ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

The Internet Is Roasting Heston Blumenthal For His Comments About Female Chefs

Nick Levine
Last Updated 13 October 2019, 10:51
Photo: Getty Images
According to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics, just 17% of professional chefs in the UK are women. There are complicated reasons behind the catering industry's gaping gender inequality, some of which are shockingly sexist: in 2019, do some people really believe that women make great "home cooks", while men are the true gastronomic innovators?
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
Celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal, owner of The Fat Duck in Bray, one of just five restaurants in the UK to have three Michelin Stars, has shared his thoughts on the matter and they're not exactly helpful.
"I have always employed female chefs, but historically and ultimately, the body clock starts working," he told the Economic Times. "It’s evolution, and it is one thing to have a 9-5 job and quite another to be a chef with kids. So, that makes it difficult."
Blumenthal also cited the physical strain of lifting "heavy pots and pans" as a potential reason for the lack of women in professional kitchens, before adding: "But I think it is much better now that it was 15 years ago. This I can speak for."
Unsurprisingly, the internet is roasting Blumenthal for his sexist and reductive views. One person tweeted: "Heston Blumenthal thinks that evolution means mums can't lift pots and pans but they can lift their 2 stone toddler."
Check out a selection of reactions to his comments below.
Sadly, Blumenthal's take is disappointingly similar to recent comments from fellow celebrity chef Marco Pierre White, who told the Irish Independent in August: "The real positive with men [in the kitchen] is that men can absorb pressure better, that’s the main difference, because they are not as emotional and they don’t take things personally.
“Look at the size of some of the pans you are carrying," White added. "Can you imagine you’re a lady in the kitchen and saying: ‘Will you carry that pan for me?'"
Still, a flawless response to their dinosaur views was shared by Julie Goodwin, a winner of the the Australian version of MasterChef.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT