Vrouwen in de keuken.

Wederom een mooi artikel in de Guardian, deze keer over vrouwen in toprestaurants. Verbazingwekkend hoe relatief weinig vrouwen zich in top-keukenfuncties bevinden. Je zou toch verwachten dat in tijden waarin vrouwen doorstoten naar de top van allerlei grote bedrijven, ze het in de keuken (toch een cliché vrouwengebied) van toprestaurants helemaal gemaakt zouden moeten hebben. Maar blijkbaar is er toch iets wat ze tegenhoudt. Zware, lange dagen, hoge druk en miltaire chefkok-regimes zouden misschien redenen kunnen zijn. Maar toch geven veel chefkoks toe dat ze graag met vrouwen in hun keuken werken.. of is dit puur politiek culinair correct gezwam?

• I have been in a number of male-run kitchens and the military metaphor of the 'brigade' of chefs, really does make sense: they tend to be sharp, brutal and brusque places. This, however, [a kitchen run by a woman] is businesslike but relaxed. It appears to be a genuinely nice place to work and the chefs alongside me say as much.

• 'It's also the hours. In many kitchens at this level we're talking a lot of double shifts. That's 7.30 or 8 in the morning to 11.30pm and if they're lucky they'll get only one break. Pull five of those in a row and you'll know about it.' She admits there are simple stamina issues; that the five doubles back-to-back she used to do at Petrus did kill her while the lads appeared able to carry on.

• There is also the impact on personal relationships. Women seem willing to wait for their men while they work god-awful hours, Angela says, but it rarely functions the other way round.

• There is, therefore, a block on how far women in the kitchen can go. And if they see that block in the distance - if they too want children - perhaps they decide not to get on the career ladder in the first place.

• [...] maybe male chefs talk gender equality while, unconsciously, feeling something quite other: "[...] surely on physical strength a bloke is probably what you need.' So he's saying that men really are better chefs? He stares at the ceiling. 'I'm trying to work out whether anything I've just said is at all justified.'

• The more we talk the clearer it becomes that she is genuinely baffled that any of this should still be an issue, so long after so many of the other great gender issues - in medicine and business, politics and sport - were debated to irrelevance.