Don’t forget the ladies

Time magazine published an article in its Nov. 18 issue about the “Gods of Food” with chefs David Chang, René Redzepi and Alex Atala on the front cover.

The article went on to list the 13 modern gods of the food world, including restaurant owners and sustainability leaders.

However, one subgroup was noticeably absent.

Female chefs.

“It’s still a boys club,” Time editor Howard Chua-Eoan said in an interview with Eater, a national restaurant, bar and nightlife blog.

The list of gods included four women, such as environmental activist Vandana Shiva and U.N. World Food Programme leader Ertharin Cousin, but no female chefs were apparently worthy of goddess status.

Alice Waters, owner of world-renowned restaurant Chez Panisse, vice president of Slow Food International and spokeswoman for healthy lunches in schools, is widely considered to be one of the most influential women chefs in the entire world.
However, she didn’t make the list.

Chua-Eoan said the reason behind this was because the number of influential chefs who gained fame after working at her restaurant was “sort of thin.”

Stephanie Izard, chef at the Chicago restaurant Girl & the Goat, won the prestigious James Beard Award for Best Chef: Great Lakes this year, but she failed to be mentioned in Time as well.

I agree with one statement Chua-Eoan made in his Eater interview — that female chefs shouldn’t be included on such lists solely because of their sex.

But if I could sit down with Mr. Chua-Eoan, I’d like to enlighten him with how many female chefs are changing the modern food world, and how they should’ve been named among the food gods.

As much as I admire top chefs Atala, Redzepi and Chang, especially after having the opportunity to attend an inspirational lecture and meet Chang this summer, I don’t think their success necessarily outdoes that of Waters, Izard or the other female chefs changing the way consumers eat.

I’ll give Chua-Eoan the benefit of the doubt and assume he’s not well-informed of the food world. I’ll assume he’s just an editor trying to push out content readers want to read.

But if there’s one thing Chua-Eoan has learned from all the backlash about his article, I hope it’s that kitchen staffs are no longer “boys clubs.”

James Brown said it best. This world “wouldn’t be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl.”

­— acarnold@indiana.edu

Follow columnist Amanda Arnold on Twitter @Amanda_Arnold14.