Being a chef has long been a boys’ club, but not as of late. As more and more women are going to culinary school and catering college to pursue a career as a chef, restaurant kitchens are starting to see a growing number of women chefs.

Restaurant Kitchens: More Women Chefs Running the Show

Restaurant kitchens can be aggressive, intense environments, but women chefs aren’t intimidated. A recent article in the UK’s Times Online talks about how female chefs are taking the restaurant world by storm. In fact, female enrollment is up at culinary schools and catering schools. One of the largest catering colleges in the UK, Bournemouth and Poole College, is seeing a 50:50 enrollment of men and women. Last year, the enrollment was 75 percent male.

The article profiles a few notable women chefs who have opened their own restaurants or made impressive accomplishments while working in restaurant kitchens. Clare Smyth, for example, was made head chef of Gordon Ramsay’s three Michelin-starred restaurant in Chelsea when she was just 29 years old. And there’s Anne-Sophie Pic, the recipient of a three-star award for her restaurant in southeastern France. Pic was actually the first French female chef to receive this award in 50 years.

Restaurant Kitchens: Women Chefs Bringing Skills to the Table

So are women chefs bringing more to the table? Chef Thomasina Miers, owner of London restaurant Wahaca, feels that women are more meticulous in the kitchen than men. Miers further explains that women chefs stress the look of a dish being as good as the taste of the food. In the restaurant kitchen, this is a valuable asset that diners surely appreciate.

Commercial Kitchen Equipment For Chefs

No doubt, women chefs — and men chefs — prefer to work with reliable, quality commercial kitchen equipment. ShortOrder.com has so many excellent products for restaurant owners and chefs. Commercial kitchen equipment — like Vulcan ranges, Frymaster fryers and Manitowoc ice machines, will be able to stand up to the demands of restaurant kitchens. And the commercial kitchen equipment will meet the standards of professional chefs.

Food Safety Matters

Food Safety … It isn’t something most people think about on a daily basis, except for the restaurant industry that is.  We think about it everyday because the last thing any of us want is for someone to get sick from the food that we work hard to prepare.  We also don’t want to think about our restaurant being shut down because we didn’t meet food safety standards.

Food Safety Guidelines

With the right equipment and the right knowledge, food safety is a pretty easy thing to handle.

Some great guidelines to remember are:

-  All restaurant employee employees should follow hygiene guidelines; such as washing hands after using the restroom and before preparing food.

-  Cross-contamination of foods should be avoided at all times.  Wash, rinse and sanitize all food contact surfaces, such as work tables, slicers, and other preparation equipment.

-  Foods must be cooked to recommended internal temperatures.

-  Hot foods should be held hot at temperatures of 140 degrees Fahrenheit or greater.  Holding cabinets provide a constant source of proper heat.

-  Cold foods should be kept cold at temperatures of 41 degrees Fahrenheit or lower.  Keep a thermometer in your refrigerator to make sure the temperature is at the proper setting.

-  Abusing standard time and temperature standards for food should be avoided at all costs when handling prepared foods.

-  Leftovers should only be reheated in the oven once; after that they should be tossed out.

Food Safety Means Better Health

As stated earlier in the post, food safety matters to everyone … restaurateur, chef, employees, and patrons can all be harmed by foodborne pathogens.  There are more than 250 known foodborne diseases that cause anywhere from minor illness to death.  By following the simple guidelines listed above and by making sure all of your equipment is functioning properly, you can help prevent disease and illness caused by unhealthy foods.