Capitalism and the Effects it has on Cooking

To be a "chef" one must be of the highest authority in the kitchen, a leader, a commander of war. The kitchen, typically in a restaurant, is extremely busy and chaotic and in order to serve the customer, the service has to be quick while also being delicious. The kitchen resembles a factory type of environment where there is constant yelling and commanding to finish the product, in this case, the dish that is being served, to satisfy the customer. The inherent problem is the difference between men and women as leaders. Men are typically aggressive and threatening when they speak whereas women are more gently and treat most things with kindness. In an environment where being fast is necessary to thrive having a more dominant leadership style is more successful than an almost passive style. This is an indisputable fact or else women would be head chefs and the under-representation correlates to a lack of aggressive leadership, not discrimination due to gender. There are a few chefs who are women and resemble these characteristics as they lead the kitchen. Julia Child, Cat Cora, and Lidia Bastianich who portray these characteristics. Child forced her way into the cooking world due to her size, 6'2'', but furthermore her desire to cook. She, as Ms. Hamovit went into great detail, worked like no other to reach her goal. Child wrote her cooking book for at least 5 years and it took about 6 years to publish. That alone is a testament to her determination, but in addition, it exacerbates the idea that in order to lead a kitchen a chef must be of these desired qualities. The same goes for the rest of these chefs mentioned, they worked so hard to reach their goal. Now, I am not saying there is no discrimination as that is impossible, but the issue is the type of leadership qualities that are required to do this. The history of Julia Child provides insight on what women need to be successful in an environment that is extremely toxic. Furthermore, a restaurant is a business and the goal of businesses is to make money, so when a person is running the restaurant they look at who is going to make them the most money. Capitalism is the reason why more men are head chefs than women. They generally possess the qualities that make the owners the most money and that is the trend that we are seeing today. The restaurants that make the most money, on average, are run by males. I am not saying that women cannot do the same thing as men, in fact, we see that with women like Julia Child and Cat Cora who actually make/made a lot of money doing their craft because they possess/possessed the qualities that are needed to complete the task at hand. Furthermore, the link between gendered language and female chefs is quite surprising. Cooks relate to, typically a mother, making food for her family with love and kindness whereas a chef is someone who makes food as sustenance and pleasure for a customer. The connection between cooks and chefs is so distinct that it even influences our language. Women are called cooks and men are called chefs. This is because of the stereotypes of a cook and a chef. Furthermore, capitalism influences each and every aspect related to female under-representation and explains the why of these questions.