2007 James Beard Awards: Women Chefs

By JULIETTE ROSSANT The New York Times article on the James Beard Foundation's awards captured the sizzle of the red carpet event, and tallied up the number of awards presented to New York City chefs. Let's do the math another way. The West has the East Coast beat… that is, if you count up women chef nominees and winners at this year's James Beard Awards. There is an ever-so-slight improvement in numbers over last year's tally. There were 50 nominees for best regional chefs. Of these, only 8 nominees were women. The Southeast had no women nominees among its five candidates, Traci Des Jardin won Best Chef: Pacific and Celina Tio won Best Chef: Mid-West. Among nominees for Best New Restaurant, women chefs head none. For comparison, last year (2006) out of 50 nominees, 7 were women, and one of them, Suzanne Goin, won. In Pastry, it’s a different matter. Among the six nominees, three are women:Leslie Mackie, Mindy Segal, Elisabeth Pruiett with Chad Robertson. Pastry has always had more women. The hours are better, and the work is perceived as less muscular. Perhaps, too, French pastry chefs let women into their profession earlier than their savory counterparts, who have been notorious for not wanting to share the kitchen with women. Is the number of women chefs important? Yes. The James Beard Awards should reflect the growing importance and excellence of women chefs (not just in Pastry), and reward them accordingly. (A complete list is available online. Click here for last year's list.) Super Chef congratulates all the nominees and winners. Previous articles: 2006 James Beard Awards: Note Daniel Boulud James Beard Awards: Dearth of Top Women Chefs James Beard's Len Pickell Gets 1-3 Years Congratulations: James Beard Award Nominees James Beard, Emmys to Honor Julia Child James Beard Foundation's Len Pickell Pleased Guilty Technorati Tags: superchefblog, Juliette Rossant, super chef, celebrities, chefs, food, restaurants, cooking, branding, cuisine, blogging, food blogging, James Beard --> back to Super Chef