Estate Living Digital Publication Issue 7 July 2015 | Page 8

O PEN

KITCHEN
Bon Appetit Ladies...

JACKIE CAMERON

Last year, double-starred Michelin chef, Tom Kerridge,
left a sour taste in the mouth when he said he wasn’t
convinced the industry was for female chefs, and
when you consider the stats, you can see why.
Whilst three of the restaurants in last year’s list of
the top 50 restaurants in the world had a female
head chef, none had a solo female head chef making
professional kitchens the world over overflow with a
heavy dose of machismo.
Yet, in the professional kitchen of the White House,
Cristeta Comerford has spent the past decade
making culinary history as executive chef to the most
important family in America. And in London, Hélène
Darroze, executive chef at the Connaught and winner
of The Veuve Clicquot World’s Best Female Chef
Award 2015, is also doing her bit to rebut trends.

Back home and the ladies are taking the heat of the
working kitchen just as well, ‘with a lot of women in
professional kitchens in South Africa’, says Margot
Janse, the incredibly talented executive chef at
the award-winning Le Quartier Français Hotel in
Franschhoek, which, incidentally, is owned by Susan
Huxter, an equally gifted female,. “Whilst there is a
big difference at the top, the women who are there
are great role models for the younger ones, which is
what this industry needs,” says Margot.
Being a female chef has its advantages. For Jackie
Cameron, the famous chef and owner of the School
of Food and Wine at the Hilton in KZN, it’s her ability
to second guess. “Women chefs are just as good, if
not better than most male chefs, but, in most cases,
they lack confidence. Females can second guess
themselves whereby males don’t seem to as much –
my second guessing myself is what I feel has given me
the edge” she says.
With confidence come top-end positions and top-end
salaries, and according to Lizelle Stolze, South African
female chefs have somewhat of an easier task, as the
pressure and competition are so much bigger abroad.
“Salaries for chefs abroad are also much better than
they are here, but this shouldn’t be a deterrent,” says
Lizelle, co-owner and executive chef of the Serendipity