Queens of the kitchen: women hold power until the space becomes a business
An incubator for female chefs of color is working to break the barriers women encounter in the restaurant industry
by Bonnie Tsu
Apr 11, 2019
5 minutes
My mother is one of four sisters, and some of my most at-home memories take place in the kitchen with them. The sonic landscape of my aunts joking loudly in a pidgin mash-up of Chinese and English; the rounded scent of a fall-off-the-bone rack of ribs, a simmering pot of jook, a soy-sauce chicken. A conversation, a way to show affection, by way of a plate being passed back and forth. A matriarchy reigned in that space, and it was powerful.
But there is a moment when the kitchen reliably fails women, and particularly women of color. When the kitchen becomes a place of business – when it becomes a restaurant in America – white faces are the ones that dominate the front of the line and
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