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Monday, May 30, 2005

Dine & Dish #2: Queen of Cuisine

When Sarah announced that the second theme for Dine & Dish was Queen of Cuisine, I applauded. About time we heralded and celebrated the culinary paid efforts of females in the hospitality industry.

Until I stopped to think about how many restaurants I knew of--off the top of my head--that were fronted by females. Um... Kylie Kwong and her Billy Kwong restaurant. And... errr... ahhh...

A little more research and I've come up with Vanessa Martin from Il Piave, Karen Martini from Bondi Icebergs, Jane Booth of Booker's Cafe and Elaine Lee from the Westin's Mosaic restaurant.

And these are all great female chefs. At fantastic restaurants. The upper echelons of dining experiences... and er, monetary extraction. But is that the sum total?

As pointed out by Keith Austin in the SMH here:


"...of the 62 Sydney restaurants awarded chef's hats in the Good Food Guide 2004 only three had kitchens led by women."
He quotes Jane Booth as saying:
"Lots of young male chefs don't like being told what to do by a woman, they find it very difficult. I just think you've got to be really strong, just got to keep telling them that that's the way you want it done. You've got to believe in why you're there and why you're in charge. You've got to believe in yourself, I guess."

Is it any surprise that the female chefs who do survive the notorious entrenched sexism, channel that determination to the very top? Where are all the female head chefs in local restaurants; middle market eateries; pub bistros? It seemed that every kitchen I looked into over the past couple of weeks was filled with males!

I know there are more female head chefs out there. And I'm sure there are plenty more female sous chefs, chef-d-parties and demi-chefs.

So instead I'm celebrating all the women who toil over hot stoves or chopping boards or kitchen counters, not just the ones at the top. I'm saluting the friendly Vietnamese lady who satiates my bun mit cravings, the Chinese women who stand all day hand-making dumplings at Mother Chu's, the Turkish mothers who roll out moutains of gozleme at every outdoor event in Sydney, the females who work out the back for all the guts and little of the glory.

So this is a non-entry entry. On the one hand, I feel compelled to shake Sydney by the shoulders and demand more female chef profiling and a less testosterone-fuelled kitchen. On the other, I say meh, maybe we should relish men slaving away in the kitchen for a change =)

Check out the full wrap-up of Dine and Dish Queens of Cuisine here.
5 comments - Add some comment love

posted by Anonymous on 5/30/2005 11:59:00 pm


5 Comments:

  • At 5/31/2005 10:17 am, Blogger deborah said…

    This is such an interesting area, and I think an area which is often overlooked. Some time last year Christine Mansfield was featured in an SMH article about the rise of female chefs at apprentice level. The article spoke of Mansfield heroic rise to the top, and totally avoided the hardships females in the industry face. I have seen this first hand, by seeing my sister begin a 5 year apprenticeship. She was one of two women out of a total of 6 chosen out of 400 odd people to work for a prestigious restuarant. She has gone through many things in the five years, nevermind the graveyard hours, hard labour, but she has also experienced sexual harrasment, racism and countless other forms of bullying. The commerical kitchen is a man's world! I can proudly say that my sister is now a qualified chef after much hard yakka - physical and emotional.

     
  • At 6/01/2005 5:19 am, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    hurrah for the dumpling ladies! here in l.a., too, there aren't that many star chef-esses, but many women who work HARD to get good food out on restaurant tables. but that's just the way my mom was too - she never needed any glory or celebrity, either.

    thanks augustus gloop!

     
  • At 6/01/2005 9:38 pm, Blogger Niki said…

    Info from down here in Melbourne:
    The Age best new Melbourne restaurant, Ladro in Fitzroy is run by a woman, Rita Macali. One of the best pizza I've ever tasted, if you can ever ge a seat.
    Abla's, in Carlton has been run by Abla Amad for over 20 years and still known to be the best Lebanese food around, even though she must be pushing 75 years old!
    Elena Bonnici, who used to work with Stephanie Alexander has opened her own place, Pizza Meine Leibe.
    Those are the first 3 I could think of, but there's probably more. Interesting though, that places that have female chefs tend to be ethnic/brasserie/pizzerie type places than your usual fine-dining establishments (I learnt on a cooking show this weekend that there is only 1 female chef of a 5 star hotel restaurant in Italy!)

     
  • At 6/01/2005 9:43 pm, Blogger Niki said…

    Oh! And Phillipa Sibley-Cook who ran Ondine, Luxe and Est Est Est with her husband, Donovan Cooke.

     
  • At 6/01/2005 9:56 pm, Blogger Niki said…

    PPS - and I *just* then read in Epicure of Karen Martini's exploits in the kitchen of the Melbourne Wine Room; seems she moved back down here 10 months ago.
    It's all happening in Melbourne, I tell you... ;-)

     

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