If you have ever watched a 'reality' television cooking programme, you probably think there is an equal number of male and female chefs. But the reality is that television producers manipulate things to look that way. Yes, women have made great strides as cooks, but if you look behind the swing doors into most Hong Kong professional kitchens, you'll find women are few and far between.
The kitchen of Cepage in Wan Chai is unusual in that there are six men and six women. Chef de cuisine Sebastien Lepinoy says it wasn't a conscious decision. 'It's good to work with women because they're dedicated, take care of all the details, they have passion and they're not lazy. I think that only in my kitchen do we have 50/50. I don't know why - it depends on the chef. Some like to work with women, others don't.'
Singaporean Cheryl Koh is part of Lepinoy's brigade, working as a pastry chef - a traditional calling for female cooks. Group pastry chef for Cafe Deco Group's Central division is Tracy Wei, a Californian Chinese who worked at Nobu in San Diego.
Many women are in the kitchen because they started their own businesses; they include Margaret Xu of Yin Yang in Wan Chai, Vivian Herijanto of Corner Kitchen cooking school and soon-to-open Heirloom restaurant, Bonnie So of Chez Les Copains in Sai Kung, and Liz Seaton of Gingers Catering. We talk to some of them to find out what it's like to be one of the few.
Bonnie So opened her restaurant, Chez Les Copains, in 1999, first in Causeway Bay then moving to Sai Kung in 2002.
'I first went to France with a friend to learn photography and graphic design. But then my friend suggested that we go to Le Cordon Bleu. I learned pastry first but then I saw a Taiwanese friend working there as a chef's assistant. He said that all students can apply to be a chef's assistant, and you get two terms for free. So I also learned cuisine and got Le Grand Diplome. I stayed at the school for three years - two years as a student, then one as an assistant. I also trained outside [the school] in pastry, at Fauchon and Pierre Herme. I was in France from about 1991 to 1997, then came back to Hong Kong.