Seven years ago, Time magazine named René Redzepi, Alex Atala, and David Chang “Gods of Food.” In his autobiography Eat a Peach, Chang mentions that appearing in that article embarrasses him because at the time he didn’t see anything wrong with the fact that there were practically no women in the field. Little has changed since 2013 and that infamous cover. The evolution of collective thinking regarding the representation of women in the food world has been slow. These women have been a major force for driving change in different arenas, in terms of diversity, entrepreneurship, food access, and breaking centuries-old paradigms. We consider them role models and want more people to know their stories.
STARTING UP DURING A PANDEMIC
Sofía Cortina always knew she wanted bake sweets for a living. At the age of 18, she started interning at Pujol. 10 years later, she’s been named Best Pastry Chef by Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants. It’s a doubly strange incident, not just because she doesn’t have any academic training (everything she knows comes from years of work), but also because her bakeshop La Vitrine is a ghost kitchen. There’s no fixed location and everything is sold via social media. Sofía had several mentors along the way. Among them, there’s chef Enrique Olvera, who she sees as a Yoda who gives her advice, and chef Alejandra Rivas, who not only taught her bakery basics at Pujol, but also encouraged her to go to Barcelona to perfect her technique. Upon her return to Mexico, together with Joaquín Cardoso she took on the menu for Hotel Carlota, thanks to which she found her ”voice” as a pastry chef. Her cooking stands out for her impeccable French technique and reduced use of sugar in order to exploit the natural sweetness of seasonal ingredients. In 2020, it was time to open her own pastry shop. Little did she imagine that being unemployed would be give her the push she needed to make that step. One day in March, she announced she would be selling mamey pound cakes on social media. The experiment was a success. She suddenly found herself baking dozens of cakes using a single mold. She took
orders, bought ingredients, invoiced, charged customers, and made deliveries all by herself. In May came the official launch of La Vitrine. “It wasn’t how I would have liked it to be. I didn’t have boxes, I didn’t have a bakery, there was none of the glamour that I would have liked. But it’s been a slow process of organic growth. Fortunately, it’s gone very well.” She’s added other French pastry specialties including éclairs, a bestseller. Being named Latin America’s best pastry chef at the age of 28 fills her with joy. “The years have been very enriching and [being named best pastry chef] motivates me to keep working.”
PROVIDING EASIER ACCESS TO A HEALTHY DIET
Legend has it that if you mention “el Diego” or “la Narda” in Argentina, everybody knows who you’re talking about. Not only is she the most famous chef in the South American country –thanks to an impressive television career, restaurants, and published books–, Narda Lepes has also just been named Latin America’s Best Female Chef. The Buenos Aires chef heads a number of campaigns to promote access to a healthy diet, especially one that includes lots of vegetables. She’s pulled it off with her restaurant Narda Comedor and her book 201 tips para no comer como el or** (201 tips for not eating like an a**), an illustrated endeavor that came about from some cooking tips she shared on Twitter. Another way has been through her app Comé + Plantas (Eat More Plants), which contains information on vegetables. She’s currently concerned with Argentina’s food-labeling law. “We performed activism with public opinion in order to support the law and identify those members of congress who are allied with lobbyists for companies that don’t want it approved,” states Narda. “What I try to do is create a change in what gets bought, in what you consume. I’m not going to be a hypocrite. My whole life’s not organic. You’ll find mayonnaise in my fridge because I like it. One thing doesn’t cancel out the other. I eat junk food but I’ve chosen it conscientiously. The problem is that there are people eating the same things every week, feeding it to their kids, and they have no clue. Let’s revamp the rules. You don’t have to get radical about it.”
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