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An All-female Kitchen in London To Solve the Curry Crisis

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With the opening of Darjeeling Express, an Indian restaurant with an all-female kitchen staff at Soho in London, the gender imbalance in the hospitality industry has come back into conversation. The venture is a brainchild of Asma Khan, a Kolkata-born Indian chef at pop-up/supper club restaurants in the city.

“Professional kitchens need more women, especially Indian restaurants who are all complaining about visa restrictions and struggling to recruit male chefs from India and Pakistan,” Khan told Big Hospitality. “Look at the women who are already in this country that can cook, why aren’t they hiring them?”

In London itself, the number of women chefs is dismal. Women only comprise 35 per cent of the city’s food service industry. With the age-old assumption that women belong in the kitchen, it is surprising how little they are represented in the industry.

And that’s a fact that Khan seeks to capitalise on with her restaurant. “You won’t find this menu in an Indian restaurant [in UK]. It is the kind of food made at homes in India. These are all the dishes my mother and grandmother used to cook,” says Khan to the online magazine, pointing out the difference between commercial kitchen and home cooking is that things are scaled up in restaurants to make them more efficient. “We don’t try to economise in my kitchen, a lot of labour and love goes in to our food, so we only have four or five mains,” she reveals.

None of the women in the Darjeeling Express staff is a trained chef, according to the Evening Standard,. Khan is dismayed that the UK is facing a ‘curry crisis’ of sorts, especially since there are so women who can be employed in the sector. “I find it difficult to understand why these restaurants are closing down and not opening doors to their wives, aunts, or mothers. I’m a living example, women can cook and we work just as hard,” she says.

Scarcity of women applicants for chef position

Khan’s question is perhaps answered by London-based Indian restaurateur Dhruv Mittal. “We receive less than 5% of applications by women for our chef position,” he told Eater London. Vivek Singh, CEO and executive chef at The Cinnamon Club, echoes the view to the publication, saying, “Traditionally professional kitchens — all kitchens, not just Indian kitchens — have been male heavy, and the poor conditions of work and relentless hours haven’t made it easy for women to break-in, thrive and get to the top.”

The situation rings true in India as well. “With the exception of a few prominent chefs — Ritu Dalmia, Madhu Krishnan to name two — women in restaurants and hotels are largely confined to front of the house,” India-based chef Thomas Zacharias had earlier told Mint. “Which is surprising, especially in a cultural context that has always considered mothers and grandmothers to be ‘the best cooks in the world’.”

World over, the restaurant industry is considered a testosterone-dominated field where women have little place. In the United States, it was only in 2016 that the number of women restaurant owners rose to 33 per cent, according to the National Restaurant Association.

Also, the median hourly wage paid to women is less than men in all but 11 jobs in restaurant industry, according to a report in Economic Policy Institute that says women are more likely than men to be counter attendants, hosts, and wait staff. In the UK, female chefs earn £4K less a year than their male counterparts. Like most industries, the food service industries see that as the designation of the woman gets higher, the pay gap between her and the man for the same role increases.

Why representation matters

Asma Khan admits to Eater that not enough women apply to be chefs despite being good cooks. “The onus is on restaurants to show their willingness to open their doors and be more inviting to women,” she says. “Restaurants should make the women already working for them more visible so other women can see someone they can relate to. Role models matter.”

Amy Hansen, who runs Modern Pantry in Clerkenwell, however, sees it as a problem for females across professions. “The hours are a problem for anyone, it’s not got anything to do with being male or female,” Independent quoted her as saying. “Ladies can be put off by fear of taking a break with families but that is the same with any industry and it shouldn’t be a hindrance, that’s a message we could do with getting across to people…”

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