Diverse chefs to display talents
The past year has seen a reckoning for gender equality.
Movements such as #MeToo and Time’s Up, both focused largely on discrimination and sexual misconduct in Hollywood, have ushered in a more open and honest discussion surrounding behaviour in the workplace — and beyond — predominately examining the abuse of power positions between men and women.
The conversation has rightfully spread to other industries, as more people have come forward with their personal accounts, and companies and individuals are forced to answer for their actions. While the movements have shed some much-needed light on the issues at hand, it has also prompted more women to join forces in the aim of supporting one another and removing stigmas in their respective workplaces.
It’s a positive development that insiders in the culinary world say has been occurring in their industry for some time now.
“I believe it has been happening for quite a while already,” Eva Chin, the executive chef at Royal Dinette in Vancouver, says of female chefs coming together to show support for one another. “All over world, North America, Europe, Australia.”
And it’s happening a lot closer to home, too.
“I had recently attended the annual B.C. Seafood Festival in Comox Valley,” Chin says.
“It featured a full female chef lineup for the signature weekend gala dinner.”
Chin said being one among so many talented women at a single event of that magnitude was an overwhelmingly positive experience that she won’t soon forget.
“I felt very proud and honoured to be uniting with these fierce female chefs to create a community,” Chin says.
For Chin, the climb through the culinary ranks wasn’t hindered by the fact that she’s a woman. “It has been as hard as I imagined but not because I am a woman — but because I chose this industry to begin with,” Chin explains. “What we do is incredibly consuming, both physically and mentally, and to be on top of our game every second of the day on the line, I feel is a challenge, whether I am a woman or man.”
But she is aware of peers whose experiences have been vastly different from her own.
“I have definitely heard stories from friends and peers about their experience as a woman in the kitchen, some say they are not taken seriously and some say they feel patronized,” Chin says. “I understand that these are quite recurring in our field.”
Chin says her experience as an LGBTQ-identifying chef has influenced her career experiences, serving to create a unique interpersonal perspective for the talented chef.
“I feel it has changed my barriers with my peers,” Chin says. “I most certainly feel like I am able to be comfortable showing my masculinity and my femininity to both my male and female peers. I find myself with more equal number of male and female friends in the kitchen.”
But, for Chin, it’s less about which gender you identify with (if you choose to identify with one at all, that is) and all about what you bring to the kitchen as a person and a chef.
“I believe in equality at the end of the day. I believe women are just as accountable as men in the kitchen and vice versa,” Chin says. “I feel our industry needs to work on all levels of upgrading in terms of equality, benefits, and appreciation. “And it will have to be for all sexes, not one over the other.”
Chin will be one of several women featured at the upcoming Brewery and The Beast food-and-beer event in Vancouver. This year’s unprecedented appearance of women at the event isn’t lost on Chin.
“I attended last year’s Brewery and The Beast as a sous chef and this year as executive chef,” Chin says of the meaty meal. “What’s great is that last year there were already several female chefs and we have grown in numbers this year. It is wonderful to be able to participate in events like these ... I am excited and looking forward to it.”
To Scott Gurney, the creator of Brewery and the Beast, the “steady increase year to year” of female chefs at the annual event has nothing to do with a pressure to provide gender parity, and everything to do with raw talent.
“Talent, skill, passion, dedication, and confidence,” he says when asked to explain the increase in the number of female chefs at the event.
“Plain and simple: women are excellent chefs.”
For this year’s meat-and-beer extravaganza, Chin is touching on her personal history for the recipe she’ll serve to the sold-out event’s hungry visitors. “I will be featuring a barbecue item I grew up eating and making a lot with my community back home, in Hawaii,” Chin says. “Maui ribs!”
It will be yet another chance for Chin and her peers to prove that, good food is good food, no matter who makes it.