When I was coming up as a young line cook nearly 20 years ago, I never worked for an executive chef or sous-chef who was a woman. This was not a deliberate decision. I interviewed with one female executive chef in San Francisco, but I didn’t get the job (most likely because I was fresh out of culinary school).
When I became an executive chef, I was constantly asked ― by vendors, sales reps and even potential hires ― where “the chef” was. I dinged one candidate who was interviewing with me for not even bothering to Google the restaurant to find out the chef’s name. As a Korean American woman, I have been asked if I’m the pastry chef a million times. It’s rarely assumed that I am the chef.
Whenever I speak with other women who are executive chefs, it becomes clear that we tend to have similar experiences. Whether it’s being overlooked as the chef, being judged by our looks, or enduring harassment, most of us have experienced sexism in the workplace that resulted in fewer opportunities and poorer treatment overall. But the miraculous thing about the female chefs I’ve met over the years is that despite all this, we have persisted and triumphed in many ways.
The pressure to be pretty
Many female chefs are solely judged by their appearance, for better or worse. Take Christan Willis, an Atlanta-based private chef and TV personality who’s currently on the Netflix hit “Pressure Cooker.” Willis was prepared for anything when she showed up on set, and brought a variety of clothing to wear.
“It seemed as if they wanted to create an image of me to stand out amongst the other chefs, and the stylist only [gave] me tight dress options, which was the complete opposite of the others walking into the show,” Willis said. She asked what the other contestants were wearing, and was told that she “didn’t need to know.”
Willis advocated for herself and managed to find an outfit she was more comfortable in, but she was mortified to find out that everyone…
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