#HallOfShame: 9% Women in Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs 2016 List [updated]
Every year, Food & Wine Magazine editors travel the country to seek out “America’s most brilliant up-and-coming chefs,” handpicking 11 promising cooks for their highly anticipated Best New Chefs list. This year, only one of those brilliant chefs is a woman, a disappointing decrease from the 2015 Best New Chefs list, which featured only two.
At a time when most studies show an increase in the number of women in professional kitchens, it’s hard to imagine such unbalanced results. The number of women enrolled in culinary school has steadily increased from 20% in the 1990s to 30% by 2000, and according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and National Restaurant Association, the number of female chefs and head cooks in kitchens across the country jumped from 21% to 50% in the last decade. Somehow, Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs 2016 list comes in at a meager 9%.
Food & Wine's editors say they "choose the Best New Chefs after a months-long selection process," gathering recommendations and nominations "from restaurant critics, food writers, and other trusted experts." Come on Food & Wine… We’re not buying it.
By all accounts, women are doing the work, so where is the recognition? Join us and tweet at Food & Wine to do better. Know of some brilliant up-and-coming women chefs? Let Food & Wine know.
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Only 1 woman in @foodandwine's Best New Chefs list? We're not buying it. http://www.genderavenger.com/blog/hallofshame-9-percent-women-food-wine-2016-best-new-chefs #fwbnc #GenderAvenger #HallofShame
UPDATE:
An earlier version of this blog post suggested a tweet that linked to a World's 50 Best list. It was pointed out to GenderAvenger that that tweet did not accurately reflect the current happenings in the industry. We hear you. We have redacted the tweet and will not be using it, or any variation of it.
Thank you for the call out. We're listening.