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Review of:  
Cheffes de Cuisine: Women and Work in Professional French Kitchen 
Rachel E. Black, University of Illinois Press, 2021. Pp. 227, acknowledgement, prologue, 
glossary, introduction, conclusion, notes, bibliography, index.  
 
Review By: Nadia Sarwar 
 
Despite women's dedicated, skillful, and ever-growing engagement with French culinary 
art and tradition, they have remained le deuxième sexe (the second sex) in terms of priority, 
recognition, and achievement in French professional kitchens. In her book, Cheffes De 
Cuisine: Women and Work in the Professional French Kitchen, Rachel E. Black asks, “if more 
women than ever are entering the profession, why are they so deeply underrepresented at 
the top ranks of the profession?” (2). Illustrating how French professional kitchens are 
highly gendered spaces, Black asserts that the occupational contexts of the French culinary 
industry have largely been influenced by “gender, nationality, sexual orientation, and race” 
(2). To document women’s role in French culinary practices, Black records the stories of 
“exclusion and empowerment” (11) of local women chefs from Lyon, a city renowned for its 
heritage of French culinary traditions. Black analyzes the “heterogeneity and multiplicity of 
identities and experiences of women working in kitchens in Lyon” (13). Her ethnographic 
investigation encapsulates the voices of women culinary professionals from the past and 
present using archival data, oral history collection, interviews, and participant observation. 
In addition to conducting interviews with twenty-seven culinary professionals, including 
one key participant, Black herself worked in professional French kitchens to learn culinary 
skills and kitchen language. Black’s ethnographic endeavours were largely designed to 
better understand the persistence of gender inequality in French culinary practices, the 
factors that restrain women from being in the top-ranked positions in the culinary 
profession, and the ways women define and negotiate their identity within such a male-
centric occupational context. The question, “what was it like to be a woman in a 
professional kitchen in France?” (84) frames Black’s investigation. Theoretically, her study 
is informed by feminist literary criticism, and, to a much lesser extent, by Crenshaw’s 
theoretical approach to intersectionality.  
 
In Chapter One, Black discusses Lyon’s culinary culture in both historical and present 
contexts. She brings together the legends surrounding the first generation of women chefs 
and analyzes how those legends allow contemporary female culinary professionals to “give 
meaning and value to their work” (25) but at the same time restrict their culinary practices. 
She argues that although the legends of mères lyonnaises serve an important function to 
minimize the gap between “public and private lives” (48), they also strengthen gender-
biased culinary culture. This chapter thoroughly examines the historical development of 
Lyon’s culinary industry.   
 
In Chapter Two, Black explores the gendered division of labor in Lyon’s historic restaurants 
(popularly known as bouchons). Her interviews with the women working in bouchons 
reveal that women in Lyon’s professional kitchens often play secondary roles to men. 
Building on her argument in the first chapter, Black adds that the gender performances 
enacted in bouchons are highly influenced by the traditions believed to be followed by the 



  Sarwar, Review, Cheffes de Cuisine  Digest: A Journal of Foodways and Culture 9:2 (2022) 134 

mères lyonnaises: “Women’s work is not necessarily legitimate because of what women are 
doing now but because it fits into a narrative structure that was valid in the past…” (81). It 
was common for women to take on an imposed motherly persona in professional kitchens 
and Black argues that such gender stereotypes restrain women chefs’ creative practices in 
many ways.  
 
In Chapter Three, Black examines how gender-biased apprenticeship in French culinary 
school shapes women’s experiences and empowers men over women. Drawing on her own 
apprenticeship experiences, Black explores the disadvantaged position of women in French 
culinary culture. In this chapter, she points out how women are viewed as gendered bodies 
and considered ineligible for most of the work in professional kitchens, in addition to facing 
challenges in securing admission to top-ranked culinary schools. Amid all these injustices, 
Black finds a ray of hope in the women who “are trying to shift these structures and create 
kitchens in which everyone can work together and flourish” (199). 
 
Chapter Four is based on the author’s interviews with Tabata Mey and Audrey Jacquier, 
two women culinary professionals who have successfully reached the height of the culinary 
profession. Black briefly discusses the influence of race, class, and ethnicity beneath these 
success stories. However, she finds both Tabata’s and Audrey's stories fascinating since 
they “show that some women do have a competitive spirit and a strong desire to prove 
themselves on the same stage as men” (145). Based on the experiences of these two well-
established female chefs, Black argues that women’s participation in leadership positions is 
important to challenge the patriarchal hierarchies embedded in culinary workplaces.  Black 
ends the chapter in a positive light referring to the role of contemporary media in 
constructing a favorable image of women culinary professionals.  
 
Chapter Five features a compelling focus on the women who are creating new structures in 
the French culinary industry while subverting and challenging the masculinized norms of 
professional kitchens. This chapter centers on women from different generations who 
successfully implemented innovative culinary practices while incorporating feminization, 
collaboration, empathy, supportiveness, and patience in those kitchens. Black argues that 
these women have been reshaping Lyon’s culinary history while questioning patriarchal 
structures, challenging traditional kitchen practices, and embracing diversities in culinary 
practices.  
 
Black concludes the book with mixed feelings regarding the present and future of the 
French culinary industry and women’s position in it. She is hopeful since more women are 
joining the culinary profession these days and reclaiming spaces in the culinary world. 
However, she is disappointed with the fact that women’s “achievements are not recognized 
or celebrated in the same way as men’s success” (179). Since women chefs still occupy 
marginal spaces, Black discusses the importance of empowering women in the French 
culinary industry by creating favorable spaces and ensuring various social support systems 
in culinary practices. If positive changes are enacted in Lyon’s professional kitchens, Black 
hopefully asserts, “For the gastronomic capital of France, the future is quite possibly 
female” (196). 
 



  Sarwar, Review, Cheffes de Cuisine  Digest: A Journal of Foodways and Culture 9:2 (2022) 135 

Cheffes De Cuisine: Women and Work in the Professional French Kitchen is the outcome of 
Black’s extensive fieldwork. The theoretical framework of the book is largely focused on 
feminist literary criticism and undertakes very little intersectional analysis. As a result, 
some aspects of the discussion, such as her analysis of the influence of race, class, and 
ethnicity on gendered identities, are not well developed. However, this easily read book 
incorporates a rich ethnographic account of French culinary history and tradition and 
thereby minimizes any gaps in the author’s use of outside scholarship by paying serious 
attention to women’s lived experiences in professional kitchens. Black’s book is a valuable 
addition to folklore scholarship, women’s studies, food studies and other related fields. For 
students, researchers and individuals across various disciplines interested in foodways and 
French culinary history and tradition, this book would be a good read to explore women’s 
professional kitchen work.  
 
Works Cited 
Beauvoir, Simone de. 2015. The Second Sex. London, England: Vintage Classics. 
 
Crenshaw, Kimberlé. 1991. Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics and 

Violence against Women of Color. Stanford Law Review 43(6): 1241-1299. 

Jordan, Rosan A., and Susan J. Kalčik, eds. 1985. Women’s Folklore, Women’s Culture. 
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 


