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."
