‘A chef is a chef, there is no female word for it’ (2024)
Pastry Chef at Marque (Surry Hills, NSW, Australia) by Mark Best, Lauren Eldridge won the Josephine Pignolet Young Chef of the Year for 2015.
Considered to be one of the most prestigious award in the culinary world, it was given to a pastry chef for the first time. Eldridge, 25, has worked for Best for the past three years, and has been part of summits organized to celebrate some of the best female chefs in the industry. Achieving so much at such a young age, we spoke to her about her inspiration, being a lady chef in a male-dominated kitchen and the divide between the pastry and the savoury.
What has fueled your creativity?
I have been cooking professionally for about five years. After school, one often thinks that you need to go to a University and get a degree. I decided to be a chef – and the best one that I can be. So once I made my mind, everything just fell into place. Cooking comes to me naturally. My food is inspired from the produce that I see around me. I don’t like to work with too many ingredients but I try my best to come up with techniques that make it better. You don’t have to be extravagant to make something amazing. If we take the example of a stone fruit, it would be just as beautiful to taste as it is naturally, so that’s sort of where it starts. I take a lot of inspiration from my boss, Mark Best. He has mentored me for the last three years which has not only been amazing but influential as well.
Did you ever think it was risky honing your skills to be pâtissière in such a massive industry? Or was there a fall back option?
When I first started, I had a plan B but I never intended to take it. I am passionate about pastry and desserts and that’s what I love, so I don’t feel obliged to do more, to not beat up. There is no plan B. This is it. If I do this, I have to work hard and do it well. I could have decided to do anything, this is what I have picked and I am going to make it work.
Being a such a young chef in the kitchen, how do you make your stand in an otherwise dominating male and skillful set-up?
Being a young female has its set-backs. Women are a minority in the kitchen. People don’t take me seriously often. But they learn to not underestimate me. My boss is very respectful and I am the head chef. Kitchens work in a hierarchy. If they don’t listen, then they don’t stay. It is very much about respect as well. I think you have to be very head strong. And you have to believe in what you are doing and in yourself.
Kitchens work in a hierarchy. If they don’t listen, then they don’t stay.
This is a very male dominated field. It is a very intense environment with long hours. I think people believe that if you have family, you can’t do it. Women are considered to be very emotional. You can’t be overly emotional in a kitchen when you have to get your job done. So we get stereotyped. A chef is a chef, there is no female word for it. If you do your job well then it doesn’t matter. When you work hard in the kitchen, it is not about being one of the boys. I just have to be myself and they need to learn to respect that.
In the kitchen, is there a divide between the savoury and the pastry?
In restaurants, there is often a divide between the pastry and savoury. Personally, I feel that the gap is closing. When you look at patisserie around the world, there are some chefs that are given the highest accolades. Another thing is that most people fear pastry and think that this is really difficult. Programs like MasterChef helps in getting some respect for pastry chefs. I often get this: “Oh you are not a real chef”. I say no no, I am a chef. It is how you handle it. The fact that I was awarded shows that the gap is closing.
Given that you have achieved success at a such a young age, are you encouraging younger talent to do the same?
If people ask, I am happy to assist and help them. The most important thing for young chefs (so strange to call them that, since I myself am young) is that you need to be really enthusiastic, you really need to put your foot down in the kitchen. People will help you, they will train you, that’s the nature of being in hospitality. For Chefs, that’s our nature, we want to help people. We want to teach them.
Chef Lauren Eldridge was in New Delhi as a part of the Creative Services Support Group (CSSG) initiative.
A chef is a chef, there is no female word for it. If you do your job well then it doesn't matter. When you work hard in the kitchen, it is not about being one of the boys.
However, the word cheffe as the feminine of chef has been used more often over the pas few years (so it's quite recent), especially when it translates » boss ».
Answer: A cook is a gender-neutral word which describes the person who is an expert in cooking, culinary skills and expertise in culinary arts. The term “cook” is used in tandem with genders not distinguishing masculine from feminine. But both of them- male and female “cook”- are also described using the word “chef”.
So, while there's no rule against a cook calling themselves a chef, it's essential to understand and respect the weight the title 'chef' carries in the culinary community.
A chef is a chef, there is no female word for it. If you do your job well then it doesn't matter. When you work hard in the kitchen, it is not about being one of the boys.
There are different types of chefs. The main titles based on kitchen hierarchy are the Executive Chef, the Sous Chef, the Station Chef, and the Commis Chef. Then there are also various types of station chefs: Patissiers.
noun. the chief cook, especially in a restaurant or hotel, usually responsible for planning menus, ordering foodstuffs, overseeing food preparation, and supervising the kitchen staff.
It was odd that in a language so sensitive about assigning gender, your boss—whether male or female—would be chef. The only point of differentiation would be in the article, le chef for masculine and la chef for feminine, but there was no feminine version of the word chef itself.
You can become a successful chef without going to culinary school. There is no special degree or certification that makes someone a chef. The title is earned through hard work and experience. Gordon Ramsay and award-winning chef Heston Blumenthal, for example, didn't attend culinary school.
“A 'cook' is someone who has a good mastery of basic cooking/kitchen techniques and can follow a recipe and turn out really good food. A 'chef' takes cooking to the next level by creating new dishes, new combinations of flavours, etc.
A junior chef, also called the commis chef, works with station chefs to learn about the kitchen environment. This person has recently completed some schooling or training and is beginning to work in the culinary field.
It's undisputed that you can become a chef without necessarily going to a school of culinary arts. However, there are outstanding benefits that you'll accrue under the tutelage of professional chefs which will accelerate your success in the hotel industry.
It depends of the context: If you are speaking of a teacher, the masculine is maitre and the feminine form is maitresse. If you are speaking of a lawyer, we call it maître in french, the feminine form is maître also.
The terms cheffe (female chef), écrivaine (writer) and ingénieure (engineer) have been used in Canada for 40 years. A doctor is called une médecin or une docteure.
Mère (the French language word for mother) is an honorary title given to talented female professional cooks, many of whom had no formal training, in France during the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Between 1759 and the end of the 20th century multiple women have been called Mère.
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