Yay Stephanie Izard!
I'm so happy she won Top Chef last night. (I was going to write "I can't even tell you", but the fact is, I can tell you and I plan on doing so.)
Not only is Stephanie a Chicago chef (and as far as I hear, she doesn't plan on leaving), but she's a woman. I cheer for the first woman Top Chef, and I wish people understood how the chef profession is still inordinately dominated by men. There's this HUGE divide between cooking and being a gourmet chef, and the chefs? They are almost all men. If you follow the food world at all--and maybe if you don't--tell me that the chefs you think of immediately aren't men. I read food blogs and foodie books like crazy, and all the top chefs are men. The ones I can think of are men. Cooks are women, and they do things like Rachael Ray and Sandra Lee (BARF!), using canned soup and baby carrots to make a delightful meal in 30 minutes.
The innovators are men. The people who tough it out in hot kitchens are men. And there is PREJUDICE, people. Top Chef (the show) finds a mix of men and women chefs, but the fact is, most of the guest judges are men, and every year until now, a man has won. It is what it is. But I really hope that Izard's win does something for the advancement of women in the kitchen. In the PROFESSIONAL kitchen.
As for me, I can't WAIT to try her restaurant, just as soon as she gets that sucker open.
She's also a 1998 graduate of the University of Michigan!
Posted by: M | June 16, 2008 at 10:21 AM