After a few years working in San Francisco, Brown returned
to Ohio to become executive chef at Beckett Ridge Country
Club in West Chester. In 2003, with financing from owner
John Allgaier, Jag’s opened.
“It’s a man’s world in the kitchen,” says Brown. “Women
are some of the best cooks in the world—they just do it at
home. You need a thick skin, and you have to be able to deal
with stress. It took years for my parents to understand why
I was doing this. And with my husband, it is an unspoken
acknowledgement that if it’s 3 in the morning and something
comes up, I have to go. You must take care of your business.”
cooking like a girl
The world’s first Queen of Porc, Duskie Estes (crowned at the
Grand Cochon 555 in Aspen, Colo., in June 2011) oversees
the kitchens of Zazu Restaurant & Farm in Santa Rosa,
Calif., and Bovolo Restaurant in nearby Healdsburg. With
husband John Stewart she also manages a farm with Red Wattle
pigs and poultry, and oversees the Black Pig Meat Company,
Healdsburg, a purveyor of bacon.
Estes grew up in San Francisco. She worked at Providence,
R.I.’s, Al Forno Restaurant while completing a degree in
American history at Brown University. After graduation,
she worked in Seattle. Her last position was running Tom
Douglas’ Palace Kitchen, and she was voted Citysearch’s
Seattle Best Chef in 2000.
According to Estes, women bring a unique sensibility to the
kitchen, somewhat at odds with the manner in which the
business is generally portrayed. “I think women may have
better taste buds, in general,” she says. “I’ve worked with so
many line cooks, and the ones who can nail salt, acid, heat
and sweet most often have been women, not men.
“There is also a difference in style. I cook like a girl, and what
I mean by that is when you look at what is big in the media,
all the competitive cooking shows are directed toward a male
sensibility, not female. Women tend to be team builders, but
what is presented all the time is competition, a male thing.
Everything is a sport.”
Estes says balance is the most difficult part of her job. “I
would like to be more available for my family and more in the
kitchen. People who work for me understand that I pick up
fraternity kitchen
Darlene Barnes waited until her children entered high school to
begin cooking professionally, beginning in the catering kitchen
for Dallas’ Central Market where, she says, “I learned the
difference between home cooking and cooking professionally—
which is much more exhausting, rigorous and serious.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Top to bottom: Galdones Photography http://galdonesphotography.com/; Darlene Barnes
my kids at 3 p.m., which is traditionally prep time, and that I
am essentially MIA until 5 p.m., when I come in and create
chaos. I am available by phone, but it is frustrating for me,
and for the cooks, as well.”
Later, she worked as a private chef before moving to Seattle
with her husband. Barnes now cooks for the 80 hungry brothers
of Alpha Sigma Phi at the University of Washington (see her
blog at http://fraternitykitchen.net). It’s a family friendly, 9-5
TOP: Duskie Estes prepares her winning dishes at the Grand Cochon 555.
BOTTOM: Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity brothers enjoy such homemade treats as this
chocolate/walnut/bourbon pie.
