Where are the local female chefs?
Women chefs say men often outshine their counterparts in restaurant kitchens
Rachel Fleischman Mabb said it is time to 86 the “best female chef ” category of food competitions.
“86-ing,” the restaurant industry shorthand for canceling an item on the menu, is applied to the outmoded concepts of the abilities of men versus women in professional kitchens. Despite outcries from the eating public, leading awards programs like "World’s 50 Best Restaurants" continue to honor “best chef” and “best female chef,” as though women in kitchens are a curiosity unsuited for comparison to male counterparts.
In the Capital Region, the rise of women-run and -owned restaurants and kitchens still excludes female chefs from being exalted to the same level of celebrity as many male counterparts. In the Times Union’s annual Best Of poll, male chefs dominated the “best chef” category year over year until the category was removed from the poll, in part because of a lack of change and diversity in finalists.
“We in society tend to automatically place men in positions of power more than women,” said Mabb, who runs the kitchen at The Ruck in Troy and hesitates to call herself “chef,” as she feels it is an ego-driven power concept typically enforced by the men she has worked with.
Aneesa Waheed, who owns three Tara Kitchen locations in
Schenectady, Troy and Guilderland, said, “I also don’t think that women get recognized as the chef. Men are automatically assumed to be the chef.” She said in her experience, those notions are often perpetuated by men and the ego-fulfilling need to be seen as the leader.
“Everyone respects a king. Queens have to earn their respect,” said Kizzy Williams, the
chef-owner of Allie B’s Cozy Kitchen in Albany. Williams said historically, men have always commanded attention, including in kitchens, and while women were always part of the staff the person that was celebrated has been a man. “Men have been king chefs for a long time,” she said.
Traditionally, food was a symbol of wealth, and wealth was power and power was held by men, so the connection of men and food is not a hard idea to understand. That does not mean it is just, Williams said. She recounted the difficulty of finding a job in professional kitchens, regardless of her talent, experience or education in hospitality.
“It’s not about being great or being talented, it’s about having a look,” she said, a look that she did not have as a Black woman.
Her appearance was glaring, she said, while taping her role on Food Network’s “Chef Boot Camp,” a new television series that debuts April 8. Most of the chefs on the show or producing it were men; however, Shahila Abbasi, who runs the kitchen at Mcgeary’s in Albany, is another contestant on the show. Waheed, of Indian descent, has also appeared on Food Network, both on “Guy’s Grocery Games” and “Beat Bobby Flay.” All three are women of color, constituting nearly 50 percent of the local female chef appearances on Food Network. Marla Ortega (owner of llium Bistro at Pine Haven Country Club in Guilderland and Westfall Station in Averill Park, and is among the only women locally who earned a Certified Executive Chef designation from the American Culinary Federation), Sarah Fish (of the former Hungry Fish Cafe in Wynantskill), Michele Hunter (chef at Hamlet and
Ghost in Saratoga Springs) and Rachel Cocca-dott (co-owner and baker at Coccadotts Cake Shop in Albany) have also appeared on various Food Network competitions. Local chef Melissa Doney was a contestant on “Hell’s Kitchen,” hosted by Gordon Ramsay.
The research group Data USA looked at the restaurant industry in 2019 and found glaring discrepancies in rank and pay in its “Chefs and Head Cooks” report. It found that 77.4 percent of top kitchen positions belonged to men in the U.S., Women who held the title made $28,270 as an annual salary while men made $38,465. Even when women rise to meet the rank of their male peers, the equity far from exists.
Women have outpaced men in local national television food appearances over the last decade, and Williams said it is just another hoop women have to jump through in order to be recognized by peers and the public. “I do believe that when a woman enters the TV stage, it makes her greater,” she said, adding that women need to start recognizing each other more to bring women in the industry as a whole to greater success. “I don’t even know who some of the female
chefs in the restaurant industry are,” Waheed said. In her experience, women tend to collaborate and reach out to each other less for mentorship or support typically because they are overwhelmed with the demand to “do it all” as women and chefs or because men tend to be readily recognized and easy to find for guidance. Waheed said while she does get a lot of press, she feels it is rarely about her food and role as chef and more about her community work or latest real estate project. Many smaller restaurants — especially those with regionalized international cuisines — tend to be fronted by women, but because the restaurants are typically low investment and not flashy, they generally do not generate press. (This writer recognized the hypocrisy here relating to this story.)
Mabb said the lack of female support from diners for women chefs is also part of the problem. “The ‘foodies’ are usually women that follow male chefs around. That happens in the kitchen, too,” she said. Sex and food are intricately linked, and a male chef earns a reputation as “sexy” and desirable more than women do. Even if the food is subpar, the men who peacock themselves
with flair and sex appeal push to the head of the line for recognition and restaurant patronage.
Mabb said there are benefits from lesser publicized roles of women in kitchens. “You are not beholden to your fan base,” she said, allowing women to guide their own menu creation process beyond what they think longtime customers will expect from them. Popular male chefs are able to leverage their notoriety and create a monied following for themselves, but Mabb said that women tend to forgo the influence of customers to keep more power for themselves, especially when it comes to other demands on women, like raising a family.
“The idea of how kitchens run, (women) were never a part of that,” said Waheed. She pointed to the demanding dual roles of chef and mother, which tend to operate on different schedules. A recent sick day for one of herdaughters came to mind, where her daughter just wanted Waheed to stay home and cuddle her on the couch all day, but the crush of the restaurants meant extreme amounts of reworking schedules and kitchen line-ups in order to accommodate both her duties as a mother and her duties as a business owner. In both roles, a
“day off ” is nearly unheard of.
Still, Waheed made the needs of her family when designing how her restaurants would run. Each of them can operate without her constant supervision, and she is frequently able to attend school functions and family dinners. Women examine the life of a chef and kitchen worker as part of a holistic self, while male-run kitchens tend to overlook the demands that exist beyond the expediting window.
“I’m satisfied that I’ve created a niche for myself,” Waheed said. She believes that as the owner of a restaurant, she does not feel as compelled to prove her value to co-workers as she did when she was working for other people. Her value is inherent as the brain trust behind her operation, regardless if customers see her as “chef. " Mabb said that success comes at a grander scale for women, not just from the way they are perceived publicly.
“Just because men are seen as the leaders, it doesn’t discount women’s success,” she said.
While the injustices of professional kitchens still plague women, things are improving.
“Like other women’s progress, it is slow and incremental,” Mabb said. She said the attitudes towards women in restaurants now versus when she started in the late 1980s is, “night and day,” and the shift has been augmented by the inclusion of more non-binary and LGBTQ cooks and kitchen staff that change the power dynamics and dialogue around “who” gets to be a chef.
“The attitude of male celebrity chefs will fall by the wayside,” Mabb said, including gendered awards. “We just have to keep pushing the rock up the hill.”