Try a man’s kitchen, top chef told me
Head of lauded all-female restaurant team calls for code of conduct to combat sexism and casual racism
ASMA KHAN is proud of her all-female team of chefs at Darjeeling Express in London – former housewives with barely a jot of formal training whose food has been acclaimed by critics.
So when Claude Bosi, the French chef and one-time recipient of two Michelin stars, suggested that Khan, 49, should “take the risk” of working in a man’s kitchen, she was seething.
“The arrogance of the man,” she said. “I just felt so disappointed and sad. We are in the same profession. Why can’t people respect each other?”
Bosi was at an event at his South Kensington restaurant, Bibendum, when asked about the rise of all-female kitchens such as Khan’s. Bosi jumped in with “maybe the women should come into the men’s kitchen and take the risk”, Foodism magazine reported.
His spokesman was unable to contact him but said his comments had possibly been “lost in translation” and that it was important to have a mix of male and female chefs in the kitchen.
Khan also found herself dragged into a sexism row last year when the Michelin Guide published an ill-judged tweet praising Darjeeling Express, run by, it noted, “a female kitchen team coping effortlessly with the demand”.
After the tweet was condemned by followers as patronising and Jurassic in outlook, the industry bible attempted clarification. “It’s rare to see a completely female kitchen team, and one so utterly calm under so much pressure as the place was packed,” it said, only to provoke yet more anger.
Khan avoided fanning the flames and kept clear of the debate. Yet she despises the macho, often abusive culture in many professional kitchens. When that evolves into apparent racism, recently exposed in a sorry debacle involving a chef at Som Saa, a top Thai restaurant, she said the hospitality industry appeared to be stuck “in the Dark Ages”.
Shaun Beagley was sacked after comparing black shoppers and marketplace sellers to monkeys and writing in offensive “Chinglish” that mocked Asian accents on social media, where he identified himself as Boring Thai. Andy Oliver, a former MasterChef finalist and head chef at Som Saa, was forced to apologise after praising one of Beagley’s offensive cooking tutorial videos on YouTube.
Khan said the industry needed a code of conduct that respects women and staff from diverse cultures and backgrounds. “People who do not speak English are abused like mad,” she said. Some top chefs were “the heroes of the culinary world yet they shout, and abuse their staff ”.
She said a post-Brexit world would mean a shortage of chefs from abroad. “People rock up and owners are just grateful they can cook,” she said. “Bangladeshi restaurants are taking on people who are not Bangladeshi – it’s never happened before.”