Cooking
is traditionally entitled to women and is considered to be one of the
fundamental qualities and skills associated with womenfolk. Ironically, the
cooking world is also dominated by a large number of male chefs. But, like
anything there are exceptions that some women that have worked against this
socially accepted standard and all for good reasons.
Helena Rizzo
Photo Source: Vanityfair.it
Helena
Rizzo is the Brazilian-born chef, the owner and manager of Mani Restaurant
opened in 2006 and the current winner of Veuve Clicquot World’s Best Female
Chef 2014.
Helena
Rizzo worked as a model and studied architecture before discovering her true
calling in food. She's worked in kitchens in Brazil, Italy, and Spain, and,
today, is in charge of the menu of Mani in Sao Paulo.
Helena’s
cooking has the blending of traditional Brazilian cooking techniques and
ingredients infused with Spanish cooking and modern gastronomic practices.
Rizzo published her cookbook and opened her second restaurant in 2014.
Lanshu Chen
Photo Source: Eater
Lanshu
Chen is the Taiwan based chef and the winner of The Veuve Clicquot Asia’s Best
Female Chef 2014 award. She is the head chef at Le Mout Restaurant Taiwan and
is trained in French cuisine.
Lanshu
Chen has her gastronomic training from the famous Ferrandi School of Culinary
Arts in Paris and the art of pastry from Le Cordon Bleu. She has worked with a
number of culinary geniuses and a good amount of famous hotels. Trained in
French cuisine, Lanshu has a passion for ‘Haute French’ and is obsessed with the
idea of creating authentic dishes with the amalgamation of French and her
hometown, Taiwanese, ingredients.
Clare Smith
Photo Source: Eater
Clare
Smith is the chef patron at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay. She currently holds the
position as the only female chef in Britain to have three Michelin stars and
one of the six female chefs globally to have the prestigious accolade.
Smith’s
journey of being a chef started at the age of fifteen when she worked as a chef
in her summer job, subsequently there was no looking back. She moved to England
to study catering. Since then she has worked at Terrance Conran’s Bibendum, as
a sous chef at the St. Enodoc Hotel, Per Se in New York, The French Laundry and
the Kitchen of Alain Ducass at the Louis XV.
She
stated that being a woman had exerted extra pressure on her as she was not
ready to let people think of her as a weakling or just because she was a woman.
She worked harder each time she stepped in the kitchen and did not allow
herself to be tired, have bad days or back off from any task.
Catherine Ann “Cat”
Cora
Photo Source: Winnipeg Free Press
Known
as the very first female chef to appear on ‘Iron Chef America’, Cat Cora has
earned the fame by being the only woman chef, till now, ever featured as an
Iron Chef in the franchise history of the show.
Cora
holds Bachelor’s in Exercise Physiology and Biology and acquired her culinary
training from the Culinary Institute of America and is the executive chef of
Bon Appetit magazine.
She
is also the founding President of the Chefs for Humanity organisation working
towards food and education related issues and has joined First Lady Michelle
Obama’s campaign of Chefs Move to Schools to give nutritional guidance. Cat
Cora opened restaurants at Macy’s South Coast Place, Houston’s airports, Walt
Disney World and the Ocean Restaurant in Singapore, which is the very first to
have built inside the S.E.A aquarium.
Cristeta Comerford
Photo Source: Blogspot.com
Cristeta
Comerford is the very first woman White House executive chef and the very first
belonging to a minority group.
Comeford
is a Filipino-American professional chef majoring in food technology at the
time of immigration due to which she was not able to complete her degree
program. She started working as a chef at Chicago’s Sheraton and Hyatt Regency
restaurants, Le Grande Bistro, Westin Hotel and at Le Ciel as a revolving chef.
Later in 1995, she was appointed as an assistant chef by the then White House
executive chef Walter Scheib and was elevated to the executive chef position by
the First Lady Laura Bush.
Nadia Santini
Photo Source: Four Magazine
Nadia
Santini is the winner of the Best Female Chef award 2013 at the World’s 50 Best
Restaurants. She is not officially trained as a chef, which makes her even more
praiseworthy.
She
is married to a restaurateur family, which owns a three Michelin-starred Del
Pescotore restaurant and Santini serves them as a head chef. Nadia Santini
learnt cooking from her husband’s grandmother. Nadia Santini’s gastronomic
expertise and creativity have preserved and heightened the family bistro’s name
and reputation.
Santini
is Italy’s very first female chef to earn three Michelin stars, which makes her
a member of a very small elite group of female chefs to have attained the honor.
Bui Thi Suong
She
is not at the same page as seven female chefs above but she is one of Viet
Nam’s prides in culinary field. Graduated from University of Pedagogical
Techniques in 1978, a Culinary Arts teacher for over 35 years, she has retired
as Head of the SHTC (Ho Chi Minh City Tourism College), and Head of its
Culinary Department.
As
Vice Chairman of the Saigon Professional Chefs Guild, Chef Suong has immense
judging experience with Vietnamese culinary competitions of all levels. She has
organized and participated in many Vietnamese culinary promotions to introduce
and promote Vietnam culinary art overseas, such as in Germany, Belgium, Sweden,
Hong Kong, China, Sri Lanka and the USA.
Since 2013
she has joined the judge panel of the Golden Spoon Awards, a competition that
helps nurture young cooking talents from all hospitality institutions
nationwide. Thanks to her tireless contribution and initiatives,
Chef Suong was honored the National
Culinary Artisan in 2009 and is author of several Vietnamese cookbooks.
On
International Women’s Day, once again we’ve honored the incredible work and
achievements of those female chefs. They have been inspired the whole young
generation to seek what they love, to try and to fight for what have meant to
them, and to thrive.
By Thu Pham