Weekend Cooking: The Heat: A Kitchen (R)Evolution (Film)

If you're looking for an interesting food-related documentary to watch this weekend, I recommend Maya Gallus's The Heat: A Kitchen (R)Evolution (2018; 1.25 hr).

This film introduces us to seven successful women chefs in the United States, Canada, England, and France and primarily addresses the issue of why the restaurant industry is still so male dominated. Is it the restaurant culture, the media, or men in general?

These women, most of whom run or own restaurants, talk about their experiences in the abusive atmosphere of professional kitchens. The restaurant system is likened to the military: with strict hierarchies and no room for questioning. The women also compare and contrast their experiences in the (male-dominated) kitchens they were trained in to their own styles in the kitchens they run.

Restaurants are not easy places, and it's difficult for women to get ahead, to get attention, to get the financial backing, and to be treated with respect. Those difficulties are compounded for women of color.

Chefs Suzanne Barr, Victoria Blarney, Amanda Cohen, Angela Hartnett, Ivy Knight, Charlotte Langley, Anita Lo, and Anne-Sophie Pic talk about their struggles and successes to gain recognition and to break the cycle of aggression and abuse found in restaurant kitchens. There is some mention of the #MeToo movement and of being afraid to speak out or of being the first to speak out.

In the end, all recognized the need for change and the need to give women professional chefs their due, but no one really had any good ideas for how bring this revolution to fruition.

Gallus does a good job transitioning us from one chef and location to another and of showing us that, despite each woman's unique situation and personal history, there are universal problems in the restaurant industry that are shared by all. The film also makes us aware of the importance of supporting women-owned restaurants of all kinds. The Heat: A Kitchen (R)Evolution will give you something to think about.

Here's the trailer:

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