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Do Men Cook Differently Than Women in Restaurants? Can You Tell the Difference?
In my experience, once you show the Boss you can do the job it doesn't metter who you are.
Do Men Cook Differently Than Women in Restaurants? Can You Tell the Difference?
@ cityminx - thanks for the shout out about the EMD post!
Do Men Cook Differently Than Women in Restaurants? Can You Tell the Difference?
It would have been interesting to see what dishes would have been made had the chefs not known that they were going to be judged for gender.
As in, would some have made stuff that "sterotypically" would have been the other gender anyway? Or would things actually fall along the theoretical stereotypes on male vs female cooking that you guys brought up? Clearly this was not intended as a big scientific study that would reach statistical significance...but double-blinding would have been nice.
I think it probably wouldn't necessarily have made a difference in the ability of the judges to determine who cooked the food (since I agree that factors other than sex are more important), but it would at least seem to be less intentional in getting the judges to guess wrong.
Do Men Cook Differently Than Women in Restaurants? Can You Tell the Difference?
@mslaas: I take your point, but I don't think you can separate sexism in kitchens from gender in cooking--both, I think, are social constructions with serious real-world effects.
anyway. if you want to see a little more of what i'm thinking about this, it's here: http://wordyappetites.blogspot.com/
Do Men Cook Differently Than Women in Restaurants? Can You Tell the Difference?
Gwen's explaination in the comments makes plenty of sense, though I think perhaps the Astor Center panel asked the wrong questions and that muddled the issue. What I take from Gwen's post is that there's sexism in restaurant kitchens, not that chefs' cooking is gendered. And of course that's important to talk about and understand the reasons why.
Restaurant sexism has assuredly been a part of the French haute cuisine tradition. Good rundown on this is here: ttp://www.stratsplace.com/rogov/women_chefs.html Also, "The Taste of America" by John and Karen Hess also touch on this, particularly on some sexist claptrap said by Paul Bocuse about how women could never be chefs.
In France, there's a distinction drawn between haute cuisine (in restaurants, prepared by men) and la cuisine de la bonne femme (at home, prepared by women). Logically, one is not better then the other, but which one has been accorded glory?
With the cooking and eating stunt I think the panel was trying to touch on the gender issues inherent in consumption of food, which to me is most interesting: why would a pink cocktail be girly? Why is red meat for dudes, while salads are for women? Some background on this can be found in Laura Shapiro's wonderful books "Something from the Oven" and "Perfection Salad."
Do Men Cook Differently Than Women in Restaurants? Can You Tell the Difference?
@bodyk--I guess I was lucky. The chef I worked for while I was in culinary school was good like that. However, the absolute worst I've ever worked with was a "chef professor" (who had not cooked in a commerical kitchen in 20 years) who was waiting tables at the same restaurant during the summer. I was cooking on the line, and he didn't appreciate that. He went to the (real) chef and said " Why don't you get the skirts off the line and put them back on pantry where they belong." I went freaking BALISTIC. Needless to say, his entrees took twice as long as anyone else's for me to cook and plate. And if he complained, I simply told him "my skirt got in the way. guess you'll have to wait." A week later I overheard him complaining about his diminishing tips.
Do Men Cook Differently Than Women in Restaurants? Can You Tell the Difference?
@Gwen - All your points are good, but unfortunately none of them came through in this post.
@bodyk - The problem is getting "the Boss" to let you have a chance.
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In my experience, once you show the Boss you can do the job it doesn't metter who you are.