A woman's place is in the kitchen

Women and the role they play.

In early 2022, I had an idea for a podcast. I called it “A Woman’s Place Is in the Kitchen.” I went as far as creating the cover art, writing a description, and thinking of guests and topics. At the time, I was reading books, watching movies, and listening to podcasts, in which food and cooking were recurring themes.

What the podcast was intended to be.

All of it got me thinking about women and cooking and what it means for a woman to be in the kitchen. How many men expect women to cook for them while not being celebrated for doing so. And the juxtaposition of that with male chefs being venerated in society. The podcast was intended to be an exploration of all of it. A big, meaty topic (pardon the pun) with endless opportunities to explore history, culture, societal norms, and yes, food. It was intended to have us think about the place of the kitchen in our lives and how women have embraced and rejected it.

I didn’t follow through with the idea then, but it stuck with me, simmering in the background of business and daily life. While watching three seasons of The Bear (a huge fan), during which Carmy routinely dismissed Sydney’s suggestions, traveling to Italy where grandmothers are revered for their home cooking and male chefs like Massimo Botturra are (rightly) celebrated for their culinary accomplishments, and observing the recent conversations about what it means to be a real man and a real woman today. And wondering where, if anywhere, the feminine fits in our world.