Critical Approaches in the Kitchen Chayna Brunner

Article Overview

▬The New York Times article, “A Change in the Kitchen”

overviewed how restaurants across the nation is changing

in many ways. ▬ An array of woman share their experiences working in the restaurant industry

▬The article is written by Julia Moskin

Critical Approaches

▬ “Critical Approaches adopt a radical frame of reference by considering organizations as sites of domination” (Organizational Process)

▬There is a multitude of techniques and ways this occurs. ▬ Power

▬ Ideology and Hegemony

▬ and many more

Article Overview ▬The article began by explaining how Lauren DeSteno, a woman

working in New York got moved up from executive sous-chef to chef de

cuisine. This promotion was a big deal!

▬ She’s now in charge of one of the largest money-making restaurants in New York.

▬ Four male sous-chefs and 20 other chefs must report directly to her.

▬The article states that Lauren DeSteno’s accomplishment “May sound

like a mere tweak in of a title, but in a small way it is revolutionary.”

Article Overview

▬“Though previous generations of female chefs had

to fight past widespread sexism and a locker-room

culture to reach the top, at 31 Ms. DeSteno is calm,

confident and entirely unsurprised by her success.”

▬ There is a woman in charge of a power-house

restaurant. Something that has been a real rarity in

the restaurant industry!

Power▬Power is relevant when attempting to understand the dynamics of a

restaurant’s kitchen. It’s also big when it comes to understanding

Critical Approaches

▬There are three approaches to power in the textbook:

▬ Traditional: “power is control over resources and or with hierarchical status.”

▬ Symbolic: “power accumulates through socially constructed organizational relationships

▬ Radical-Critical: “concerned with the "deep structures" that produce and reproduce relationships

in organizational life”

Power▬ Organizational Processes examines many sources of power in organizations. There are some that

directly apply to the restaurant industry.

Source of PowerGender and the management of

gender relationships

Control of decision making

Structural factors that define the

stages of action

Formal authority

Explanation Because men are overwhelmingly

dominate over one in professional kitchens

across the globe, they have a huge

influence in what happens in a restaurant.

Men have immense advantages in hiring

practices, promotions, etc. since there is

simply more men than women.

Power▬ Lauren DeSteno has a power position within an industry that has had a

rocky start accepting women.

▬Society and media outlets commonly project this idea of male

domination

▬According to the article, “The most visible chefs are men, a fact made

clear by a Time Magazine spread that showcased its choice of the

world’s most influential chefs with not a woman among them.”

Ideology

▬ Ideology is also relevant when attempting to understand the

dynamics of a restaurant’s kitchen and Critical Approaches.

▬ According to Organizational Processes, ideology refers to “the

taken-for-granted assumptions about reality that influences

perceptions of situations and events.” (Deetz and Kersten 1983).

▬ An ideology “structures our thoughts and controls our interpretations of

reality”(Eisenberg & Goodall 1997).

Ideology▬For a while, women were thought to not belong in a restaurant’s

kitchen because they’re apparently not as tough as men.

▬ “The same stereotypes used to keep women out of armed combat,

off the judicial bench and out of medical school were invoked to

explain why women didn’t stick it out in the kitchen. The work, it was

said, is too physically demanding and psychologically grueling; the

hours were too incompatible with family life” “A Change in the Kitchen”

Ideology▬ Ideologies can influence behavior.

▬ By thinking the stereotypical thought, that women can’t handle the

difficult conditions of working in a high end restaurant, women have

been severely disproportionate to men in the industry.

▬ This ideology has led to hegemony. Hegemony is “the process in

which a dominate group leads another group to accept

subordination as the norm.” Organizational Processes

Hegemony ▬ Hegemony is also known as “manufactured consent” where

individuals willingly reinforce a certain hierarchical structure.

▬ The article points out that, “For decades, chefs of both sexes

believed that inequality was inevitable.” ▬ Everyone just got used to men being in control and it was widely accepted by both

men and women alike.

Critical Approaches

▬There are two main types of Critical Approaches in Communication.▬ The Theory of Concretive Control

▬ The Feminist Theories

▬These theories utilize the critical concepts like power, ideology, hegemony, etc.

▬The Feminist Theories of Organizational Communication address gender issues

in the work place and many other key concepts that can be applied to the

Restaurant Industry.

Feminist Theories

Type of Feminism Explanation

Liberal FeminismBelieves that remedies for female subordination should come from within the system and that women should work to gain their fair share of control in institutions currently run by men

Radical FeminismBelieve that emancipation for women can occur only through the destruction of male-dominated institutions or through the total separation of women from these institutions.

Standpoint Feminism Believes that work to enhance the opportunity for a variety of marginalized voices to be heard within societal dialogue is necessary.

Postmodern Feminism Believes in the attempt to “deconstruct” male dominated meaning systems in order to highlight women’s perspectives

The textbook, Organizational Processes explains the basis of four types of feminism.

