“Ask us questions,” Chef Norma Listman says to a group of 10 or so women in their early twenties. “This is a really special encounter that Chef has brought together … Ask us anything that you want.”
The young women hesitate but get bolder as the conversation flows. Listman is talking about Chef Elena Reygadas, who sits a few feet away in the middle of a sharing circle at the Huerta Tlatelolco urban garden. One of Mexico City’s foremost chefs, Reygadas was named Best Female Chef in the World by the World’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2023.
There are many other famous chefs sprinkled among the crowd as well, including Listman herself, who has caused serious waves in the CDMX dining scene with her Indian-Mexican fusion restaurants Masala y Maiz and Mari Gold. But despite the star power today, there are no flashy presentations or hyped-up egos. Instead, these famous women are sitting on the ground, in the shade of the garden’s fruit trees, listening intently to a group of young culinary students from across Mexico voice their fears and dreams.
Each young woman present is either in culinary school or has just graduated. All are here because they applied for and won a scholarship through a collaboration between Chef Reygadas and Santander Open Academy, which provides over 70,000 scholarships a year to Mexican university students across the country.
Reygadas started this scholarship program in 2022, as an attempt to support gender equality in Mexico’s kitchens.
“From the time I started working formally in restaurant kitchens I was surprised that they were so dominated by men, given that women have been the ones to maintain and transmit the food knowledge and culture,” Reygadas tells me later. “I decided to start a scholarship project for young female culinary students to support them from the very start of their education and in that way fight for equality and strengthen their leadership.”
In the program’s first year, it was able to support three female students, who each received a 40,000-peso scholarship. With Santander’s help, the number of scholarship recipients expanded to 20 for the 2023-2024 cycle. Winners come from 14 different Mexican states and are invited to the capital to meet the chefs who judged the competition. For some of them, this is their first time outside their home state or having flown on an airplane.
“When I told [my mom] that I had been invited to Mexico City to meet these chefs,” says María Fernanda Cortez Mendoza, “and I showed her on social media all the things they had accomplished, I think it was the first time that she thought that my decision [to go to culinary school] wasn’t a mistake.”
The young women here are facing their futures with excitement and anxiety. They are also generally in awe that these super-famous chefs have been so cool and approachable during their visit — it’s felt more like an exchange than a press conference. They are particularly taken with Chef Reygadas, who most of them have admired since beginning their studies.
“That’s the idea,” says Elena when yet another woman talks about how great it’s been to get to know her on a personal level. “That this [would create] empathy among women with a similar passion, and not just be about social media and publicity. That this would be a chain reaction, and that you would be able to transmit the same thing to the women of your communities.”
Some of these young women already have their first jobs in the industry, some have worked at internships in restaurants or hotels for culinary school, some are starting small independent businesses. All have gotten a first-hand glimpse at how tough it can be for women in their field.
“Guys in my class brush off our opinions because we are women.”
“Men say that I’m just being hormonal when I get upset.”
“Our professor told us we had better be ready for it to be tough as women in the business, especially if we were pretty.”
The conversation oscillates between the trials and tribulations of working in a kitchen to broader societal issues like respecting the culinary heritage of communities and how the European patriarchal structure of male-run kitchens has been imposed on Mexico’s matriarchal culinary traditions.
Questions fly through the air: “How can I speak up about injustices when I don’t want to lose my job?” “What do you do when people hate on you on social media?” “What advice would you have given your younger self?” The chefs respond with advice and examples from their own lives, both at the beginning of their careers and now. Nods of recognition as well as waves of laughter travel around the circle.“We romanticize the act of cooking and creating,” says Listman, “but there are many things about this industry that need to change and as women, we have to demand [those changes].”
María Fernanda Rodríguez Martínez is using part of her money to start an artisanal ice cream brand incorporating the flavors of her home state of Tabasco. Mariana Quintanar Guzmán is working on a mobile bakery that will combine classic French pastry-making with Mexican flavors and ingredients. Lila Tayen Domínguez González hopes to one day travel through the rest of Latin America, researching ingredients.
Further financial support is also up for grabs: an annual legacy scholarship through the same program will provide a 300,000 peso prize for one lucky aspiring chef to study and work abroad.
As a new crop of students join the ranks of the recipients — the 2024 winners will be announced at the end of July — the meet-up this May was proof of the importance of not only monetary support for women in the industry but also the connections these women will take into the future of their careers.
“It’s comforting that we’re here and getting to know one another, creating support [networks],” Mariana Quintanar says about meeting the other scholarship recipients. “Like if I go to Tabasco now I won’t feel alone, or Guerrero or Michoacan. We’re being enriched by new knowledge and new friendships.”
Lydia Carey is a freelance writer and translator based out of Mexico City. She has been published widely both online and in print, writing about Mexico for over a decade. She lives a double life as a local tour guide and is the author of Mexico City Streets: La Roma. Follow her urban adventures on Instagram and see more of her work at www.mexicocitystreets.com.
