THE GENDER GAP
Photo courtesy L o u i s H a n s e l
IN THE CULINARY INDUSTRY
BY T I F F A N Y A C O S T A
B
right lights and heat pouring from stove stops and ovens. Chefs yelling out orders while the sizzling of meats and vegetables fills your ears like a symphony. The medley of sweet and salty smells fills the air and catches your attention. Focused on plating a filet of salmon on a bed of greens, you look up and you see the head chef… Is it a man or a woman? According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2021, only 22.8% of women were head cooks in a restaurant. That means that 77.2% of head chefs are men. Living in a more inclusive society, why is it that men dominate the culinary field? Throughout history audiences see female icons and figures as the poster girls for anything related to food; from 1950s food ads to the stereotype of having a wife or mother cooking and cleaning for the family, women have
always been put in the kitchen not by choice but by obligation. Why is it that cooking, which is so often associated with women, but the culinary industry is male-dominated? Celebrity chefs like Bobby Flay, Gor-dan Ramsay, Anthony Bourdain, Jaime Oliver, Wolfgang Puck, Alton Brown and Mario Batali come quickly to mind. But only a few female chefs such as Ina Garten, Giada De Laurentiis, Julia Child and Anne Burrell are recognizable. According to DataUS.io, in 2019, 1,263 degrees were awarded across all undergraduate and graduate programs at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA). 54.2% of these degrees were awarded to women, and 45.8% were awarded to men. “I think one of the largest drivers for this divide is that women are smart enough to get out of the industry,” said Eric Lomando, chef and owner at PULSE 24
Orto. “The physical environment of working in the kitchen is typically uncomfortable. The stress on the body is brutal, and the hours and pace of work are exhausting, both physically and mentally. You have to put top effort and focus in 10 to 12 hours a day. The toll takes on personal lives is another extraordinary challenge.” Although more women are going to culinary school, many don’t remain in the industry. “The industry, on the whole, is facing a labor issue as less and less young people are interested in working in kitchens,” Lomando said. “The difficulty of the job and the pay scale are driving people away from the industry, and I think that in order to even out those percentages the entire industry needs to change, and the job needs to become more attractive and less demanding on the whole.”
