Where are all the women?

The photograph of 15 male chefs featured on the cover of this month's Mpls.St. Paul magazine (above) has local female chefs and restaurateurs angry. Food-and-dining senior editor Stephanie March offered the reasoning in a subsequent blog post.

The public response from 22 women, crafted in reaction to this month's cover of MSP magazine, is as follows:

"Where are all the women?" We Are All Right Here!

As a group of female chefs and restaurateurs, we're moved to respond collectively.

We're outraged at the viewpoint taken by the cover and subsequent editorial comments on the March issue of Mpls St. Paul Magazine depicting the best chefs of the Twin Cities as all male. It's a false and embarrassing representation of our diverse food community.

Did anybody notice that your mothers, wives and sisters weren't in the room?

As a young female grocery store clerk remarked when handing one of us the issue—"Where are all the women?"

The media, as our society's most influential institution, has a duty to advocate against gender and racial inequalities. As Alice Waters pointed out in 2013, "I think it's a matter of how we go about the reviewing of our restaurants. Is it really about 3-star places and expensive eccentric cuisine? The restaurants that are most celebrated are never the ones that are the simple places."

We take this opportunity to have a lasting impact by engaging in ongoing conversation on this topic in our community.

We pledge to hold the media accountable.

We're committed to fostering the development of our diverse and talented young food industry workers for the next generation. It takes a village.

These, and many other women and men contributed to this conversation and the ideas expressed in this letter:

Lisa Carlson

Brenda Langton

Kim Bartmann

Nettie Colon

Hannah Benti

Nan Bailly

Heather Kim

Carrie L. Summer

Maren Mattson

Taya Kaufenberg

Heather Kim

Sue Zelickson

Beth Fisher

Tracy Singleton

Liz Benser

Dana Kevlahan

Stephanie Worums

Sarah Masters

Sylvia Izabella

Linda Quinn

Tamara Brown

Soile Anderson

Tammy Wong

"