Coutts Food: Women in the Kitchen

 

It’s a quiet revolution and it’s been happening for some time. More high flying female chefs are gaining Michelin stars on their way to culinary heights.

Cooking is traditionally a woman’s domain, so it’s extraordinary that until recent years it was men behind the stoves in restaurant kitchens. Anecdotally the kitchen environment is more suited to men. There are the long hours, the physically demanding work and the total dedication that gives up all opportunity of a life outside. But talk to those women making it and they don’t see why female chefs can’t succeed.

In some ways being female can help. That’s certainly a belief of Angela Hartnett, TV and Michelin star chef, restaurateur and cookery book writer. “I never felt any discrimination. If anything it helped being a woman in the sense that there are hundreds of chefs in London equally as good as me or better. Because there’s so few women I stand out. I’m a woman seen in a man’s world and it’s helped raise my profile.”

She admits, ‘the hours are hideous and you have to put life on hold’, but Hartnett always wanted ‘to run a kitchen from an early age’. Rising to the challenges of the kitchen is something any chef, woman or man, needs to enjoy. “I like the environment, the people, the camaraderie and the pressure,” says Hartnett. “My mum can cook as well as me but wouldn’t want to deal with the pressure.” And maybe that’s what separates the women, from, well the other women. It’s all about having the ambition and desire to work with food. Hartnett grabbed opportunities when working with Gordon Ramsey in the early days and her most recent venture, Murano, which opened last year, is backed by him. Her cooking style owes much to the classic dishes she learnt from her Italian grandmother. That she can cook is evidenced by that Michelin star which she gained within the first four months of opening. “I was chuffed to bits,” she says.

Like any demanding job it’s all a question of balancing the different elements. Helena Puolakka, executive chef at Skylon, works long shifts, sometimes from 8am to 11pm.

She’s also a mother of a three year old. Having a family, she says, “is one of the reasons there aren’t so many female chefs around I’m sure. But it’s not just in my industry.” And like anyone working a demanding job she relies on the support she gets from those around her. “I have a fantastic husband and a nanny. In that sense I’ve been very lucky.” She admits it’s getting harder as her child grows up, because she misses her. But everyone adapts, even her daughter, who may wake up late and say, ‘oh, mummy came home’ without any surprise in her voice. Puolakka says, “I’ve seen a great deal of female chefs over the years in London. It requires a lot of stamina to stay and climb the ladder. And after all, many men don’t make it either.”

One chef who has made it when female chefs were even scarcer is now celebrating 25 years of business. Sally Clarke had trained at the Cordon Bleu School in Paris and later gained experience helping a friend and his girlfriend set up a restaurant outside Los Angeles. “It wasn’t so extraordinary to have a girl in the kitchen in California as it was in London,” she says. It was there ‘she caught the bug of loving food and the art of the table’. And a quarter of a century later she’s still serving up her seasonal produce at Clarke’s in Kensington. She says it’s ‘seasonality with a capital S and underlined’. Like Puolakka she also has a child and admits the support she’s received has made juggling work and family life possible. To this day her 81 year old mother still comes up from the country to arrange the flowers.

But do women bring a different approach in management and cooking style? Hartnett believes so. “I think women run a slightly calmer kitchen,” she comments. “Men are more headstrong. I like to keep things in perspective. I don’t flip out if a piece of asparagus is slightly smaller.” Her food is ‘quite light’. “I don’t over complicate a dish,” she says. Puolakka’s food has been described as being ‘quite feminine’ and ‘lighter in style’. And Anna Hansen, chef and owner of The Modern Pantry, would agree. “Most women are a lot more relaxed. When it’s tense my reaction is to try and keep it calm for everybody, otherwise you’re fuelling the fire,” comments Hansen. She thinks that generally the way women present food is ‘a lot more free’. And she describes her menu as ‘fresh, light, very welcoming. I see it of the moment, traditional with a twist’. With her New Zealand background and mentors, such as her previous business partner Peter Gordon, her food could be described as ‘fusion’. As she says, “I like to mix things up a bit.”

Whatever the gender, there’s no doubting the dedication that’s required to become successful in an industry that sees many failures. As Hartnett says, “People think you open up a restaurant and drive a big car in Monte Carlo. They forget it’s hard graft, that it could all end.” These female chefs have made it to the top through stamina, dedication, patience and a passion for food. That they’ve done it in what is still very much a male-dominated industry speaks volumes for their creations. Lighter, Mediterranean, or whatever the touch – they seem to have it.

Murano, 20 Queen Street, London, W1J 5PR. 020 7592 1222
Skylon, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX. 020 7654 7800
Clarke’s, 122 & 124 Kensington Church Street, London, W8 4BH. 020 7221 9225
The Modern Pantry, 47-48 St John’s Square, Clerkenwell, London, EC1V 4JJ. 020 7553 9210

By Michele Nevard