Actually, A Woman’s Place IS In The Kitchen

Amy Brandwein is a six-time James Beard Award-nominated chef and restaurateur of award-winning restaurants Centrolina and Piccolina in Washington, D.C. An advocate for women in the culinary industry, Centrolina has a 100% female leadership team, and Brandwein is a longtime member of Les Dames d’Escoffier and Women Chefs and Restaurateurs. In this edition of Voices in Food, Brandwein talks about the myriad reasons why there are so few female chefs in leadership positions and why representation at the highest culinary levels matters.

There’s not just one reason why there’s such low representation of women in the industry; it’s a very, very complex issue, and there are many, many intertwined factors.

The first thing is there’s often a struggle for women to choose hospitality, or especially culinary, as their chosen profession because, at some point, a lot of women want to have kids. I see a lot of drop-offs when women in culinary approach their childbearing years. There’s really no support network for any family in hospitality. We don’t have childcare geared toward the hospitality industry, where there are flex hours; it’s not just nine to five, so childcare is a huge thing. When you know that kitchens are mostly men and your chance of childcare and work-life balance is low, it’s discouraging.

We want to encourage women to keep entering the industry. I had a woman who said, “Chef, I’m struggling because I want to have a family, and I’m not sure how I can do this.” As an owner and a chef, I am responsible for being part of the solution, meaning telling them practically how they can do it. Becoming an owner might be the best chance to achieve that work-life balance you need. That’s why I did this because: I wanted to create my own family life and my own way to success. The only way I could see staying in this industry was to do it myself.

So, for more women to enter the industry, we need to be practical about how to guide them through that by speaking about it out loud so that when more women enter the industry, we can create a sustainable environment. We cannot create a sustainable environment if women are not in it.

I started my career with Roberto Donna, an incredible Italian chef, and I was mostly the only woman in the kitchen for the entire time I was there. Every day you go into a male-dominated kitchen, it is literally impossible to forget that you are a woman. I struggled because, a lot of the time, I had all eyes on me. “Oh, she’s working the grill today. Gosh, I hope we don’t go down in flames.”

I would purposely not wear any makeup, go to work, and make sure I didn’t look feminine because that was the only way I felt I could get my job done and have people take me seriously.

The other thing is the lack of female role models and mentors, which is a huge problem. When I was raising capital for my restaurant in D.C., there were just not 100 famous women chefs that you could point to and be like, “Yeah, they did it, so I can do it.” The lack of women in extremely high roles being recognized at the very highest levels is an inhibiting factor for women. They say, “Can I really do this? Is this really a realistic opportunity for me?” Not having as many women at your side saying, “Yeah, you can do it. This and this is how.”

When I see the stats that women make up 25% of the industry, I’m like, OK … but if you whittle it down, what percentage are chef-owners? How many women are James Beard-nominated chef-owners? That takes it down again. How many women chef-owners have won Michelin stars? Then, the numbers become extremely small. I consider myself 1% of the chef population in America.

There are a lot of stereotypes about what working for a woman might be like. Men can express aggression and anger in the workplace, and they’re viewed as powerful and in charge. If a woman did the same, she would be unhinged, crazy, on her period, or whatever.

But I believe that women-led kitchens are better kitchens. I think there’s less turnover. I think men enjoy the environment of working in a woman’s kitchen. Once they enter it, they’re like, “What a relief. I don’t have to do all this machismo stuff.” With the guys in my kitchen, it just doesn’t exist; we just come and cook. It’s just a completely different atmosphere. All the barriers go down, all the crazy nonsense and the aggression fall by the wayside.

I think that Michelin and James Beard are revered and respected; they are the epitome of what any chef or restaurant owner would like to be recognized. They’re extremely important to help a restaurant and a chef secure their success for their future. They have a humongous platform to lead. They have a role in setting proper standards for our industry, not just in cooking but in inclusivity and making connections for people less represented in our industry for reasons I just explained.

I would love for more women to be recognized by these organizations. I’ll just say that in D.C., no woman chef-owner has gotten a Michelin star. Not one. And that, to me, is unacceptable. It’s been 20 years, two decades since a woman chef won a James Beard Award in Washington, D.C., our nation’s capital. That is just way too long.

Ultimately, the conversations that we should be having as a community, and especially in Washington, D.C., to be completely honest, is of surprise that somebody didn’t win instead of continually ignoring that women aren’t winning. And I know that isn’t easy, but sometimes, there’s just silence when progress is not made. For me, that silence is deafening.

But tons of progress has been made. I’m incredibly honored to have been nominated six times for a James Beard Award in Washington, D.C. Every time I’m nominated, I am extremely proud of myself, but I’m also proud of what signal that sends to other women. It gives inspiration and hope to others to stick with it. I’m a positive person by nature, so I believe that if you do your job, you work hard, and you have a restaurant packed full of people, at some point, it’s going to happen for you. Does it take twice or three times longer than a male counterpart? Absolutely. Am I used to it? Absolutely.