Omnivore - Are there any really great female chefs?

The winter issue of Gastronomica includes the best essay I've ever read about gender and restaurant kitchens. By Charlotte Druckman, it is provocatively entitled "Why Are There No Great Women Chefs?"

I say it's provocative because there are of course plenty of great women chefs. Druckman borrowed the title from a famous 1971 essay, "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?," in which author Linda Nochlin demonstrates how the very posing of the question — and it is a commonly asked question — actually presupposes that women are inferior artists.

The real question, of course, is why women get so little recognition as artists and chefs. Lest you dispute that, Druckman provides enough data to silence even the most misogynistic. She notes the one token woman that always appeared on Food & Wine's list of the Ten Best New Chefs. She recalls the grim spectacle of the 2009 James Beard Awards:

Then came the 2009 James Beard Awards gala, held after the ceremony and annually assigned a theme. “Women in Food” was the chosen motif, but since only sixteen of the evening’s ninety-six nominees were, in fact, women, it seemed like a cruel joke. In the end, only two of those sixteen went home victorious, out of nineteen winners total.

Druckman looks at the way language perpetuates stereotypes that bear little relation to reality. She makes this observation about a recent conference, where chefs could tell no difference in dishes prepared by women and men in blind tastings:

Panelist Gwen Hyman, who writes about gender politics and food, reminded the audience of the old cultural trope “Women cook with the heart, men cook with the head— because women have hearts and men have brains.”  So, if a male chef serves a plate of Spaghetti Bolognese, it is lauded for its “in-your-face,” “rich,” “intense,” “bold” flavors, while a woman’s plateful of the same indicates“homey,” “comforting” fare, “prepared with love.” The former becomes an aggressive statement, a declaration of ego, while the latter is a testament to home cooking.

Druckman then goes on to demonstrate that even very successful women who achieve what is normally associated with male chefs are represented in stereotypical fashion. She looks at Lidia Bastianich (photo above), Alice Waters and the Food Network’s and Bravo's female chefs in this respect.

Seriously, this is a must-read for anyone – male or female – working in the field. Fortunately, the article is available for free online. Visit the Gastronomica site and download the article’s PDF file.

(Photo of Lidia Bastianich courtesy of delish.com.)