Sizzling Success: Knocking Patriarchy Off the Platter -5

AT THE 11th HOUR!

Blog 5 – 12.05.2023

Today was filled with giddiness, smiles and a lot of love in the air. The ending couldn't be more radically opposed than my stress-laden start today. I wish it were the case with all the other days of my life, but for now, I shall stick with narrating today's vibrant experience with Chef Bhakti*, taken at his training institute at a concise notice, because we had spluttered spectacularly to receive any substantial leads for interviews regarding female chefs. Thanks to his courtesy, I interviewed and gained an accomplished chef's bird-eye view regarding current developments concerning our group project.

A backgrounder should be given beforehand: I met Chef Bhakti at Saarang 2024, IIT-Madras' annual cultural festival, while he was refereeing an inter-college cooking fest. This was five months before our current standing; frequent correspondence drew us and our respective families closer as days sped. Chef Bhakti's ethnicity was the same as mine – this added to our comfort zone, where we could get candid enough about things – a personal first for me since I shifted from Mumbai to Chennai in 2023. We were in limbo, contacting HR managers ceaselessly only to arrive at nought every time.

We decided to plunge into this novel idea (which was cruel and radical, both simultaneously), but what could we do? This was the only light at the end of this tunnel, and we were desperate to find some way. So, contact I did, on the 11th of May, In the Year of Our Lord 2024. The only thing that could go wrong was, perhaps, a relationship that never bore fruits until then (or so I thought).

Then bang! In light of the unavailability of two female chefs (a bakery chef who had permanently shifted base to Australia and another, due to family commitments, who could not make it on a Sunday), he took the onus to address the interview himself. The plan was immediately drafted; Chef Bhakti anticipated and pushed for my family to accompany me as well for lunch, and hence, I had to make adequate use of my father's fresh driving skills, my mother's charm and my maternal grandmother's desire for social discourse to blaze through it all. This ad hoc nature of the meet, alongside the fly-like hovering of our respective end-semesters, was enough to swell me up and keep me anxious until its very execution, which was slated to be today.

And so, it all happened in a breeze. I could not sleep peacefully the day before, over-contemplating about the possibilities that awaited me. Since I was addressing a male chef, I had to modify the questions; somewhere, deep down, I acutely lacked the strength to reframe the questions as my stomach was tightly bound in a suffocating knot. Every opportunity was slipping away like sand does through my lifeless fingers. 

I had to get my act together. Without twiddling for Philosophy to answer my endless questions, I started to dash off my project-related queries on my creaky computer screen. Bhakti Sir's training institute was far from our house – it would take 12 clicks up and down, totalling 24. Nonetheless, I was determined to make it, albeit at the cost of my parents' peace (which I regret; however, I faced no choice – my parents are, to this day, quite overprotective of me). 

As I headed towards the door, I forgot the arsenal we applied Max Weber's theories for -the Research Consent form! I equipped myself with two of those and headed towards a new, unforeseen venture.

The car felt like a tank rolling down on uneven roads as we switched scenes from highly developed urban areas to village-like conditions without the presence of paved streets. For some reason, we attracted a lot of eyeballs in that region (maybe because of our car's number plate, which originates from Maharashtra). I admired my dad as he drove through the menacing Chennai traffic, which is entirely devoid of lane discipline; our fellow co-passengers (my mom and my grandma) made several remarks about the makes and colours of the cars, as well as the carefree nature of auto-rickshaw drivers as we chugged past them. Chennai, somehow, felt like a motoring paradise with these expensive cars and ever-widening roads. 

On my way, I saw a very curious poster for real estate: full pictures of conventionally attractive women were emblazoned on those banners. I wondered if that was made to subconsciously lure male property owners, who, by and at large, have more significant assets and bank disposal than Indian women on an average basis.

As we made it to the suburban area of Tambaram, the roads and the building quality had notoriously declined. Its narrowing was reminiscent of a squeezing hydraulic system destined to atomise our car. Bhakti Sir searched endlessly for us as we zeroed in on his location; parking our car was a nightmare since we were briefly at an intersection, needing to understand his centre's location. However, our ordeals were to end soon because he led us through an exponentially preferable roadway towards his culinary institute. However, out of a hurry and misjudged regarding not visiting their house, my family came empty-handed – a sinful behaviour in our native culture.

