The most famous of the gastronomic guides has only one triple star (out of 29) and two female chefs with 2 stars (out of 75) at the moment. However, INSEE tells us that 80% of the time spent preparing meals in families falls to women. Isn't there a problem ? Why is the daily meal for moms alone with the gas stove when the dishes of the gourmets with a hefty bill are the business of men surrounded by a whole brigade ?
In the very beginning was the home
It is customary to start the history of cooking in the period of the domestication of fire. This happened about 400,000 years ago. At a time when gender roles were not established as they are today : in fact, the latest research on prehistory shows that at that time, female Homo and male Homo had more or less the same activities. At this time, we prepare the kitchen together.
It is with sedentarization that gendered functions appear in societies. But cooking is more of a man's business. Well yes, fire is a manly thing, isn't it ? But no, we didn't say that the barbecue is a remnant of this period...
In reality, cooking will long remain a male prerogative, rewarding for those who come back from hunting and boil the pot (you are either a " breadwinner " or you are not !).
Before the housewife, the housekeeper
Feminization begins with the diversification of the diet. Less meat and more vegetables means less work for the hunter and more for the gardener who cultivates the small vegetable garden adjoining the home. And since she peels carrots and turnips, why not make a few small pies at the same time? Well, at the Court of the King and the Lords, it was still men who delighted. It was also men who wrote the first cookbooks.
Moreover, to the recipes for decorating foodstuffs, they gladly add advice on how to keep the house, save money and guarantee hygiene. All this can be found in Le Grand Mesnagier de Paris, a reference work that teaches us that the housekeeper far preceded the housewife in the history of ordinary figures in everyday life.
But the great social change that confined girls to the stove with " their " pots and pans occurred at the end of the eighteenth century, with the advent of the family home and its division into spaces and roles. A distribution that attributes the domestic interior to women and the social exterior to men. Women became the stewards of the bourgeoisie, the pots of the less fortunate. Domestic cooking has become a thing for maids and housewives.
The era of the " mother cooks "
For women, having ladles and whips in hand is also an opportunity to start a business at a time when unless you are a widow without a male heir, you can always run to run a business. So here are the " mother cooks " who open restaurants.
In Lyon, Paris, Ain, Auvergne, there were about twenty of them at the beginning of the twentieth century who held famous " bouchons " where simple and refined cuisine was served. And two of them, Eugénie Brazier and Marie Bourgeois , won three stars in 1933. In addition to serving tasty and recognized cuisine, these women run successful businesses. But the Second World War and its procession of restrictions put a stop to the rise of the " mothers ".
When cooking becomes a business and a prestige
From the 1950s onwards, Western cuisine radically changed its face, thanks to two major trends: industrialization on the one hand and scientificity on the other.
On the one hand, the agri-food industry and restaurant chains are developing; on the other hand, haute cuisine is positioned as a high-precision activity, integrating cutting-edge techniques and a whole ritual of tasting closer to carefully crafted performance than to satiety. Women struggle to find their place in both places. The industrial trend pushed them aside by the force of capitalistic practices: the captains of industry of those years (and still today) were men who dealt with each other and passed on to other men. As for the gastronomic trend, it deliberately places itself against the " good woman's cuisine".
The Glorious Thirty and their household appliances supposed to " liberate women " confined women to the family kitchen where daily meals were prepared, while men enjoyed dishes worthy of great art in restaurants. Those who at the same time live the ordeal of the double day, when you have to combine professional life and the obligations of running the home, have it a little bad...
New current issues, through the prism of gender
In recent years, women have been returning to the forefront of haute cuisine. A few famous names emerged when the classic guides appeared : Anne-Sophie Pic, Hélène Darroze, Ghislaine Arabian... But above all, a whole work consisting of bringing out of invisibility those who make today's cuisine and draw the future on our taste buds is currently being carried out by the most modern gastronomic critics. For example, we can cite the writings of the journalist and author Estérelle Payany , who has listed the 500 current female chefs who are making a difference in the kitchen.
The question of cooking also inevitably intersects with all the issues related to food : adaptation to climate change, prevention of health risks, reduction of inequalities... On so many strategic issues, women also have their say. And not only through the micro-gestures of housewives preparing organic food and composting peelings, but also by sitting at the table of major international discussions on the future of the planet and humanity.
