“Shut up and go to the kitchen.” Maybe it starts with this sentence that who knows how many women have heard: Sexism between pots and stoves. They seem to be sayings from times long past, but the phenomenon of gender discrimination is stubbornly dying out. The demonstration will take place on Tuesday, December 19, with the chauvinistic joke hosted by during the culinary TV program “It's always lunchtime”. Antonella Clerici. It all started with us talking about a dish, a risotto, a courtship device, and in the end we used a glass to “stun” the prey as an example of “capture”. That is, the courted female. To put it as a chef, Sergio Barzetti, who has a wife who was also “covered” with the same system, as the chef himself told in the studio live on Rai1, only to publicly apologize on social media after the storm that broke out, according to his words. Which caused quite an embarrassment for the moderator, who intervened with a shy “Put like that, it’s not nice…”.
These are just jokes, some might argue. But that is exactly the obstacle that needs to be overcome everywhere, not just in the restaurant industry, where the majority of chefs are men.
Antonella Clerici and Sergio Barzetti in an episode of È semper midday (@instagtram)
“And what should I say? It is the expression of low respect for women – it is the reaction of Christina Bowerman, chef at the Michelin-starred restaurant Glass Hostaria in Rome and a committed feminist, as she defines herself, always at the forefront of the gender gap in the industry –. Making a joke like that is completely out of place. He should have been reprimanded immediately and unfortunately there will be consequences for him, but it is too important, a burning issue and as a woman and as a feminist I can't help but feel and be offended by this kind of joke. However, these are jokes that find their way into everyday life; they become normal in the way we speak and in general thinking. And they are not normal.” They are “jokes that take time to listen to.” Alessandro Gilmozzi, chef at another starred restaurant El Molin in Trentino: “Of course they shouldn't have been said, and the chef who said them would have been better off keeping quiet. Male chauvinism in the catering industry? In my opinion not.” If so, then it is that it is gradually decreasing. I, the father of three children, two of whom are girls, have six very good women on my team and I have had two sous chefs who have had great careers, with balls like and more than men. Great chefs, even if there are not so many, they are really great.” And another young chef like Ernesto Iaccarino, who inherited the passion for cooking from his father Alfonso from Don Alfonso in 1890 with two Michelin stars, just a stone's throw from Sorrento has removed, inherited, speaks up and reverses course: “In my opinion, however, today I see the masculine.” The women who choose this job are very, very determined, the women I see in the Kitchen, are very good, extremely precise, meticulous and have a perfect hand when preparing. It's also true that there's an age-old afterthought in restaurants that chefs outnumber men, but that's been dictated for centuries when only boys chose to be chefs. Now things have changed and female chefs are becoming more respected and I’m happy about that.”
Laura Donadoni: “I tell you about the abuses that women in wine are subjected to”
by Lara Loreti October 6, 2023
However, this is not the first time that there has been a hint of machismo It creeps into the kitchen subtly and implicitly. Even in the world of wine, where episodes of sexism have been reported and where even simple expressions refer to “differences” between the two sexes. An example? When we talk about sweet wines, they are often referred to as “women’s wines” to devalue them, as if the female palate is different than the male palate.
Jokes, comments and statements There have been some in the past on the subject of “Pink Cuisine”, but not exactly in a positive sense. In 2020 it was like that Aurelio De Laurentiis President of Napoli Calcio to express his thoughts about women in the kitchen and always on television. Repertoire: The work is too strenuous for them, it requires physical strength and then who will look after the children…? He was speaking on Wall Street Italia “Questione di Gusto”, live from his team's retreat in Castel di Sangro and three-star chef Niko Romito was in attendance. When asked why there were fewer female chefs, she replied: “Because women reject it, they see it as a burden. It is now a cultural, traditional fact. It's like it's a duty that they definitely don't want to fulfill.” And then what do you want? I can tell you that there is obviously a greater capacity for reflection or even instinct in men. Maybe we are more creative, I don't know how to explain it. But in fact, 80% of chefs are men and only 20% are women.”
Vissani show in Atreyu: “Melons like a soufflé, when they are at the top they explode”
by Lara Loreti December 16, 2023
A few years earlier, in 2019, the chef Gianfranco Vissani In a radio broadcast he argued that “women cannot physically cope with the kitchen”: “In my place they work in the pastry shop. Some tasks, such as creaming risotto, require strength. I have a team of 30 chefs with 8 women, but they all collapse. The women can't cope physically, but do you understand it or not? I've been working in the kitchen for fifty years and I still don't understand where the women are. Those who work for me Come to the pastry shop there and do some work. …And then they leave. At this point the chef Barbara Agosti was in the studio and had tried to block him by saying: “Now we start throwing the pots…”. There was also no shortage of controversies in advertising, such as the one proposed last May for Uliveto water: in it the woman was described as the angel at the stove, preparing a sumptuous dinner with caviar canapés, oysters and a special French cheese. Dinner that she always has ready for her husband, on which she spends the money that (only) he earned through work. “A slogan that praises sexism”: That was how many people defined it.