Our first impressions were majestic; the culinary institute was a house-cum-training centre with elaborate arrangements for training 15 high-end chefs at a single go every academic year. Chef Bhakti's family adorned us with a grand welcome and a delectable lunch, after which I continued my interview. Meanwhile, my family continued having intense discussions about food, places of residence and the nature of our jobs.

The interview was an excruciating 45-minute-long process wherein I delved into the structural and sociocultural issues women faced throughout their careers. I was reminded of the fact that one cannot assume everything from the get-go, and as with life, everything, even notions, is checkered, with tinges of feminist discourse and patriarchal notions about female softness.

My questions were primarily targeted at the composition of the culinary-hospitality industry, policy-making by corporates who intended to lure potential female chefs, whether Chef Bhakti witnessed female students' enrolment in his institute (to my surprise, he had enquiries and not admissions, despite having reached out to their parents and pitched them, highlighting the extent of wielding of veto powers over a woman’s choice), and suggestions to improve the current situation.

I was still trying to understand his initial response. He officially joined the industry on the 15th of July, 1987, as he migrated for better prospects. According to him, the enrolment was quite lopsided back then – his generation did not even witness a single female chef who had significantly progressed career-wise. However, his perception of the current situation is somewhat alleviated; he has witnessed some of his female juniors’ scale to grander positions with posh packages, in managerial and administrative posts. He highlighted specific policies such as pick-and-drop facilities and female hostels, excluding pay package structures he emphasised, that current companies have embarked upon to accommodate these chefs. 

He spoke a great deal about female artistry, decency while doing work, and how female focus can always make an operation '99% error-free'. He gave a distinct example of creating a sandwich with extra cheese, wherein a female chef would follow up as per the instructions while a male chef may ignore the same. What I found interesting was the contradiction between the two sets – one – female chefs, as of date, were not included within physically 'hard' sectors within the culinary job – associated with hot working conditions – and second, they were able to work better and more innovative than their male counterparts. I posed him with the question of why this was the case. This question was clubbed with the more significant question of chronic under-participation of female chefs overall.

He stated certain crucial factors: the advent of globalisation and automation had brought in a set of differences. He lamented how Indian kitchens were ‘200 years backwards' regarding the technological curve, vis-à-vis the West, and that the job sector is now less human labour intensive than before. He differentiated between the soft sectors of the culinary market (baking, for instance), which is distinct from the more intensive sectors based on working hours (which can be 15 hours long per day at times, he highlighted) and the work environment (air conditioning). He picked out the dual roles women play in any setting – the performance of household duties and formal careers, while men are devoid of such hindrances. He assured me that if such structural hindrances had not emerged, women would have zoomed past men by the quality and quantity of work delivered in the culinary sector. Financial and familial backing was essential, he argued, for such obstructions do not help women take up the job in satisfaction in the very first place. He spoke in length about how being employed was 'just a phase' in a woman's life, according to widespread expectations. Post-marriage, the chef drops out from her career orientation and pursues family-oriented homemaking skills in a full-time fashion. 

A chronic lack of interest in the culinary sector has been a problem, which has led to many vacancies in both training institutes and companies. He articulated that the youth don't want to work under strenuous conditions, especially in a field where pressure, delivery and employer-employee bickering has been a long-standing fact. He said that pressure-based delivery is also keeping women out primarily – his example of a sudden surge in the number of guests at a catering instance (from 6000 to 7000 people) and the added responsibilities (within a short notice) that came on with it was pretty thoughtful.

Finally, through this interview, I asked for potential advice and suggestions he wanted to give out to aspiring women chefs. He charted out a two-fold solution: do not care about what society says at large because there are always going to be excuses from their side to hinder women from working and achieving their fullest, and that women needed to be more 'tough' (physically) to take this sector head-on. He added that women showed more promise and potential in this field and that it was all theirs to grab the pie and gobble it happily.

As we ended the interview, I found a sense of satisfaction and tranquillity not associated with my previous projects. Finally, I made it. It was done and dusted for good. My primary intent was to record the interview at that moment, which I believe I had fulfilled satisfactorily.

As we left for our home, I reflected upon this beautiful day only to be sure that all of our lives will be brighter in the future: prospective female culinary chefs as well as our respective families. Pessimism is not the way, indeed. The situational playing field had changed, and things were churning out for the better.