Friday, May 28, 2010
Bite Your Tongue Feminism Killed Food, But Who Cares, Since Women Can't Cook Anyway
Posted by Tracy Moore on Fri, May 28, 2010 at 11:43 AM
In a challenge to second-wave feminists who urged women to get out of the kitchen, Flammang suggests that by denigrating “foodwork”—everything involved in putting meals on the family table—we have unthinkingly wrecked one of the nurseries of democracy: the family meal. It is at “the temporary democracy of the table” that children learn the art of conversation and acquire the habits of civility—sharing, listening, taking turns, navigating differences, arguing without offending—and it is these habits that are lost when we eat alone and on the run.
Umm, OK? I mean, yes, we get it. When women went to work, there was stuff at home they stopped doing. The cult of domesticity was no longer. So shit didn't get done, and, shocker, men didn't exactly rush in and start vacuuming their balls off either. (See the results of this up-to-the-second study, in which women still do most of the housework and childrearing in households, even where both partners work equally.) Or, as Anna Clark puts it in her critique of Pollan's take on Flammang's book:
My take, as a feminist and local foodie? Blaming feminism for luring women out of the kitchen, stealing the ritual of the family meal, and thereby diminishing "one of the nurseries of democracy" is both simplistic and ridiculous. It's true that shared meals are powerful spaces for building relationships and "the habits of civility." But if we're going to talk about who's to blame for our current culture of processed food, why not blame untold generations of men for not getting into the kitchen, especially given Pollan's characterization of the family meal as having a meaningful role in cultivating democracy? If it's so important, why is their absence excusable?It's excusable because men are too busy doing something else: Ruling at cooking professionally.
That's right: Double-whammy! Women should return to the kitchen, but only so long as they don't profit from it too much. Repeat: Women's place is in the kitchen, but nearly all the top chefs are men. Or as New York chef Amanda Cohen recently posted:
Why would an investor back a female chef in a restaurant? He knows that she won’t get the hype and attention a male chef will get because she’s clearly inferior. I look around at the awards and at the press, I think about who the celebrated up and coming male chefs are (Nate Appleman, George Mendes) and then the celebrated female chefs (um…) and I realize that, as a woman, I have no place being in a kitchen.
Anyone who's worked in a commercial kitchen knows the restaurant world is ragingly sexist. But the real problem here is all the mixed messages. Note to patriarchy: Women know that their desire for self-fulfillment beyond domestic life has unleashed all manner of plague and disease across the land. We are a selfish breed. We have been punished with lower-paying wages and persistent, pervasive discrimination. But please reconvene and get your story straight so that the we know our true place. Is it in the kitchen, but only at home or serving? Can we be chefs, just not really successful ones? Should we return to the kitchen, but only if we prepare your favorite meal? Inquiring minds.
Comments (20)
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Great post, Tracy. Interestingly, when I think of the chefs/cooking enthusiasts who have triggered major shifts in the ways we approach cuisine and cooking, they're mostly women. I'm sure I'm about to get my head taken off by better-informed Biters, but I'm having a hard time coming up with a male chef who's made the reverberating impact of an Alice Waters or a Julia Child.
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Or Irma Rombauer.
Eh, I'd rather be a cook than a chef. I can make a good meal and no one cares if I have "knife skills."
That said, I think it's rare that women with such ambition think about going to culinary school and pursuing a career as a chef. Just as it's rare for them to go to design school and pursue a career as a fashion designer (rare is a relative term, of course). Think about it--sewing and cooking is what many of us associate with our mothers or grandmothers as required work and men have the same association but consider it interesting and fun. Guys like Colicchio are like Bob Mackie. Julia and Irma are like Liz Claiborne (more accessible and more successful in some right).
I, too, think Tracy did a great job with this post. I'm not surprised by sexism in the food world, but it's weird how blatant it continues to be.
I heard a radio interview where a male superfoodie spoke (in a voice dripping with contempt) about "these women with aprons," referring to Rachel Ray and other female TV chefs.
I think everybody's free to criticize Ms. Ray on almost any count, but "women with aprons" reminds me of "women drivers" and all the old stereotypes about how women are incompetent at "male" activities.
I think if somebody were to publicly denigrate, say, "these women with stethoscopes" or "these women with policy speeches," the speaker would be perceived as a lunatic at best.
I almost wrote Irma Rombauer. This is in no way a comparison of who's the better chef, but in terms of breadth of influence, I don't see how Ferran Adria comes within hailing distance of any of the women mentioned above.
