An incubator for female chefs of color is working to break the barriers women encounter in the restaurant industry
My mother is one of four sisters, and some of my most at-home memories take place in the kitchen with them. The sonic landscape of my aunts joking loudly in a pidgin mash-up of Chinese and English; the rounded scent of a fall-off-the-bone rack of ribs, a simmering pot of jook, a soy-sauce chicken. A conversation, a way to show affection, by way of a plate being passed back and forth. A matriarchy reigned in that space, and it was powerful.
But there is a moment when the kitchen reliably fails women, and particularly women of color. When the kitchen becomes a place of business – when it becomes a restaurant in America – white faces are the ones that dominate the front of the line and the front of the house. The women of color fall out.
The quickest example I can think of is when people walk up looking for the chef or owner at Dyafa and walk right past me
La Cocina exists in order to ensure that pathways to economic opportunity are not just equal but equitable
Bonnie Tsui is a longtime contributor to the New York Times and California Sunday. She is the author of the award-winning American Chinatown. Find her at www.bonnietsui.com and @bonnietsui.