James Beard Awards: Dearth of Top Women Chefs?

By JULIETTE ROSSANT This week, the James Beard Foundation announced its nominees for its 2005 awards, reports USA Today. (The full list is also available in Adobe PDF format from the James Beard Foundation website.) For the top category of Outstanding Chef, the nominees are: Mario Batali of Babbo, Tom Colicchio of Gramercy Tavern, Alfred Portale of Gotham Bar & Grill, Nobu Matsuhisa of Nobu, and Paul Bertoli of Oliveto. Please note: not one woman is nominated among these five men. And it's not like there is a separate category for women, either -- this ain't the Oscars. More facts come easily to the surface: four of the five chefs nominated this year are not only from New York but are the exact same four chefs nominated in 2004 and 2003. Before anyone rushes to any conclusions, let's get a few more facts straight. I have reported on those same four chefs on superchefblog and for Forbes, and one of them, Tom Colicchio, has an entire chapter to himself in Super Chef. Further, to the credit of the James Beard Foundation, in 2002, they not only nominated a woman chef -- though only one (1) -- but gave her the award. That chef is Lidia Bastianich. But, go back to 2001, and we're back at the same old men-only line-up for the top award. The Washington Post covered the issue of the number of women chefs in a recent article "Women Give Taste of Life as Chefs" by Maureen Fan, who reports "government statistics are unequivocal. While women make up more than half of the food-preparation workforce, fewer than one in five is a chef or head cook. The industry's most prestigious awards go mostly to men. Most of the recognized top chefs in the country are men." (The Post cites Washington DC star women chefs Nora Pouillon and Anne Cashion. Click here to read the full article.) (Chefs Lidia Bastianich, Nora Pouillon, and Anne Cashion are all nominees on the nationwide online readers' poll "Vote for White House Woman Chef," running on superchefblog this month through Friday, April 29, with winners announced the following Monday, May 2 -- the same day as the James Beard Awards. If you have not voted yet, please click here to vote now.) May I please conclude, with deepest respect for the institution and its founder, by making a request of the James Beard Foundation: will you please consider creating separate categories for men and women, so that both genders are recognized? While I feel certain that JBF has considered this option before and has very valid reasons for not having done so yet, I believe there is at least one undeniable counter-argument that would override all. If you create separate categories for women, like the Oscars, you have to fill them and therefore have to find -- and recognize -- great women as well as great men chefs. While it may add to the burden of the awards process for JBF, the operative word here is "add." No woman at all nominated in any year for Outstanding Chef is below the national average of one in five. If the Food Network can figure this out within the first season of Iron Chef America and add a woman to the Iron Chef team, certainly the illustrious James Beard Foundation can do the same. Previous articles: Profile: Sara Moulton for White House Chef Profile: Nora Pouillon for White House Chef Today Show Emulates Iron Chef America Wireless Flash: White House Woman Chef Profile: Scooter Kanfer for White House Chef Profile: Cat Cora for White House Chef Fortune Smiles on superchefblog's White House Chef Poll Profile: Diane Forley for White House Chef Cat Cora Wins on Iron Chef America Anita Lo Defeats Mario Batali on Iron Chef America Atlantic Monthly: White House Chefs Cat Cora, Anita Lo: Sexing Up Iron Chef America Joe Guzzardi: If Not Governor, White House Chef Reminder 1: Vote for White House Woman Chef Vote For White House Woman Chef Superchefblog: Catalyst for White House Woman Chef? --> back to superchefblog