Today’s guests are film director Peter Ferriero, Chef Elizabeth Faulkner, and Chef Juliette Masters of The Edge in Harlem. They’re part of the team behind a new documentary called Her Name is Chef, a film that takes a hard look at what it’s really like for women in professional kitchens. You’ll hear perspectives from two of the film’s stars, their experiences gaining respect from a male-dominated industry, and you’ll learn about the inspirations behind the food they create. 

Conversation with Chef Elizabeth Falkner (episode #63)

“I said, ‘Oh my god, this is a story and I do want to tell it and I want to find the best female chefs’. And I did not have a problem finding female chefs because there’s just so many of them all over the country.”

“The whole current restaurant structure has been built by men. So it’s not that women haven’t been in charge for hundreds of years before all this. We still have vestiges from the past in our systems.”

“I generally like female cooking more than male cooking. But that’s just my personal preference. I think that we do have different attitudes and different ways of running kitchens and just a different way of handling food.”

“Having us have more face time with young women out there will start to change the dynamic. You see more female chefs. You see them out there and they can aspire to do something like that. A movie like Her Name is Chef is a start.”

“I have had to be come a louder, more aggressive female in order to survive in a very male dominated world that I’ve constantly been in.”

“Becoming a boss of the kitchen, which is what a chef is, you’re the head of the kitchen, that’s a whole other dynamic that you grow into slowly. You don’t suddenly walk in and know how to boss. You learn to do that.”

Her Name is Chef

Peter Ferriero

Chef Elizabeth Falkner

Chef Juliet Masters

Documentary website

Connect with Peter Ferriero: Website

Connect with Elizabeth Faulkner: Website

Connect with Juliette Masters: The Edge