anywhere where it was an aggressive environment. There are unfortunately a fair few of those kitchens still around. I think if I’d been unlucky enough to start my career in a place like that, I probably wouldn’t have pursued cooking.” But aren’t aggressive kitchens a product of too few female chefs in high positions? “I would like to think that would be true,” said Anna, “but I’ve also seen plenty of female head chefs acting like a***holes.” Camilla Waite is a 22-year-old female chef, just starting in the industry, who is working as a commis in Cornwall’s Michelin-starred Paul Ainsworth at Number 6. She is the only woman in the kitchen but loves the atmosphere, which she says is like a big family where all the guys treat her as an equal. Camilla admits that, as a female chef, you have to prove your ability to do the work but once you have gained your colleagues’ respect you are treated no differently to anyone else. “You have to prove that you’re not going to give in and say it’s too hard,” she said. “Sometimes I ask myself, do I want it enough? The answer is always, yes I do, and I carry on.” Camilla, who is competing in this year’s South West Young Chef competition, has been inspired in her career by the growing group of female chefs at the top of the industry. She said: “Seeing more females in the industry on Great British Menu, MasterChef and on chef forums really encourages me and meeting people like Lisa Allen and Angela Hartnett and seeing how lovely they are is great.” Which brings us back to that media spotlight; is the picture as healthy as it suggests? Yes, in general, it is; that is one opinion that all these female chefs have in common – that there is no inherent, widespread discrimination against women in the industry. If anything it is the outside view of the industry, rather than the inside reality, that is the problem. Anna Hansen agrees. She wants to turn the spotlight back on the spotlight, believing that media-led portrayals of the industry perpetuate the myth of an imbalance. “The biggest problem about female chefs being under-appreciated is not from within the industry,” she said. “I think male chefs are really happy that there are women chefs in the kitchen. It’s often about people’s perceptions, not the reality of the industry and I think that’s something that needs to be addressed.”