I serve on the Awards committee fo the James Beard Awards. This year our theme for the May 4 Gala is Women in Food. Amazing, that after all these years, this is the first time that women will be honored. We will have women chefs, women wine makers, women sommeliers and mixologists featured as well as women charcutieres, cheese makers, and bakers. It is about time.
This is not to say that women chefs have not cooked at the awards events but they were always in the minority. One year honoring French chefs, they had to wear can can outfits while the French male chefs wore their whites!! It was because of this that the organization Women Chefs and Restaurateurs WCR was formed. So it will be a proud moment in our culinary history to watch all those women serve their delicious food. It will be a don’t miss event. The Media dinner the night before will also feature women chefs and sommeliers. I am so looking forward to this. The late Barbara Tropp would be smiling.
Joyce Goldstein 