When Foods Become Commodities, Cooks Become Chefs

If traditional societal norms associate women with cooking, why aren’t there more female chefs?

There is a fundamental difference between chefs and cooks. The word cook indicates one’s skills in the production of food, while chef is, as the term’s French etymology indicates, the chief of the kitchen—not one who merely produces food, but who takes a leadership role in its creation.

One may trace the distinction of the two characterizations back to capitalism and more recently, mass consumerism. Delicacies don’t just fill people’s stomachs—the atmosphere of a restaurant, the seeds sprinkled upon the dessert, and the edible garnishes do not necessarily change the taste of a dish. While food itself is a life essential, the rise of capitalism turned everyday cuisines into commodities. (This, however, doesn’t mean that chefs did not exist as a profession prior to capitalism—but their presence was largely confined to upper-class households.) As eating becomes an economic consumption, restauranteurs and chefs effectively take control of the means of production in a consumerist, food-obsessed society. The changing nature of food production creates a gap between those who cook at home and those who run kitchens at Ritz-Carlton.

We should thus refocus the debate as to whether women are underrepresented among professional chefs onto the systematic discrimination of women in capitalist enterprises. Few would argue that women are not skilled enough to prepare food, as cooking is conventionally seen as part of domesticity. That is, however, not the matter in question—not unlike the underrepresentation of female CEOs in other sectors, the gender imbalance in the culinary industry reflects the notion that women aren’t fit to become leaders in businesses.

It is imperative that we acknowledge that restaurant kitchens, unlike those at home, are workspaces. Considering the realities that women face in workspaces today, that only 7 percent of chefs are female shouldn’t surprise us.

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My own family has largely (and unconsciously) rejected such gender norms, despite their continued popularity in our society. As a businesswoman, my mother often returns home after dinnertime, and my father is an awesome cook. Yet she told me recently that she regretted not cooking for me enough. I was confused—growing up, I never had to starve; why did she feel the obligation to cook for me?

Later I learned that her feelings came from other mothers, who shared what they cooked for their children on social media. She felt guilty that she didn’t taken care of me enough—but she shouldn’t have assumed that responsibility, I told her, and that sense of guilt was unwarranted.