Somebody should make a distaff JULIE & JULIA called FERRAN & FIERI. OK, it's not exact, but I'm working on it.
I almost ridiculed the mention of Ferran Adria in the same company as Alice Waters. How could the concept of molecular gastronomy, however innovative, compete with the concept of fresh, seasonal ingredients? Or with Julia Child's empowering message about how mastering fine cuisine was within anyone's reach?
But while I've never eaten anything cooked by Adria, I have enjoyed the cuisine of one of his admirers, Grant Achatz at Alinea (sometimes dubbed America's best restaurant). I looked up what Achatz says about Adria, and in a New York Times excerpt from Achatz's upcoming biography (http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/201…), he talks about the wonder and awe he experienced the first time he ate at El Bulli (where he also worked briefly), and says Adria may be the Escoffier of our modern age.
Anyway, I throw up my hands on trying to rank chefs by their relative influence on humanity. But I do know that women can cook (and think and innovate) as well as men.
Anthony Bourdain placed the blame on high schools response to feminism- he thinks they should have enrolled -all- students in Home Ec., rather than de-emphasizing the program.
As much cooking and writing about cooking as I've done, cooking professionally for a living hasn't ever appealed to me. For starters, it's so poorly paid, but there's also the fact that the whole process would somehow lose its magic.
The truism in the food industry is that women cook to nourish, men cook to impress. For instance, Mom makes the meatloaf, dad barbecues the pig. Mom makes the stir-fry, dad makes the six layer torte.
Women are oppressed so much in America and now this. When will the jackboot come off of our throats?
Hamburger Helper for you, Michael Pollan! Wimmin resist!
I remember walking into one of the top NYC restaurants in 1983, ask for an interview and told by the GM "We don't speak to women." (I must say that I had come out of the top SF Bay Area restaurants) That was the state of the industry then and it's not much better now...
It's true, the food and restaurant industries hate women, they are MISOGYNISTS!
When will justice be served? Not by the male legal system - PUT IN PLACE TO OPPRESS WOMEN!
DO NOT EAT OUT! WIMMIN RESIST!!!!!!
I'm a woman who has cooked professionally for over 20 years. I have certainly encountered some sexism, as my coworkers of color have encountered racism, but that has been a tiny part of my career. Personally, I think it's made me a bit of a tough broad, and I like that. I've also been able to develop into a different kind of manager than I think men would be encouraged to be (in a not so Gordon Ramsay kind of way). The Beard Awards this year were a bit of a sausage fest, but my response would maybe be to mentor a talented young woman in the kitchen the next time I get a chance.
Maybe Kim Dickens on TREME will become a role model — sort of the anti-Bourdain.
She is supposedly modeled after Susan Spicer. I worked for her and she is indeed awesome. I can't wait to netflix Treme.
Terence, the idea of home-ec for both genders is not completely far-fetched. When my husband when to high school (public school in Connecticut in the late '70s), boys and girls were both required to take home economics. He already enjoyed cooking (his favorite after-school snack was asparagus with hollandaise), but thinks home-ec was a good experience. Oh, and girls and boys both had to take shop, as well.
Meanwhile, because I had a choice and considered myself a feminist, I wouldn't touch home-ec with a 10-foot homemade curtain rod. Looking back, I still would've used my elective credits for other classes (journalism, art), but I sure wish I knew how to use a sewing machine.
Also, jfiesta and LWilson, thanks for sharing your experiences in the biz.
It is very simple (in my opinion): no doubt, feminism killed "food", since during pre-feminism women simply were not supposed to be brilliant at everything which traditionally belonged to their domain. E.g. kitchen, household, giving birth, etc. Male chefs in the kitchen really seem to be of an exeptional nature.......and therefore highly respected !!! I wait for the moment men are able to give birth, since we all have to conclude: Feminism killed propagation, but who cares since women did a bad job in this field anyway!!!
Puck Flammang, The Netherlands
Re: “Feminism Killed Food, But Who Cares, Since Women Can't Cook Anyway”
It is very simple (in my opinion): no doubt, feminism killed "food", since during pre-feminism women simply were not supposed to be brilliant at everything which traditionally belonged to their domain. E.g. kitchen, household, giving birth, etc. Male chefs in the kitchen really seem to be of an exeptional nature.......and therefore highly respected !!! I wait for the moment men are able to give birth, since we all have to conclude: Feminism killed propagation, but who cares since women did a bad job in this field anyway!!!
