Top Female Chefs Open Up About Their Challenges In The Restaurant Industry In New Film

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A Fine Line Productions

A new film, A Fine Line, directly by Joanna James, just had its first screening in San Francisco two nights ago. It has been shown in a dozen U.S. markets previously. The movie details the challenges that women face in running restaurants in the United States, the biggest of which remains funding, according to the producer. The film has previously been screened at the Women’s Film Festival, the Napa Valley Film Festival and the Globe Docs festival, among others.

The other largest hurdle, sadly to say in 2019, remains harassment in the workplace. According to some of the female protagonists in the film, their working situation was unimaginable 20 years ago. It is certainly not much better now with major with major restaurant kingpins like Mario Batali and Ken Friedman of the Spotted Pig falling to the wayside in endless incriminations from female employees.

James’ mother Val is the inspiration for the film. She was a single mother raising two kids and running Val’s Restaurant, a beloved establishment in rural Holden, Massachusetts. Both Joanna and her brother ended up working there and cultivating a newfound respect for their mother’s tireless ambition. James notes on the film’s website that the movie was inspired by the fact that less than 7% of head chefs and restaurant owners are women, when traditionally women have always held the central role in the kitchen.

Behind the Scenes

The film profiles a number of established women chefs and restaurant owners across the country including Lidia Bastianich of Felidia in New York City; Dominique Crenn of Atelier Crenn in San Francisco; and Iron Chef's Cat Cora.

They all spoke to the fact that down time and family-focused time was minimal when they were at the stove or minding the front of the house. Cora even said she was working out of the country when her wife gave birth to their third child.

James' mother Val talked about how she used to cry because she couldn’t be home with her kids more frequently like other mothers. She lamented the number of hours she worked when they were young but was thrilled that they came back to support her in working at the restaurant and even by making a film based on her challenges with her restaurant.

All the chefs mentioned that kitchens are often structured in a military style and that very few women have been allowed to penetrate their inner sanctums, until recently. Many had applied for internships in France and were told that women were not permitted in the kitchen. Cora said in the film she once had someone tell her she should be barefoot and pregnant in Mississippi.

All of the female chefs said they had a hard time balancing work and childcare as there was no place to nurse their children. Boston chef Barbara Lynch said she simply brought her newborn in when she turned 40 and nursed her baby in the restaurant.

The chefs recommended offering more flexible working schedules and time off for female chefs trying to manage both work and family life. They also suggested providing nursing rooms on-site at restaurants.

Industry Feedback

Rose Hartley, a new markets project manager for Imperfect Produce,  which provides less-than-ideal looking greens so they don’t go to waste, shared some of her thoughts on social media. She says that she “found the stories of these women--women who have held on to their dreams with both hands, pushing aside all societal pressures that would have them fail, or choose between their family and their work--incredibly compelling.”

She went on to wonder “why the tidal wave of #MeToo seems to have hit the restaurant industry relatively late. Why is the restaurant world behind the times, described as ‘where finance was in the eighties;'  a mad, mad world, with women on the bottom?”

She adds that, “the documentary was at once intimate and universal: the story of women beating incredible odds in one of the most male-dominated industries of the past century. What is more she concludes that this film made it clear that the time for women chefs is now.”

I couldn’t agree more.

I have been writing, educating and consulting about wine, cocktails and food for more than two decades. I also do innovative wine events for corporate team building and ...