Mixing it up

More and more women who can stand the heat are getting into the kitchen as chefs

Patricia Kitchen | Change@work

May 23, 2004

You've got those 50-pound bags of potatoes to lift, those hunks of raw fish to break down, those competitive guys in a hot, pressured kitchen, looking to see if you can take the heat.

Yes, as Allison Vines-Rushing puts it, being a chef "is not a very ladylike job."

Still, despite having hands that often smell more fishy than dishy, the 28-year-old recipient of this year's James Beard rising star chef award says of her profession, "It's great. I love it." And as for toting those heavy loads, "I can carry huge amounts on my shoulders. I would never have a man carry stuff for me. Maybe it's a pride thing."

She's one of a growing number of women who are entering a growing field, as enrollment in culinary arts programs rises faster than a cinnamon walnut loaf. This is thanks in part to the popularity of the Food Network, and in part to how many career changers are looking for more rewarding work.

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According to the American Culinary Federation, 7 percent of the executive chefs they certify are women. Other experts say there are twice that many women who are running kitchens. That's compared with the 11.2 percent of corporate officer jobs women hold in Fortune 500 companies.

If both groups were to compare notes, they would find a lot in common when it comes to career hurdles. First of all you have that glass ceiling, which has covered both the kitchen and the board room. But both corporate women and their culinary sisters can point to a small but growing number of their gender who have broken through. Yes, both discrimination and harassment have been problems for women in the kitchen, but they are lessening, says Ann Cooper, past president of Women Chefs & Restaurateurs, a networking and support group.

She says that the reason many women, and men, too, are hanging up their aprons has to do with the lack of work/life balance. Indeed, just imagine trying to maintain a relationship with your spouse and children when you work late into the night every night, plus weekends, plus holidays. "The hospitality industry works while others play," says Cooper, author of "A Woman's Place Is in the Kitchen -- The Evolution of Women Chefs," (Van Nostrand Reinhold, $29.95). She is also executive chef at the Ross School in East Hampton.

That's one problem that Vines-Rushing and her husband, Slade Rushing, recently solved. Just a few days after she received her big honor at the New York Marriott Marquis, they were slicing bacon and buttering baba au rhum molds at Jack's Luxury Oyster Bar in the East Village, where they are co-chefs. There they both spoke of the challenges that women face in their business.

Until a few months ago when he left a different chef job, they rarely saw each other. "The choice was whether to be together all the time or never be together," she says. And as newlyweds, they opted for 24/7 togetherness, complete, as he tells it, with an occasional "hugging moment" between all that chopping and dicing.

While many women chefs put off marriage and families, others find their way to what's been called the pastry ghetto. At the Culinary Institute of America in upstate Hyde Park, two-thirds of culinary students are men. But enter its pastry kitchens and you'll find two-thirds of the students are women. And, overall, the school has seen a 25 percent increase in enrollment in the baking-pastry arts program.

Why? One reason is that pastry chefs work more regular hours and don't have to be present at those late-night serving times, says Eve Felder, associate dean of culinary arts. A former chef in Berkeley, Calif., and Omaha, it wasn't until she switched to her education role -- and its saner work hours -- that she was able to adopt her two daughters, ages 4 and 2. And, if you're looking for a part of the country that's more woman-friendly, try the West Coast, she says. East Coast restaurants are more steeped in the European male tradition, but out by the shores of the Pacific, "opportunities for women are much greater." There in that "frontier" setting, you find more women in leadership positions, she says.

But on your way up, you'll still need to be prepared to work in rough environments, full of bravado and off-color jokes. That incredible pressure of "putting out a meal a minute, with 200 more right behind" can lead to gallows humor, says Cooper. "There's something about a place with a lot of blood and meat -- like in operating rooms."

It's that atmosphere, plus a culture of drinking and drugging, that was captured in "Kitchen Confidential -- Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly" (Ecco, $14) by executive chef Anthony Bourdain.

It's a book, says Vines-Rushing, that "glorifies that behavior." But "plenty of people don't do that."

Still, she tells of the demanding atmosphere she found at Alain Ducasse at the Essex House, a four-star restaurant where she worked two years as one of just two women. (The other was in pastry.)

One of the chefs "was very hard on me," she says. "If someone was getting yelled at, nine times out of 10 it was me." She found herself in tears, sometimes in front of her colleagues. But "it was so worth it," she says. "They didn't baby me -- and that's good. I learned incredible amounts. Sometimes when the boss is hardest on you, you're the one who gets better."

Growing up in Louisiana, she was a big fan of the Food Network and prepared dinner for her parents using recipes from the Williams-Sonoma catalog. After receiving a degree in biology from Florida State University, she decided to take a six-month program at the Institute of Culinary Education in Manhattan. After that she headed to New Orleans, where she worked for a couple of classic-cuisine restaurants, including Brennan's.

To other young women looking to break into her field, her advice is to be persistent. She tells of applying to one restaurant that she knew was hiring, only to be told that they weren't. She offered to work for free, and after a week of 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. days, she was brought on staff. There were disappointments, too, such as watching the quicker promotions of men who came on board after she did.

What she learned, though, was to "put your emotions on the back burner... . Believe in yourself. Keep your eye on the horizon," she said as she filled those dessert molds with baba mixture. "You can't be shy about what you want."