Female Chefs Are Underrepresented On TV And In Real Life
Will the women in professional kitchens please stand up? We'd like to shine a spotlight on the underrepresented female chefs of the kitchen.
If you find yourself muttering “yes, chef” to yourself as you’re making dinner in the kitchen (I can’t be the only one!) then the chances are you’re also a fan of the Disney+ series The Bear. This hit programme focuses on Carmen "Carmy" Berzatto (portrayed by Jeremy Allen White), a fine dining chef who has returned to his Chicago roots to run his family’s Italian beef sandwich shop. Inviting audiences into the kitchen, the series highlights the stress-inducing environment which chefs operate under. Although led by a white male, Carmy, the kitchen staff in The Bear is a diverse one. Carmy’s sous chef Sydney Adamu (Ayo Edebiri) is young Black woman, who is eager to gain hands-on experience and build upon her craft.
Away from the screen, the diversity and representation, or lack thereof, of kitchen staff has become a hot topic as of late, namely due to an Instagram picture posted by a renowned chef last week. Thomas Straker, a well-known kitchen personality who owns Straker's restaurant in Notting Hill, proudly shared an image of his kitchen staff to his 1.4 million followers. Posing outside his restaurant alongside his seven-strong team, he captioned the post: “Chef team assembled.” It wasn’t long before Instagram commenters pointed out the obvious: Straker’s kitchen staff is all white and all male.
The lack of diversity sparked an impassioned debate in the comments section. Pointing to the absence of female chefs, one commenter queried: “Are you afraid of women?” Another, referencing the fact that London is one of the most multicultural cities in the world, wrote: “This team is mad for a London restaurant.” And proving that Barbie really is seeping into all aspects of cultural commentary, one Instagram user quipped: “Women? Different ethnicities? Nah, just a load of Kens.”
Straker initially responded to the backlash by commenting under the picture himself. “Honestly, people need to calm down. Firstly, there is a shortage of chefs / hospitality workers,” he wrote. “Secondly, if you feel so passionately, please go and gather CV’s of any chefs you think we’re missing in the team. Solutions not problems. Thank you.”
However, it appears that Straker had a change of heart, as he later took to his Instagram stories to offer an apology. “On Friday night, I put up a post of my chef team and many rightly pointed out the lack of diversity in it. I am very sorry for my initial response, where some queried whether I take this issue seriously,” he wrote. “I am absolutely committed to ensuring diversity in my restaurants, unfortunately we aren’t achieving this in my kitchens currently and this is an area I know I need to improve on, making sure it is seen as a welcoming and approachable environment for all.”
Straker’s all white, all male team is seemingly far from an isolated occurrence. Data gathered by the Office for National Statistics between 2009-17 showed that only 17 percent of chef positions in the UK were held by women. A staggeringly low number when you combine that with the fact that 56% of people who work hospitality are female. This lack of female representation in the world of chef tends to translate to the fictional realm of TV and film, also.
As mentioned, although The Bear’s kitchen is diverse and inclusive, it is, after all, run by a man. Another hit series, Netflix’s Emily In Paris, champions male chef Gabriel (portrayed by Lucas Nicolas Bravo). And this is far from a new entertainment trend. In 2015, Bradley Cooper took front and centre in the kitchen-based film Burnt, in which he starred opposite Sienna Miller as a head chef who was attempting to resurrect his career. We then had the 2021 film Boiling Point, which saw Stephen Graham portray Chef Andy Jones, who is navigating the stresses of keeping a flailing kitchen in check. Following the film's success, a TV series with much of the original cast is set to follow later this year.
In recent weeks, the release of The Bear Season 2 has sparked mentions of a so-called Hot Chef Summer. Alongside fictional chefs, real-life kitchen heads with large TV fanbases — such as Gordon Ramsay — are also often included. These lists also typically mention male chefs with large audiences on social media. Take Cedrik Lorenzen, for example, who has an impressive 4.2 million TikTok followers and 2.3 million on Instagram. Seemingly understanding his demographic, Lorenzen's TikTok bio reads: “So much more than just a food page. Here to make you thirsty.”
So, where does this male-dominated chef narrative — occurring both on and off the screen — leave female chefs? And non-binary, queer, and POC kitchen talents? It seems the space for them is becoming smaller and smaller. Of course, we have wildly successful non-white, non-male chefs in the industry. I whipped up (well, attempted) one of Nadiya Hussain's recipes just the other night. But with male chefs dominating the discourse female chefs will be overlooked, even more so than they are now. Here's hoping “Hot Chef Summer” makes room for a more inclusive, female-centric celebration of kitchen talents. Sooner rather than later.
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