There are few women in China's kitchen.
When it comes to chefs, people often subconsciously think of men. Obviously, I can accept that housewives cook at home and mom or grandma cooks good food, but I will be surprised to hear the word "female chef" outside. This makes people feel illogical but true.
How rare are women in the world of chefs? According to 20 15 Survey Report on Chef Career Development, only 3.6% of chefs in China are women. In the hot dishes in China, the proportion of women will be reduced by more than half. Even casually ask the male chef, "Are there any female chefs around you?" Almost all the answers are no.
Chef is probably one of the most masculine industries. On the one hand, it may be related to the particularity of chef's work-high labor intensity, fast pace, huge physical consumption and certain danger. In particular, Chinese food that emphasizes "re-cooking" is more likely to burn and scald.
On the other hand, the working environment in the kitchen is full of "male hegemony", which also requires employees to have "masculinity". In order to integrate into the kitchen, many female chefs have to "transform themselves" by means of fitness, short hair cutting and obscene jokes. Even so, the turnover rate of female chefs is much higher than that of men of the same age.
Why are there so few women chefs in China?
There is such a hot topic in Zhihu.com. Under the topic, many kitchen friends came out to answer for four reasons:
1, problems left over from history
Cooking is easily regarded as a female activity in history, so male professional chefs will deliberately distinguish their profession from family cooking to reflect their professional standards and social status.
This profession itself is not popular with women.
Cooking is a physical activity, especially Chinese food. Kitchen utensils are generally heavy, and knife skills and cooking techniques are dangerous to some extent. The thick cooking fume in Chinese kitchen has a certain influence on the health of chefs.
3. The special responsibility given to women by society.
The kitchen has long working hours and irregular work, but today's social environment still requires women to pay more for their families, which makes it difficult for female chefs to find a balance between work and family.
4. The long-term inherent environmental atmosphere is not welcomed by women.
Because the kitchen is dominated by male chefs for a long time, and the working environment is more suitable for men, female chefs may have various inconveniences at work and even suffer sexual harassment or gender discrimination.
Looking at all the reasons, it is not difficult to find that women are rarely seen in Chinese kitchens because women are more suitable for delicate, soft and relaxed work.
However, apart from the fact that the position of chef itself is unpopular with women, once a woman chooses to be a chef, other reasons have become the threshold for her to influence the kitchen road.
The female chef sued the catering enterprise.
August 20 15, female chef Gao Xiao (pseudonym) sued Guangdong huishijia economic development co., ltd for gender discrimination. It was not until September 20 16 that the court supported her request for a written apology and became the first case of gender discrimination in employment in China.
On the premise of obtaining the chef qualification certificate, Gao Xiao was repeatedly rejected by the employer on the grounds of gender. She was deeply disappointed and depressed and was diagnosed as bipolar disorder by the hospital. After more than a year's struggle, Gao Xiao won an apology from his employer. (Click on the blue font to review: the restaurant refused to use a female chef and was taken to court by the girl. The result was unexpected! (the first case in China))
This is undoubtedly a great progress on the issue of "gender discrimination of chefs", at least making it impossible for employers to use gender as a recruitment standard.
But maybe this kind of discrimination just changed from the surface to the hidden rules. Because this stereotype that women "just shouldn't work in lampblack, just can't turn over the pot, just can't do manual work …" still affects women's choice of the position of chef.
On the day of the court session, Gao Xiao took a simple piece of paper and wrote "I want to be a chef" in front of the court.
"His height is1.8m, and I lost the game when I was less than1.6m."
Jiang Lulu, a post-90s chef who became a hit in The Tip of the Tongue 3, is a female chef. She has never seen sexism among her peers, but in cooking school, she has met more parents who prevent their daughters from learning to cook.
"Being a chef is very tired and hard! How can a girl's family have so much energy! " "Are you sure you can't do it? Why not choose the easy one? You will regret it then! " ……
Jiang lulu
Zhang Xiaonuo, the female chef of teppanyaki, also acquiesced in the situation that men dominate the kitchen after Chinese food: "I think it may be because of different circles, and there may be a lot of men in the kitchen after Chinese food. Because they think that girls are physically weak, their physical fitness is weak, their work speed is not fast, and they often sweat in summer, so women will work harder. "
"The most important thing is that cooking should be around the stove, and it is necessary to turn over the pot for a long time and frequently at the peak of eating. Even women can't bear such a big load, and there are indeed gender differences. Therefore, hotels generally don't want to use girls. "
"In the kitchen, girls who are careless are ok and popular, and they can assign anything, but it is inevitable that some girls will sometimes be a little melodramatic and play a little temper. Probably this is why male chefs don't like to cooperate with girls. "
Zhang xiaonuo
Humia, a female chef who won high praise in Zhihu, replied: "As for the gender of the chef, it seems to me that it is a matter of concept. The current situation is that male chefs are in the majority, and girls are mixed at home, which is not suitable for many people. I remember when I just told my dad that I was going to be a chef, he reacted strongly! There are many reasons to object, one of which is' people wander around shirtless in summer. "How are you in there?" "
Hu Mia's answer about Zhihu
Although this is a kind of protection for girls, isn't it a prejudice on the grounds of gender?
Before becoming a pastry chef, Jiang Lulu's main direction was actually hot dishes. What does hot food in China kitchen mean? It is the physical work that people think women are not competent for, especially the pot that needs to be cooked.
