Abstract
When I was 15 years old I took a job at a southern ol’ timey barbecue place in North Carolina called “Fat Daddy’s” and learned a very crude lesson about the food industry: Your social identity matters, a lot. The large and looming middle-aged alcoholic, otherwise known as my manager, asked me if I knew “how things worked around here” on my first day. He then proceeded to explain that the young women work up front with the customers, the “negroes” work on the line, and the “illegals” were “kept in the back where no one can see ‘em.” I hated that job, but in some ways, it prepared me for the difficulties of navigating the food industry as a young girl and woman. This experience brings us to an exploration of gender in the food industry. In Taking the Heat: Women Chefs and Gender Inequality in the Professional Kitchen, Deborah Harris and Patti Giuffre (2015) demonstrate the ways in which gender identity impacts the experience of women chefs in this difficult industry, unpack some of the mechanisms of discrimination and prejudice employed in the industry to avoid “feminization threat,” and distinguish men as craftsmen, experts, and artists.
The case study provides a very familiar terrain for many American readers who may have worked in the food industry at some point or are likely to have eaten out on occasion. Focusing on the gastronomic field also helps readers recognize the important connection between labor and food issues in a way that helps bridge the gap between gastronomic fields and the table. The central argument of the book is that within the gastronomic field, chefs are recognized as leaders, artists, and the experts of the culinary realm, but the presence of women in these roles jeopardizes the prestige men can attain from the profession. The authors look at historic and present contexts to establish the ways in which gender, as a part of people’s social identity, has influenced not only their ability to participate in the career but the way their work is consumed and evaluated. Harris and Giuffre identify the ways perceptions of a person’s merit in the kitchen is influenced or distorted based on (perceived) gender identity. Whether working together or developing individualistic coping mechanisms, Harris and Giuffre argue “women chefs” will likely continue to struggle against gender discrimination in the profession because of the contradictory logics of oppression they face in the field.
Focused on the U.S. context, Harris and Giuffre use content analysis and in-depth qualitative interviewing to develop their case study of the gastronomic field. The authors conduct 33 interviews with women in central Texas and analyze over 2,200 restaurant reviews and chef profiles from popular media sources. There are some noticeable limitations to this data collection, however. As the authors note in the final pages of their concluding chapter, the sample of women is not very diverse in terms of racial identity and sexual identity (and geography). These limitations are difficult to ignore when one considers the wide array of actors engaged in the gastronomic field as a whole.
In the introductory chapter, Harris and Giuffre outline their theoretical approach to examining gender dynamics by employing Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus and field. It is here that they introduce the reader to their central questions, key concepts and establish a structuralist viewpoint over “rhetorics of choice.”
Chapter 1, reviews the historic contexts of professional kitchens, examining the politics and mechanisms of exclusion that allowed male chefs to bolster themselves against “precarious masculinity.” Harris and Giuffre look at the influence of other social institutions such as the military, medicine, and religion on the rise of the chef profession.
Chapter 2, From Good to Great, assesses the ways in which gender impacts the perception of chefs by food critics and the media’s role in shaping women’s representation. The authors evaluate the frequency and quality of women chef’s depictions in food media and the ways in which critics construct and uphold boundaries of taste.
Chapter 3, Fitting In and Standing Out, explores the gendered culture of professional kitchens and the ways in which women chefs attempt to fit in. Some of these strategies include downplaying sexual harassment and assault, modifying feminine characteristics that they display, and adopting a gender-neutral rhetoric. The authors point out the ways in which many participants struggle with these conditions and the contradictions in the way they discuss their circumstances. While at times the authors note instances of “sexualized joking and teasing” (p. 129), they do not seem to critically interrogate these findings as forms of harassment consistently.
In Chapter 4, Bitches, Girly Girls, or Moms are three relational approaches to leadership women chefs report employing in the professional kitchen. Notably, each form parallels other common male–female relationships in different social institutions such as the family. Research participants also argue that their gender identity makes them better leaders because of their ability to perform emotional labor and develop caring relationships with their employees and coworkers.
In Chapter 5, Challenging “Choices,” the authors identify the role conflict many women chefs confront between their home and work lives, particularly as mothers. Women chefs also negotiate many aspects of their career aspirations based on general quality of life concerns. The authors emphasize a need for structural reform, so women chefs are not pushed out of careers they are passionate about. While the authors do interrogate this finding, it seems like rich terrain for deeper investigation. I found myself wondering, “why not spend more time exploring the high dropout rates”?
As I finished reading, I found that the chapters transitioned smoothly from establishing context through content analysis of published documents to a closer analysis of interview data in the latter chapters. The primary shortcoming of the text is the noticeable homogeneity of the sample; developing a more intersectional sample of participants would allow for a clearer look at the ways in which social identity characteristics impact one’s power, status, and location within the gastronomic field. Future data collection should emphasize recruiting a diversity group of participants who can speak to issues related to sexual orientation, racial identity, perceived physical ability, and geography in more depth, as these factors heavily mediate one’s gendered experience in the kitchen.
Taking the Heat would serve as a great text for lay and undergraduate audiences. The authors do a good job of making challenging theoretical concepts such as precarious masculinity, feminization threat, and Bourdieu’s field and habitus accessible. Concepts such as role conflict, status characteristics, and occupational sex segregation, commonly explored in introductory-level courses in sociology, are also very identifiable within the text. Outside of the classroom, this study contributes to the literature on gendered occupational dynamics, food issues, and culture.