The Heat: A Kitchen (R)evolution

I’m a chef. I mean, I don’t really attach an importance to the fact uh...

woman or male chef. We are all chefs.

That’s really the problem to enhance women chefs. That means we categorize them.

Yeah, I remember growing up and going back and crying and my mom goes:

“Why are you going back?” I said: “I just need to do a year, Mom.

Once I’ve done a year, then that’s it. That opens every door to me.

I’ve proved myself.” And, you know, and I did.

I always say that I wasn’t really ever harassed because I was a woman,

I was just harassed ‘cause I was a human and chefs are like, equal opportunity assholes.

They’ll harass anybody they see who’s weaker than them.

There’s no time if you’re slammed on a Friday night to say

“I’m sorry I called you a fucking whore. Shut the fuck up.

Take the dick out of your ass and get this shit done.”

When I walk in, I’m gonna respect you,

but I’m gonna command the respect back.

And once we kinda are on the same page, then we’re good.

Pick up squash, please? It’s gonna be for Table 21.

- Angel? Can you help me with the uh... tempura? - Yeah.

Uh... And guys? Pass me the two terrines right now,

so I can put them on a plate, OK? So they can temper.

Women have been cooking forever. Women have been the one that cooked

for the chef or the man that became a chef.

Usually it’s like, “Oh, my mom used to cook this for me.”

And I was like, "OK so women have been cooking all this time,

but you can’t make it to the professional side?"

That is the irony of this, you know what I mean?

It’s not like you always recall your dad cooking for you.

- Burger medium is three. - Burger medium, three.

- Bar 4 is summer squash, no uni. - Bar 4 is summer squash, no uni.

I’m not sure whether things have improved for women that much in the kitchen.

The fight and the struggle and the complaints are still the same.

We are a little bit more like the chervil on the salad.

We are some kind of garnish because it looks good.

You know? Like people need to see that you’re promoting women.

OK, Victor. You’re going tartare, yes?

I’m from Chile. Santiago, Chile.

My mom raised me to believe I could do whatever I wanted to do.

Probably that was her mistake.

- Uh... Matteo, have you touched base with table 11? - Not yet.

Because his order fired the wrong food and also they were waiting, OK?

- I spoke with him. - So can someone tell me what’s going on?

Uh... He wants his cod.

- Great. He’s a pescatarian, but we ordered duck. OK. - Yeah.

- He did not order duck. - Huh?

-He didn’t order the duck. -That’s what I’m saying. Dan ordered a duck.

- Yes. - Anyways, seat 1, seat 2 is bok choy.

Seat 1, seat 2 is squash. Seat 3, seat 4 carpaccio.

- Go all the way on 23. - 23.

Vito, you have the... the face of death. This is a restaurant. Shit happens, OK?

Chumley’s was first opened in 1922.

You know, Hemingway and all these famous writers would come here and basically hang out.

Ordering duck. Order fire carpaccio, tartare.

My dream is to have my own restaurant

and express myself with more freedom than I have here.

Like a blank canvas for me to paint.

It’s how do I express myself on a plate.

I’m behind you.

Can I get the three carrots on 305, please?

Dirt Candy is an all-vegetable restaurant in Manhattan on the Lower East Side.

Alright, guys. OK, so this is the Brussels sprout tacos. Be careful...

What we do here is we celebrate vegetables.

There’s restaurants that are vegetable forward, but they still serve a little meat,

but we are the only ones who have taken huge leap of faith and said:

“Just come to the restaurant for the vegetables.”

With the fennels on the bottom layer, we have the carta di musica,

which is really just fancy Italian for cracker.

Then we have some caramelized yogurt, caramelized fennel,

ginger cream, cherry purée, dehydrated...

I think you have too much butter and not enough salt.

- Not enough salt, too much butter? - In this.

This is fine. A little bit more salt would be fine.

Only because you’re compensating for the vegetables.

Overcooked. Too salty.

You could have tried to be better on camera.

-Uhm... Wait, OK. My question was... -Just say “Yes, Chef.”

- Yes, Chef. - Yes.

I’m proud to be a woman chef.

There’s a huge number of women chefs cooking

and we just don’t talk about them.

And yet somehow people still think they’re actually

aren’t a lot of female chefs or women chefs

because they’re not really the ones written about.

And they’re not the important ones.

And so that’s the uphill battle.

If you don’t keep talking about us,

then we’re not gonna have a place.

We’re gonna keep getting pushed aside.

You can start with this. Big table. Just put it down in the middle.

My big issue with the industry is in the media.

There’s sort of been this refusal to celebrate female chefs.

You see this over and over again on the...

the big awards and the best new chefs list, best new restaurants.

They tend to be male chefs.

It’s always like, one woman and nine men on a cover.

The reason women don’t have those kinds of restaurants is because

they tend to open more mom-and-pop restaurants

because they’re only able to get a little bit of money.

Without that financial backing, it’s really hard to get on those covers.

