Someone's in the Kitchen Where's Dinah? Gendered Dimensions of the Professional Culinary World"

DePaul University Via Sapientiae College of Education Theses and Dissertations College of Education Spring 6-14-2013 SOMEONE’S IN THE KITCHEN, WHERE’S DINAH? GENDERED DIMENSIONS OF THE PROFESSIONAL CULINARY WORLD Stephanie Konkol DePaul University Follow this and additional works at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/soe_etd Part of the Education Commons Recommended Citation Konkol, Stephanie, "SOMEONE’S IN THE KITCHEN, WHERE’S DINAH? GENDERED DIMENSIONS OF THE PROFESSIONAL CULINARY WORLD" (2013). College of Education Theses and Dissertations. 68. https://via.library.depaul.edu/soe_etd/68 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Education at Via Sapientiae. It has been accepted for inclusion in College of Education Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Via Sapientiae. For more information, please contact [email protected]. DePaul University College of Education SOMEONE’S IN THE KITCHEN, WHERE’S DINAH? GENDERED DIMENSIONS OF THE PROFESSIONAL CULINARY WORLD A Dissertation in Education With a Concentration in Curriculum Studies by Stephanie M. Konkol Copyright 2013 Stephanie M. Konkol Submitted in Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Education June 14, 2013 iii ABSTRACT Traditionally cooking is considered to be women’s work, yet the vast majority of professional chefs, particularly in the upper echelons of restaurant work, are men. These curious gendered patterns stimulated interest in delving more deeply into the gendered nature of restaurant work. Existing research on this topic has concentrated on the front of the house (dining room) but has not addressed the gendered nature of the male-dominated back of the house (kitchen). This study looks at the gendered nature of the professional culinary kitchen (back of the house), how gender relations are constructed through culinary education and in the professional kitchen, and specifically how gender is done in culinary education and the professional culinary kitchen. The inquiry focuses on three research questions: How does gender present itself in the culinary world, how does chef education challenge or contribute to the normative gendered patterns in the culinary world, specifically the back of the house, and how do the experiences of women chefs perpetuate or contest gender binaries? Using a life history methodology, I interviewed four women executive chefs to collect data about how they experienced the professional culinary kitchen with particular attention to the gendered nature of that experience. In culinary school, the four women chefs felt that both men and women students were treated equally, but in the professional culinary kitchen, they soon found out that the gendered nature of work was not equal; it favored men, making promotion very difficult for women seeking executive chef positions. To understand the data, a feminist post-structural theoretical framework, focusing on difference, language, discourse, power and knowledge, was used as an analytical lens. Patriarchal discourses permeate home, educational and workplace domains where gender stereotypes and double standards made it difficult for the iv women chefs to navigate the professional culinary world as well as work/life balance. Binary ways of thinking (masculine/feminine) privilege men over women, yet these women chefs have found spaces where they can thrive using their own strengths and resilience to have successful careers in the professional culinary world. v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................................................. IX ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................................. X DEDICATION ...................................................................................................................................... XI CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................... 7 THE CULINARY WORLD: WHAT WE KNOW ..................................................................... 7 Organization and Job Descriptions of the Professional Culinary Kitchen ................. 8 The Division of Labor: Sex and Gender .................................................................... 12 HISTORY OF CULINARY INNOVATION ............................................................................ 13 Men’s Contributions to Culinary History ................................................................. 13 Women’s Contributions to Culinary History ............................................................. 15 Cookbooks and Gender Roles ................................................................................... 17 Today’s Professional Culinary Kitchen .................................................................... 21 Cookery: The Domestic Realm .................................................................................. 22 BECOMING A CHEF: THE PROFESSIONAL REALM ........................................................... 28 Celebrity Chefs .......................................................................................................... 31 Guilds and Apprenticeships ....................................................................................... 34 Informal and Formal Education ................................................................................ 36 Types of Culinary Programs ..................................................................................... 39 WAYS OF LEARNING: ADULT EDUCATION ..................................................................... 43 Transformational Learning ....................................................................................... 46 Contextual Learning .................................................................................................. 49 Vocational Programs: Traditional Apprenticeships and Cognitive Apprenticeships 51 Curriculum: Manifest and Hidden ............................................................................ 52 GENDER ANALYSIS OF RESTAURANT WORK .................................................................. 54 Women in the Back of the House ............................................................................... 57 vi WOMEN IN MANAGEMENT ............................................................................................. 60 Gender Stereotypes .................................................................................................... 64 Leadership ................................................................................................................. 65 Family-Work Conflict ................................................................................................ 66 Mentoring and Networking ....................................................................................... 69 Hiring Practices and Wages ...................................................................................... 74 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY AND METHODS .......................................................... 79 THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE: FEMINIST POST-STRUCTURALISM .................................... 79 Feminism: Historical Perspective ............................................................................. 80 Feminist Post-Structuralism ...................................................................................... 83 METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................. 96 METHODS ...................................................................................................................... 97 Sample Selection ........................................................................................................ 97 Recruitment ............................................................................................................... 98 Data Collection ......................................................................................................... 99 Data Analysis .......................................................................................................... 101 ETHICAL CONCERNS .................................................................................................... 103 TRUSTWORTHINESS ..................................................................................................... 103 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................... 105 CHAPTER 4: FOUR WOMAN CHEF BIOGRAPHIES ................................................ 107 CHEF JENN ................................................................................................................... 107 CHEF CHRIS ................................................................................................................. 112 CHEF STELLA ............................................................................................................... 116 CHEF DEE .................................................................................................................... 119 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................... 123 CHAPTER 5: GENDERED NORMS .....................................................................................

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