When I’d take a break from the kitchen to go into the restaurant and meet some of the customers, they would regularly ask me, ‘when’s the chef coming out?’ They clearly assumed I wasn’t the chef or owner, even though it was an open kitchen and they could quite clearly see me in the kitchen cooking!.
To create a sense of solidarity, fellow chef and friend Sally Abé invited me to a WhatsApp group chat over a year ago with other female chefs and restaurant owners across the UK.
Flabbergasted, I remember feeling confused and let down that I wouldn’t be able to put a face to my food, but I just had to accept that the guests would feel more comfortable if they were in a male chef’s hands.
This week, Sally sent a screenshot of an article in The Times, in which restaurateur Jason Atherton was asked whether women still experience sexism in British kitchens.
Then fellow chef Dara Klein suggested collectively writing an open letter, which 70 of us ended up signing.
