a good rant.
It’s no secret that preparing, talking about, looking at and enjoying good food is popular among the female half of society – apparently three quarters of delicious. readers are women. So I never fail to be surprised – dismayed is a better word – at the lack of young women training to become chefs. There’s no shortage of talented women getting to the top in restaurant management, often working their way up from waitressing to be in charge of a dynamic front-of-house operation. So why not cheffing?
Ten years ago, my ex-husband Rick Stein and I started an apprenticeship scheme for chefs in Cornwall. In all that time, the number of female applicants has been way below the number of male applicants. In the UK, only 18.5 per cent of professional chefs are women. This is such a shame because in the pressurised environment of a restaurant kitchen, female leadership, with its talent-nurturing skills and empathetic qualities, is a welcome thing.
It’s not as though there’s a lack of female chef role models. In recent years we’ve seen Angela Hartnett, Monica Galetti, Margot Henderson, Nieves Barragán Mohacho and many others show that the restaurant kitchen can be a place for women to thrive and show their creativity. These women are inspirational and we need to see more of them on our television screens and throughout the media.