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ABOUT THIS SERIES

Leaning Into Leadership is an occasional series that features local leaders who are leaning in and creating opportunities for women in our community. This is the series' final installment. Find more stories at GoErie.com/leaningin.

It all started with the cream puffs. "You just made the batter and put it in the oven and whoop!" said Jean Reed, 57, sous chef at the Lake View Country Club, where she's worked for 33 years. She remembered cream puffs were the first thing she ever cooked.

"That was so much fun. And I'm still making cream puffs."

Reed is something of a rare breed in Erie: a female kitchen manager.

"It's still a man's world out there, and you have to be able to show them that you love this work and you're willing to work hard," Reed said.

Heidi May, 34, executive chef at the Bel-Aire Clarion Hotel and Conference Center, 2800 W. Eighth St., can tell you that many kitchens have changed dramatically, and capable women are as welcome as men on staff. Others, though, are still behind the times.

"The last chef I worked for told me that women were too much drama," May said, adding that she was already working at that restaurant when he came on board. "Most men chefs have been very supportive, but one told me he wouldn't have hired me."

While the profession might still bear the residue of gender discrimination, May said, other companies she's worked for wouldn't have tolerated that chef's point of view.

She said there are other more practical reasons fewer women make it up the ladder in the kitchen.

She and other chefs and instructors said that the physical and time demands of working as a professional chef just don't work for many women who want to raise a family.

"I don't see a lot of applications from females, really," May said. "We work crazy hours, seven days a week, holidays and weekends when most people would want to be with their family."

Family time?

Jessica Law, 24, a chef instructor at the Culinary and Wine Institute of Mercyhurst North East, worked on gorgeous and delicate caramel "cages" that would be served the next day set over a pastry.

As she worked in a Mercyhurst kitchen -- filled with women -- she agreed that professional cooking might not work for family-oriented females.

"I just got married this summer, and the idea of starting a family with a job like that would be conflicting," Law said.

Reed raised three children while working at the country club, but it wasn't easy.

"I worked five minutes from home," she said. "I had the opportunity to work a full day, but take periods of leave when need be."

Michelle Davis, 34, sous chef at Bertrand's Bistro on North Park Row, who is studying to be certified as an executive chef, sees the male-dominated culture changing, too.

"I think people who have children can work in this industry," she said. "Some people have to bend a little bit, rely on family, but I've seen people make it work."

There are other reasons more women don't even want to work in professional kitchens, including physical requirements of standing on your feet and lifting huge bags of ingredients, and heavy scrubbing, work done by everyone in the kitchen.

"You actually have to be physically ready for that," Reed said. After 33 years, she said she's taken up yoga in an attempt to keep her body strong enough to do her job.

Kitchen culture

Aspiring chef Stephanie Cruz-Warner, 24, carefully slid a cylindrical "crab tower" out of a can she used to shape it. The tower included layers of off-white crab meat, bright green avocado and tomato salsa. It was almost too pretty to eat.

Cruz-Warner showed it off to her instructor, who smiled proudly, and then sat down to talk about women in her chosen profession.

To begin with, she's one woman who has no problem lifting a 50-pound bag of flour.

The Mercyhurst North East culinary student, who also works at the Erie Club, is a power lifter. She said she can dead lift 215 pounds.

She said she wants to incorporate her love of working out into her own restaurant.

"I'd like to open up some kind of restaurant with a power lifting side, with a gym that serves healthy food for athletes," Cruz-Warner said.

She said she sees no lack of interest in professional cooking from women she knows.

"When I'm at work, there's not a lot of women," she said. "But when I go to school, there's all kinds of women. I think kitchen culture is changing."

Melissa Ripley, 35, agrees. "My classes seem to have more female than male students," she said.

Mercyhurst North East chef instructor Dennis Dunne, 63, said that in general, his female students are more serious about working in the professional cooking world than his male students.

"It's not that there aren't any men," he said. "I have some excellent male students, but the majority of women who come into this program are more serious about wanting to do it."

He said he thinks that the male-dominated kitchens are quickly becoming a thing of the past.

"Modern chefs have evolved to think differently about women in the kitchen," Dunne said. "At this present time, I think any female that walks into a kitchen has just as good a shot as any guy does, all things being equal."

JENNIE GEISLER can be reached at 870-1885 or by e-mail. Visit her food blog at GoErie.com/blogs/loaves. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNgeisler.

Online Extras

MORE ONLINE:To read more about local leaders who are leaning in and creating opportunities for women in the Erie community, click here.

MORE ONLINE:To read more food-related stories, get recipes, see food-related photo galleries and videos, click here.

ABOUT THIS SERIES

Leaning Into Leadership is an occasional series that features local leaders who are leaning in and creating opportunities for women in our community. This is the series' final installment. Find more stories at GoErie.com/leaningin.