Raymond Blanc: ‘Women are not born to be professional chefs’

Raymond Blanc has dipped a spoon into the simmering issue of why so few women work professionally in kitchens – and proceeded to stir vigorously.

“The female role, for as long as time, has been the nurturer, the carer, the lover, the one who looks after the family and, of course, does the cooking for the family,” says the owner of Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons in Oxfordshire.

“It was part of her duty for thousands of years, while the man was the hunter-gatherer. I think it is that which seems to have given women an allergy to becoming professional chefs.

“It is part of their DNA. As soon as they think of cooking, because they have had to do it for thousands of years – out of duty, rather than love –they hate the idea of having to do it professionally.” Blanc, speaking to me at the S Pellegrino Restaurant Awards at the Guildhall in London, adds that kitchens have always been male bastions which are inevitably “uncomfortable” for the fairer sex.


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