National Culinary Review

job, with weekends, holidays and summers off. It is also a challenge, but one that Barnes has set for herself.

“This is a job you do for love,” she says. “It’s hard, the pay is not great and there are no benefits. But since I started here, I’ve been trying to get away from what seems to be the norm in institutional cooking. I cook from scratch and try to source locally, including livestock. All of that is considered a little crazy for a fraternity house, and I constantly have to nag and push my distributor and say, ‘This is what I want.’” But, Barnes continues, “They love me. They love the food. In the beginning, it was me pushing it. Now, the guys are coming to me and asking where something I served is from. They recognize the difference between what they are eating and what their friends in other houses and in dorms are eating.”

a long way to go The Kennebunk Inn and Academe Maine Brasserie & Tavern in Kennebunk, Maine, is a busy, popular vacation spot owned and operated by Shanna O’Hea and husband Brian.

O’Hea cites Ann Cooper’s A Woman’s Place Is in the Kitchen
as presenting a model for the kind of chef she wanted to be.
“I remember aspiring to be like these executive women chefs
and not being afraid to lead or stand up for myself,” she says.
“We run a culinary internship program at the inn and have
mentored many students, with an equal division of men and
women. But I still believe that as women, we have a long way
to go in the industry.”
At The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park,
N.Y., in 1996, O’Hea was one of two women in a class of
20. She singles out former faculty member Ryan Baxter
as the only faculty member she remembers who used
inclusive language, speaking with she/he pronouns. She also
remembers another chef who had more of the “break you
down” mentality. “He liked to yell a lot, and one time, after
he had yelled at me and I began to get upset, he told me it
was OK if I cried. It was like he expected it.”
Today, she observes male and female differences in her
kitchen. “As a woman, I think differently about menu
specials and design. I also find myself more concerned
with the presence of vegetables and the appearance of the
plate,” she says. “In general, I am probably more observant
of how the staff interacts, as well as the conversations and
communication that takes place between workers and those
running the line. If things get too ‘locker room,’ I step in
and steer the conversation to a more professional manner.”

gender differences Katherine Polenz has been a student, a working professional trying to balance family and work, and is now an associate professor of culinary arts at the CIA. She was one of five women in a student body of 500 when she entered the CIA in the early ’70s at its former site in New Haven, Conn. Now, about 25% of the entering students are female, and they are about 75% of the students in the baking/pastry division.

“I think baking and pastry typically appeals to women, particularly if they think about having a family,” she says, reminiscing about working as a butcher’s assistant in New Jersey and running a catering kitchen out of the shop when her daughter was young. “This was at a time when women usually had to stop work to care for their children. My employers let me bring my baby to work with me.

“In baking, the hours are regular, and it is not as physically arduous as working in a regular kitchen. Pastry is a different sensibility, which appeals to women who tend to be more design and artistic oriented. I also note recently that many of our female students are vegetarians, and have no desire to work with meat and fish.” Although the educational experience has leveled out when it comes to gender, Polenz, like most women in the industry, notes the distinct differences between men and women. “Women tend to be more organized and willing to step up to challenges,” she says. “If there is a strong woman in a group, she will end up the leader, and when there is a female group leader, there is usually a different group dynamic, more of a sense of equality.” In A Woman's Place is in the Kitchen, Cooper sums up the complexities of women in the culinary arts: “I often say that the world can be ‘home’ to all demographics, and that excelling, by and large, is not gender-based. But it is a demanding world, and excelling often means making choices that many women choose not to make.”