It’s hard to win those awards

and so this cycle just goes and goes and goes

and women keep getting left out of this conversation.

That’s really the old boys’ club.

If you’re not white, if you’re not straight, if...

you know, you don’t really fit into a uhm...

a gender norm, of course you’re angry.

And the media really likes to celebrate young, tough dudes

with a lot of like, tattoos.

What’s cool is, “Hey, look at the giant tattoo

I got to cover the giant scar I had.”

Why do I think all the guys get the attention?

'Cause they probably want it more than we do.

“Look at me, look at me, look at me. The big swingin' dick scenario.

Like I’m large and in charge and I’m fuckin’ fabulous and I’m killing the game.”

I remember when Kitchen Confidentialcame out.

I did read it in the first year of college and I found it very exciting

because it sounded like a... a... a ride. Like a wild ride.

You know, everyone’s partying, they’re living in these crazy houses together

in the middle of L.A. or New York and making it happen

and all the strife and struggle. But the strife and struggle sounded super sexy.

They’re badasses. They’re party animals. They’re sleeping with everybody.

They’re doing tons of drugs and they’re getting away with it.

It adds a touch of melodrama to our industry that we eat like crazy.

There’s a saying that men cook for glory and women for love.

And if we do, it’s because of how we were raised and of that social construct.

But as a chef, you really wanna be judged on your work, you know?

Your gender really has nothing to do with it.

Order in VIP a pierogi and a tartare.

I’ve been running this restaurant 17 years.

I mean, on some level it was a compulsion. I felt compelled to do this.

We’ve been bombarded by images of

what it means to be female and what it means to be male.

You know, growing up in the Midwest was difficult for me.

I consider myself gender non-conforming.

I didn’t like wearing dresses. You know, I was a tomboy.

I came from a very food-obsessed family,

and, you know, on some level it was sort of the best part of my childhood.

So it’s interesting that I’ve... I’ve turned that into a life.

I got three foie's in the window.

Anita Lo is one of the most amazing chefs in this country.

You know, Annisa was this really well-respected restaurant in the city.

It had at one point Michelin stars.

It had three stars from the New York Times

and she defined a certain place for female chefs in this industry.

The first time that I heard about Anita Lo at Annisa was through my ex-father-in-law.

He was always trying to get me to come to New York

because it’s like, “You see? A woman can run a kitchen.

A woman can have a restaurant. You should come to New York.”

And I was like, “OK, it sounds amazing, but she is like,

the one.”You know? It’s like one woman that is running a restaurant.

I think it would have been really helpful, you know, to have a role model.

You know, I’d never worked for a female chef.

Uhm... There weren’t a lot of them out there,

especially in fine dining, which was what I wanted to do.

There weren’t, you know, people of color or gay people.

So, I felt a deep responsibility to be a mentor.

You know, I think that’s probably important for some young women

to see that it’s possible, yeah.

And Em, as soon as you can, can you pick up for Booth 1, please?

Alright, Justin. We got a soca, a burger and a lamb.

Fritter, squash.

One burger going to 15. Other burger going to table 13.

- Let’s get that mac up right now. - Yes.

- Let’s get that rice right now inside of that pan. - Yes, Chef. Got it.

I’m not gonna tell you how to run your kitchen.

I’m not gonna tell you about what kitchens are better than other kitchens,

but I’m gonna tell you how I run my kitchen.

Working in the industry for 10 years before opening this restaurant, I realized that

there were lots of voids in the kitchens that I worked in.

And that was not seeing enough women.

Order up, Chef. Mac.

- Yup. Going to table... Booth 1. - Order up.

I thought, “Wow. Wouldn’t it be awesome if we could create

a space that they can come and gain some skill sets.

We can run the kitchen, dominate the kitchen in a very male-dominated industry.

- May I have that cornbread, please? - Yup. Cutting it right now.

Hands, please? One soca going to table 14.

I’ve been operating this restaurant for about three years.

Myself and my husband, Johnnie.

Myles is here quite regularly. He knows the staff.

When we opened the restaurant, friends would come and

take him on a stroll in the neighborhood if he was crying.

Customers would take him if I was on the line.

He was on my back, strapped to my back when I was cooking.

- What colors today? - We’re a small restaurant, like any mom and pop.

'Cause that’s really at the end of the day what we are.

That’s the one? Yeah.

It’s a very personal space.

Can you pick up this mac & cheese going to booth 1, please? Thank you.

Yeah, being a woman of color, I’m not gonna be,

you know, that stereotype that you expect me to be.

The first thing my father said is: “No daughter of mine

is gonna go and work for some white person in their kitchen and cook their food.

I don’t want that for you. I didn’t do that.

I don’t want you to be working as someone’s slave.”

You look at the images and the history of the mammy characters.

The nannies that, you know, are always kept in the back that prepare the food,

take care of the children and the roles of black women and what we’ve been known for.

You know, I’m part American. I’m... I’m part Canadian.

I’m dual citizen. So it’s a part of my history

and it’s also a part of the history of what I know of diners