Where are San Francisco’s Lady Chefs?

That’s the question that several readers had on their mind after the publication of the San Francisco Chronicle’s latest Star Chef issue which featured six male Bay Area chefs in its “class of 2011.” (The class of 2010 had a similar look).

Food critic Michael Bauer responded to reader hackles with the following in a recent blog article:

“We realized we lacked female talent when we compiled the list. We wracked our brains, asked around and tossed around several names, but in the final analysis the candidates we identified simply couldn’t compete with the men we chose. It’s not that we’re insensitive, because male voices are in the minority on the Food & Wine staff. Everyone agreed that it wouldn’t be right to put in a lesser talent just because the person under consideration was female.”

Bauer speculated that the long hours and physical demands of being a chef may have the effect of keeping women out of the kitchen. “Hours are long and work is mostly at night; it can be a problem if you want to raise children.” But I suspect that sexism in the restaurant business is playing a larger role.

When reflecting on the dearth of lady-chef award winners in the New York City, chef and restaurant owner Amanda Cohen wrote the following in 2010:

“I see women working in restaurants all over the city, so why aren’t they winning awards and being celebrated by the press? Why don’t more New Yorkers know their names? … Why would an investor back a female chef in a restaurant? He knows that she won’t get the hype and attention a male chef will get because she’s clearly inferior. I look around at the awards and at the press, I think about who the celebrated up and coming male chefs are (Nate Appleman, George Mendes) and then the celebrated female chefs (um…) and I realize that, as a woman, I have no place being in a kitchen.”

In an article entitled “Why I Quit Cooking: Women in the Kitchen,” Paula Forbes writes that she quit the food biz because the work was difficult – yes – but also because the road ahead looked vertical:

“I quit because I wanted to write for Eat Me Daily more than my catering job allowed, and because I saw opportunities in the writing world that I didn’t see in restaurants.”

So why don’t you go chew on that.