Collaborative Paper: "Why Are There No Great Women Chefs" Analysis

Gender exists everywhere, from who we are to what we do. This has the unsavory effect of creating and fostering stereotypes about genders and their ability - or inability - to do certain things. In “Why Are There No Great Women Chefs?”, Charlotte Druckman, examines the divide between men and women in the culinary arts. The divide in question is the perception of professionalism, mostly in the media; men are chefs, and women are cooks.

The introduction to the essay is an anecdote about Druckman’s personal life, specifically realizing that “Food & Wine’s annual roundup of ten Best New Chefs always listed one token woman” (Why Are There No 24). The simplicity and hard hitting force asserts itself immediately and the essay is all the better for it.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary’s definition of chef is “a skilled cook who manages the kitchen (as of a restaurant)” (Chef). Meanwhile, the Merriam-Webster definition of cook is merely “a person who prepares food for eating” (Cook). This simple linguistic difference has wide-reaching effects on the perceived legitimacy of a chef’s skill. Druckman says that seeing men as chefs and women as cooks reinforces the idea of men being professional chefs and women being suited to the home kitchen (Why Are There No 25). Among the many reasons for this is likely the notion of the archetypal maternal figure; in essence, many people remember their mothers as the one who cooked most of their childhood meals. This childhood image asserts itself later in life when media portrays female chefs in a domestic setting, removed from the professionalism of the workplace, to better reflect the maternal appeal. Some undertones of “doting housewife” creep into this aura as well, having been modernized for today’s public.

Being a woman in a culinary profession herself, Charlotte Druckman takes the idea that women can’t take the heat of the industrial kitchen personally, as her readers do too. Druckman’s article is published in Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture, so the intended audience is other chefs, particularly female chefs. “Why Are There No Great Women Chefs?” is a call to arms with the intention of illustrating the appalling display of supremacy from male chefs and pleading the female chefs take action against such abuse. Druckman uses many examples of fine female chefs, but one in particular deserves its own consideration – that of Suzanne Goin. The outrage comes not with the fact that she is an overlooked female chef, but that she is overlooked because she has the audacity to be beautiful. One of the few recognitions Goin has received was the interview she did with Vogue. Rather than talk about her culinary prowess, the article was instead focused on how she managed to keep such a delicate figure, comparing her to Audrey Hepburn rather than Julia Child. Druckman vociferates, “It’s as though the very idea of an attractive, stylish woman who can hold her own in a professional kitchen and even possibly out-cook the men is untenable, an impossible dream” (Why Are There No 28). This is given as applicable evidence to Druckman’s cause because it reveals that rather than earning recognition based on culinary merit, a female chef can only obtain acknowledgement by being physically pleasing.

Druckman’s message is a simple but assertive one: Female chefs, erase the stereotype and fight back! She uses statistics to shock her readers into wanting a change. While addressing the publisher Phaidon’s Coco: 10 World Leading Masters Choose 100 Contemporary Chefs, she states, “Collectively, these culinary authorities managed to put fewer than 10 women on the roster – less than 10 percent of the total talent featured” (Why Are There No 24). This number is impossible to ignore which is why Druckman used this figure to aggravate and draw in her audience. She uses the field of study of sexism and psychology in the context of the culinary arts to portray the wrongdoings of male chefs. Druckman's voice is clear in it's aggravation that this corruption is still prominent in these recent years. Druckman, while possessing extensive knowledge of the food industry herself, keeps her approach colloquial, rather than pedantic, as to inform all of her audience, leiman or not, of the male dominated misconduct. For example, when claiming culinary television is a man’s world, she says, “Finally, in Bravo TV’s Top Chef Masters competition, a paltry three out of twenty-four American ‘Masters’ were women. Really” (Why Are There No). "Why Are There No Great Women Chefs?" is an article written for every person that manages to pick it up and read it. The article addresses both male and female chefs, but it's main concern is with such a universal issue that anyone can understand what Druckman is arguing. Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture is aimed at the professional chef but anyone interested in sexism, culinary professionalism, or simply an interesting read, would be able to follow Druckman's claims and evidence. While this article might be inconvenient to get a hold of for non-subscribers of this journal, Druckman felt so strongly about this subject that she wrote a book entitled Skirt Steak: Women Chefs Standing the Heat and Staying in the Kitchen (5 Questions). Druckman's book dovetails off of this article to expand more on the culinary "men's club", and is just as relatable to every reader with her conversational tone. Though however colloquial it may be, researchers would still be able to obtain valuable data from this article, as most of the proof provided for these claims is in factual, statistical form. Druckman includes staggering statistics not only to provide hard evidence, but to also engage her female readers, as well as to alert her male audience; this and her use of support structure throughout her article stop the thought process some readers might have of “this is simply a biased opinion”, or semiology. She calls most attention to male vs. female stereotypes, especially in pop culture, to display the astounding inequities in the cooking world.

Druckman repeats the notion of the female chef being portrayed as the more docile, homey counterpart to the overtly masculine and competitive male chef throughout the essay; one of the most explicit examples is the comparison between the myriad of hosts for Food Network, both male and female. Male hosts such as Anthony Bourdain and Alton Brown are portrayed as both very knowledgeable about the culinary arts, always appearing to be “serious chefs, experts, adventurers, competitors” (Why Are There No 29 par. 2). On the other end of the spectrum, Rachael Ray - who denies she is even a chef - focuses on making simple meals that can be made in half an hour, and Sandra Lee is little more than “a table-decorating, cocktail-sipping ditz” (Why Are There No 28 par. 6), a fact made readily apparent within the opening moments of a Semi-Homemade broadcast. Unintentional or not, the message hiding among the subtext is painfully clear: women are simply not suited to the rigors of the professional kitchen. Femininity works better for cooking family dinners, catering parties, setting up nice tablescapes, and other “appropriate” tasks that women are supposed to be capable of accomplishing.

The purpose of “Why Are There No Great Women Chefs?” is to bring to light the injustices female chefs face in the culinary arts. The fact remains that gender exists everywhere, but the choice of our generation is whether or not to acknowledge the stereotypes associated with each. Charlotte Druckman wrote her article in a shocking statistical support format to petition for a better ruling, a ruling in favor of equality in the cooking world. She leaves it up her readers to evoke that change for the bettering of the culinary arts, and, indeed, society in general. “Why Are There No Great Women Chefs?” is a cry for help in which Druckman begs for the wall to be broken down, for the image of men as chefs and women as cooks to be dissolved. As she says herself, “The status quo is unacceptable” (Why Are There No 31).

Works Cited

"Chef." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster. Web. 01 Oct. 2014.

"Cook." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster. Web. 01 Oct. 2014.

Druckman, Charlotte. "Why Are There No Great Women Chefs." Gastronomica 10.1

          (2010): 24-31. JSTOR. Web. 26 Sept. 2014.

Druckman, Charlotte. "5 Questions: Charlotte Druckman, Author of Skirt Steak."

          Interview by Nozlee Samadzadeh. Web log post. Food52. FreshDirect, 23 Oct.

          2012. Web. 30 Sept. 2014.