Whatever He Can Cook I Can Cook Too
A Woman's Battle to Get to The Kitchen
Story by Shana White // Art by Fernando Amaro Jr.

I finally finished culinary school and am now looking to get my first job in the field I trained in for the last two years. Even as my school was ending, I started looking around at different restaurants and stores.

I asked different restaurants if they were hiring, some of them said yes, but only for hostesses and wait staff. I wasn't interested too much in being apart of a wait staff, so I asked them if they were hiring for line cooks or other jobs in the kitchen. They would take my application, but I got the sense they weren't taking me seriously.

When I would eat out at restaurants, I would see women running around in their waittress outfits. But when I would look into the kitchen, it was nothing but men cooking.   I didn't think much of it until my mother and I went out to lunch one day at a local steak house. The restaurant manager was going from table to table asking people how they liked their food. When he got to our table, he asked us the same question.   My mother spoke to him in Spanish. I guess she was getting on his good side for a job hook up for me. Good looking out mom.   When he left, she told me that they were talking about introducing Nicaraguan food to the restaurant (I am Nicaraguan, and cook Nicaraguan dishes) and was doing really well.   When she asked him if they were hiring for cooks, because her daughter was interested in being one, he said not for me, because the job that I wanted “gets to hectic” and that it gets too hard for women, so that is why they have men as their cooks.

I checked out more restaurants, and the pattern held, women waitressing, men cooking -- whether it be a Denny's, a steakhouse, or an exclusive Chinese restaurant.

After doing my casual research, I thought to myself, its not these men's fault they're only allowed to work these jobs, but I can't understand why managers don't consider women when hiring for chefs and cooks.    And what I saw in the Bay Area is a national reality.   Even the US Department of Labor considers being a chef a “non-traditional” job for women.   In fact, it's on the same list mainly thought of as male jobs: construction occupations, firefighters, and engine mechanics.

In an acclaimed industry case study called “What makes a great chef?” by J.D. Pratten, he talks about the restaurant industry the needed skills and characteristics of a chef. In regards to women, he says, “A woman might find problems, as the industry is male dominated and has a reputation for sexism.” He goes on to site statistics to confirm this reality. He points out that in the well-respected Michellin Guide of 2000, of over the 100 restaurants awarded a star in Paris, none had a female senior chef. Apparently, the under-representation of women chefs is an international issue.

If being a chef is considered a non-traditional job for women, why do many of us start off our lives in the kitchen at home? And if a woman is good enough to cook at her home, and good enough to serve in restaurants, then we are capable of handling our jobs in a professional kitchen.

When I was is school we were taught by a man who was a first master chef and he taught us everything we needed to know. But what role did his mom play in the development of his cooking instincts?

The story of men being the “professional” chefs plays out not just behind the scenes in kitchens, but on TV as well. The most popular TV chefs are men – Emril Live and Hot Off the Grill with Bobby Flay.   And although there are women TV cooking shows, such as Rachel Ray's 30 Min Meal and Paula Home Cooking, there is a difference in who they are supposed to be cooking for.   The men are head chefs who are opening up their restaurant kitchens, the women are showing audiences how to cook for family and friends.

It's not that women are not aspiring to be cooks.   Even in my school, the class was seventy-five percent women. I am still going to try to become a chef. All this means that I'll have to prove myself extra hard, and show that I can do whatever the next man can do.

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