Stir-frying sand is the basic skill that chefs practice every day. Jiang Lulu still remembers that at school, there was a big boy who was 1.8 meters tall and asked to compete with himself who was less than 1.6 meters. As a result, the boy lost!
"As long as you are a chef, you need physical strength, but women's efforts are not necessarily impossible. Choosing to be a chef means that you have enough physical strength, so girls who are chefs will not be weak. " Even if you don't cook hot dishes now, Jiang Lulu, as a pastry chef, often has to carry dozens of kilograms of flour himself.
Jiang lulu
Kitchen friend Hu Mia also shared her physical appreciation in Zhihu: "After three years in the business, I gained 20 pounds, all of which are muscles. At first, I couldn't move the incubator or a few watermelons. Many manual jobs have to be shamefully sold in exchange for help. Later, I tried to practice physical strength, and I took the initiative to do all physical work. Three years have passed, at least some boys can move it, and I have to work hard to get rid of it. "
So, girls can't do manual labor? Don't say these ridiculous words again. Both men and women, as long as they choose cooking, need to accept high-intensity workload and great physical consumption; No matter what job or interest you face, you need to do your best to make efforts and enthusiasm in order to reap the rewards.
Therefore, whether it is soft or hard, it can be a woman. This is a choice, not a nature.
Hu Mia's answer about Zhihu
"In this environment, it is normal to be ridiculed by language."
But in addition to this "protected" obstacle, there are also just "injuries" under prejudice, which is the most unbearable for female chefs.
Jiang Xun, a female chef who studied cooking in Bo Gu, felt the injury most, even though she was in the French high-end cooking school.
"I dare not talk nonsense about China, but even in France, a country where higher education is popular and the feminist revolution takes place, there are very few chefs who really finish higher education in the kitchen. Most apprentices have been in the kitchen since they were teenagers, lacking opportunities to get along with the opposite sex, and the female colleagues they met are not ugly. Junior high school boys' dirty jokes and occasional flirting tricks can also be seen in teenage chefs. Forget a girl with a bigger heart. If she is petty and brings her chastity archway into the kitchen, it's no joke. At least half of the male chefs in European kitchens will go to the United States, and I am afraid that they will be imprisoned for several years for sexual harassment. "
She said: "What really drives the female chef out of the kitchen is the rigid patriarchal social ideology caused by lack of education." This is precisely the most deep-rooted reason for the prevalence of gender discrimination.
French chefs also flirt with girls.
(The picture has nothing to do with this article)
In addition, women's inferiority also invisibly strengthens this "patriarchal social ideology".
"The worst thing is that even among women who work in the kitchen, there are often wonderful dog blood dramas. These girls, who are usually indomitable and think that they are no worse than their colleagues of the opposite sex, often take a breath to prove themselves from the moment they enter the kitchen. They try to make themselves almost like their colleagues of the opposite sex, transform themselves into masculinity, and flaunt that they are not afraid of hardship, fatigue, heavy pots, heavy knives, tears and competitiveness. I'm afraid to deal with such a female colleague. As women, when an overall vulnerable group encounters unfair treatment, they usually not only don't realize that she needs to help the same sex fight for equal rights, but are afraid that they will compete with each other and get into trouble, eager to get rid of their female weakness. " Jiang Xun added.
In French kitchens, some female chefs won't help them either.
(The picture has nothing to do with this article)
Why can't the kitchen accept women?
Of all the chefs in China, only 3.6% are women. Do only 3.6% girls really want to be cooks? Or has it always created an environment that makes it difficult for women to survive and develop in the chef industry?
Why do you have to accept these prejudices silently? Why can't when women show interest in cooking, no one will say "just have fun, don't take it as a career, girls can't!"
Why can't women enter the all-male kitchen and secretly pray: "I hope this is a good kitchen and can respect me." In fact, many female chefs hope that when they are told that they are women after cooking a delicious food, they don't have to face those stupid and ridiculous faces: "Wow! Actually a female chef! " ……
In fact, many female chefs are eager to stop facing some colored glasses.
In fact, those ridiculous situations that restrict people on the grounds of gender should not have existed and happened. I only hope that in the future, everyone's success or failure is not because of gender, but because of hard work and dedication; All the stumbling blocks on the road of chasing dreams will no longer have gender factors.
As the famous western chef Liu Pingping said in an interview:
"A chef is a job that requires a combination of mental and physical labor. There is no shortcut. Only by repeated attempts can we achieve the ideal requirements. The criterion for evaluating whether a person can become a chef is never gender, but only ability and attitude. "
At the same time, she also told reporters that in her opinion, the reason why women are not suitable for the kitchen is because in the past, kitchen equipment was really few and the environment was poor, and many jobs needed better physical strength. "But today, with the introduction of various equipment, the demand for physical strength in the kitchen is also declining, especially in the western food and dim sum department. Girls also have their own advantages in many aspects, such as being more careful and setting more exquisite. "
Liu Pingping, Executive Deputy Chef of Park Hyatt Hangzhou.
Therefore, don't say how bad and hard the kitchen environment is, and it is not suitable for women. With the development of technology and catering industry, more women may be needed in the kitchen.
The unique characteristics of women may bring more richness and possibilities to catering.
Is the kitchen after Chinese food really not suitable for girls?
In this case,
What do female chefs think?
Male chef,
what do you think?
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Reporter: Zhang Meixian, this article is the original article of Red Kitchen. Reprinting without permission is prohibited!
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