Anonymous

As a woman in the industry, it's extremely difficult to get behind the expo station-we're mostly relegated to hosting and FOH management. The few women I see in kitchens are either pantry or prep. I was fortunate enough to pay my way through culinary school as a the only female hot line cook at a very well known seafood restaurant here in Atlanta-I'm now the General Manager at a $3M concept in midtown, and it's been a hard road to get here.
I think the article is being a little too optimistic-the only "exec" positions I see the majority of women in kitchens holding is pastry chefs-not that they aren't good at it-they wouldn't be receiving their recognition if they weren't. There's still a glass ceiling in kitchen operations, and we have a long way to go.

Anonymous

I'm not sure where the original data came from in the initial article but, in my neck of the woods, Northern Minnesota woods, I can think of many small eatings establishments that are owned, operated and worked by women. I guess that makes them executive chefs, pastry chefs, line cooks, wait staff, maintenance personnel, sous chefs, CEO, etc. I am one of them, put me in any slot you wish, I love it and will do it as long as possible. I think the small operators need to counted, not just the large, impersonal operations as a means of making generalizations and/or statements of "fact" about the industry. I'm not familiar with an Open Table List, but I'd bet there is not one to cover our area, an area larger than many states in our country.

Anonymous

Hey Jamie as a chef and restaurant owner in Perth, Australia, i also have been vice president of the Australian Culinary Federation (WA)what i have noticed over the years, yes there has been an increase in the number of female chefs, but as they finish there apprenticeships (training period) a lot of then start to drop out over the next few years as a result of getting married and raising children along with chasing better working our to fit in with the social times of their partners. i do have a very dedicated female chef in my restaurant who has been qualified now for almost two years and is talking about finding it hard to meet a partner due to the hours we work. i guess it mat only be a matter of time till she fall victim as well.

Anonymous

I think that it is because women like to do other things in the food service market than be chefs. There are a lot of women involved in the kitchen, but I do not think that- that is something that women exceed in the most in the restaurant industry.

Anonymous

If you're just using the Open Table stats from your area that's just that location. In culinary school I had 2 female chef instructors and I apprenticed under another female executive chef. Recently I trained and developed my lead broiler to become sous chef, then executive chef. The first female in our 24 units. Women chefs are out there....even in the White House.

Anonymous

i agree with your findings. my wife was the certified executive chef of qa redtirement community for over ten YEars when a management compayny took over operation of the kitchen and they promptly reduced her to ony dish up jobs and when she did not quit reduced her hours to 25 a week and then they left her gg___the excuse was she was incomptent. she had also lost her great reirement plan and insurance coverage.

the upshot was she was the only female left when she was left go as all the managers were now men _ not one female was left with any authority and all other personnel were minimum wages per hour and nothing in sight for the future.

Anonymous

come on, get real, the restaurant owners do not want to employ many women in top positions beause................they tend to get pregnant, and thereby incurring extra costs to the proprieter. In many ways this is understandable, as a small restaurant owner myself, I baulk at the prospect of hiring a woman of child bearing age. We just can not afford to pay maternity and cover her job, and then wait and see if she will return to work. This is the reality of the situation, and its not just in our industry. I wish there was another way around it, but what are we to do?

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