The Evolving Restaurant Industry

▬ Restaurant kitchens are still heavily dominated by males, but a new

forefront of American woman like Lauren DeSteno is coming up!▬ There is a realization that women can handle the pressures in a kitchen.

Women in Culinary

▬ According to the article, “In culinary schools, women have long

made up the majority in pastry courses, but are now entering

general culinary programs at unprecedented rates”▬ At the International Culinary Center (2012), nearly half the culinary program graduates were

women. That’s 202 in 2012 compared to only 41 in 1992.

▬ At Johnson and Wales University, the number female graduates more than doubled in those two

decades. In 2012, men were the minority with 818 and women had 820 graduates.

▬ At the Culinary Institute of America, the percentage of women rose 36% in 2012 compared to

the 21% of women in 1992.

Women in Culinary▬ Woman are forcing the rest of the world to realize that there is a place for

them to prosper in the Restaurant Industry.

▬ Alex Raij, who with her husband owns three popular Spanish restaurants and

has two children under the age of 5, said that “Leaving was not an option for

me.”

▬ Despite how challenging it might she is devoted to the career path she has chosen. She

also stated that “I don’t know how to do anything else.”

Women in Culinary▬ “Many female pioneers — Jody Adams, Suzanne Goin, Odessa Piper, Lydia

Shire and, until her death last year, Judy Rodgers — also stayed in their

kitchens though children and divorces, fires and floods. Yet for every

successful empire-builder like Barbara Lynch, who runs seven restaurants in

Boston, there are a dozen Michelle Bernsteins, women who might have

become the next Mario Batali or Andrew Carmellini but retreated under the

pressure of being a multitasking modern chef and mother at the same time.”

▬ Women are multifaceted, and like men, they want the freedoms and

opportunities to determine their work-life balance without judgements from

society and the industry.

One Big Question!“ Why do women who make it to the top ranks of chefs struggle for

recognition?”

▬ The article pointed that this question is commonly asked, but never really fully answered.

▬There was an article that came out by Time Magazine, that showcased its choice of the world’s most influential chefs. Not one woman was listed throughout the Times article.

▬Many female chefs were outraged because despite the huge strides woman have been making in the industry, not one was recognized.

Time Magazine ▬ “It simply did not reflect the reality that we see in the industry

every day,” said Amanda Cohen, the chef and owner of Dirt Candy in New York.

▬ “It was a turning point,” said Kerry Diamond, a founder of the female-focused food magazine Cherry Bombe, which had published its first issue, financed by a successful Kickstarter campaign, when the Time article appeared. “And now food is definitely having a feminist moment.”

Food and Feminism▬ An example of the application of feminists working is the founding of the Toklas

Society. Toklas Society is “a network for women who work in the restaurant

industry including some chefs, but also many women whose jobs are high on

glamour but low on pay and job security: chefs’ assistants, publicity managers,

event planners and administrators. As cooking has become a more creative

field, more educated women have flooded into the business, looking not for a

job but for a career; the Toklas Society aims to help them find a way in.”

▬ The group’s founder is Sue Chan

Food and Feminism▬ The article states that Sue Chan, “decided to name the group after Alice B.

Toklas, the woman who cooked and kept house while her partner, the writer

Gertrude Stein, received the world’s accolades”

▬She says that “No matter how much of a strong feminist you are, it is hard to

work in such a male-dominated industry,” Which is why the organization is

aimed at aiding woman.

▬Chan states that, “We are the quiet power behind the throne…but sometimes

everyone gets tired of being quiet.

Emancipation

▬ Emancipation is “the liberation of people from unnecessarily restrictive

traditions, ideologies assumptions, power relations, identity formations, and

so forth, that inhibit or distort opportunities for autonomy, classification of

genuine needs and wants, and thus greater and lasting satisfaction.” (Alveson

& Willmont, 1992)

▬ Woman are expressing a need and want of emancipation from the stereotypes that flood the food

industry.

▬ The article states that “Food id definitely having a feminist movement.” because even though the

demographics are actually evolving, it is not being widely expressed at the rate it is changing.

Thought-Provoking Questions

▬ Would the food industry naturally evolve if it wasn’t for lady pioneer chefs or would the

industry still be stagnant and dominate by men?

▬ Why do the gender stereotypes stick heavier to woman who wish to achieve both a career and

family but not for men, when it is obvious many individuals from both populations want to

achieve both lifestyles?

▬ The article stated that “A leading kitchen run by a woman is no longer newsworthy. But it is

not quite commonplace, either; the tag “female chef” is still applied to and dozens of woman”.

What is the purpose of identify the gender of a successful chef?

Work Cited Text Book

Miller, K. (1999). Organizational communication: Approaches and processes. Belmont,

CA: Wadsworth Pub.

Article

Moskin, J. (2014, January 21). A Change in the Kitchen - The New York Times. Retrieved

from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/22/dining/a-change-in-the-kitchen.html