Women's History Month: ICE Hosts Award-Winning International Chefs
For Women's History Month, the Institute of 国产福利 Education hosted events to honor women in food.
Earlier this month 鈥 March 2, to be exact 鈥 ICE hosted events presented by the , an independent and international non-profit that connects and supports female chefs and women in hospitality.
Founded in 2015, Parabere now comprises a global cadre of 6,000 chefs, sommeliers, food producers, scientists, anthropologists and innovators deploying their expertise across generations and geographies to advance women in food via business and social networks.
As part of Parabere's annual two-day event, which also marks its 10th anniversary, the Forum employed ICE New York's classrooms and kitchens for cooking demonstrations, practical discussions, and in-depth debates on how to increase local and global opportunities for improving the state of gastronomy, food, nutrition and agriculture.
Several of the world鈥檚 biggest female chefs were among the Forum's presenters and attendees. ICE students studying 国产福利 Arts and Pastry & Baking Arts, among other ICE programs, received exclusive access to three of them 鈥 Apollonia 笔辞颈濒芒苍别, H茅l猫ne Darroze, and Jess Murphy 鈥 via videos and discussions led by ICE鈥檚 marketing and special events teams.
Below are the women鈥檚 impressive biographies followed by their thoughts on everything from women in kitchens and overcoming adversity, to mentorship and advice for aspiring chefs. Happy Women鈥檚 History Month!
*The following has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Apollonia 笔辞颈濒芒苍别 is a third generation baker and the CEO of the renowned 93-year-old Parisian bakery . She has authored and contributed to over a dozen cookbooks, including her most recent release, "笔辞颈濒芒苍别: The Secrets of the World-Famous Bread Bakery", and has an economics degree from Harvard.
H茅l猫ne Darroze has six Michelin stars across three restaurants: H茅l猫ne Darroze at in London, in Paris, and in Provence. She holds a business degree from L鈥櫭塩ole Sup茅rieure de Commerce de Bordeaux and was named one of the Best Female Chefs by World's 50 Best Restaurants.
Jess Murphy is a New Zealand-born, award-winning chef and the co-owner of , the only restaurant in Ireland to receive a Michelin Green Star. via events, interviews and field visits since 2017, and she is a longtime Parabere Forum associate.
Advice for aspiring culinary professionals鈥.
Chef H茅l猫ne: Meet people! I have often been impressed by someone in front of me who is passionate and wants to be part of the team, wants to learn, wants to give a little bit of himself. That is much more important than a big CV. So go and meet people.
Chef Apollonia: Look at what other domains of knowledge are doing. I love the world of the arts and I've been inspired by visiting exhibits in galleries or museums and seeing a piece of art that triggered thoughts about color or [that] would make a great bread shape.
Chef H茅l猫ne: Also, we are selling happiness, so it's a big responsibility to people who come to eat at your table. You have to take that with humility 鈥 You, the chef, are not the star. It's all about the producer and the products that you have, and you just have to make them better.
On what they look for when hiring chefs and bakers鈥
Chef Jess: I love to see [young cooks] getting excited by a vegetable delivery. I don't expect anything else from them 鈥 You can teach them everything else.
Chef Apollonia: Passion. That's the first one that comes to mind. But it's also about attention, someone that has a sensory intelligence. Some [of the people we hire] have zero experience in baking, some people have only a little bit, and that's because what we're really looking for is that spark, that interest, that curiosity. It can come in different shapes or forms, but, at the end of the day, I look for intelligent human beings that care about what's going on.
Chef Jess: You know, we don't expect young chefs coming into the kitchen to be like Alice Waters. It takes a long time to get to that point. So, just the way that they carry themselves, if they take pride in themselves. But they also take pride in the way that they put away [vegetables] and the way they work. Like, 鈥淲e're not gonna just throw things in a fridge on top of something else.鈥 Getting excited about ingredients is the main thing, because that's where it all starts. Everyone can learn to cook. But you know, you have to really feel that what you鈥檙e doing is important, that there鈥檚 a reason you're putting it on a plate.
On mentorship鈥
Chef Jess: People talk a lot about mentorship, but I think that there鈥檚 reverse mentoring at the same time. Like, I'm 46 and my junior chefs teach me so much every day 鈥 You know, I can teach some traditional stuff, and they teach me texts and Instagram and chat GPT.
Chef H茅l猫ne: I think it's about giving the example, you know? Sharing a lot of time with [young cooks] and being an example 鈥 I'm still working in my kitchens because I have to be an example. I share with them and I speak with them. Communication is key, and you have to build a strong team and give them high value.
On teamwork (and enabling your success by enabling others)...
Chef Apollonia: I cannot make all the bread by myself, so we train our bakers, and we have our smaller cookies and pastry team. Around 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. our delivery teams come and pick up the bread that has been baked in the hours prior and prepared for orders for clients 鈥 and it's our trucks and cargo bikes from Paris, and so forth. Then we have our stores that open up in the morning and sell our bread鈥 And during office hours, we have our support sales and accounting and so forth. And then, around the clock, our bakers work in the big house at producing our breads, pastries and cookies 鈥 [So there are] a lot of teams. A lot of relying on and trusting my teams.
Chef Jess: My basic advice is if you're not good at something, hire somebody that's really good at it. Spend the money on them, because what you're good at will override that and you'll end up making enough money to pay them. Like, I'm not good at books, so we pay [our bookkeeper] really well.
Chef Apollonia: For myself, I love to spend a Saturday morning in the big house doing a little bit of R&D and perfecting my gestures as a baker. It allows me to chat with my team and stay connected to them. I also really happen to love people and chatting and connecting and understanding what their motivations are 鈥 It's really important to me that I see the people I work with once a week, at least, so I can shake their hands.
Chef H茅l猫ne: I have a great team: a corporate chef and pastry chef and food & beverage corporate. And then I have the marketing team and a commercial team and a financial team 鈥 Because kitchens and restaurants are hard work. It's like going to war every day, and you are [all] best friends in the war. But it's also family, and I am proud that they are all family, you know.
On overcoming adversity鈥
Chef Apollonia: In the face of adversity, whatever that is, you just [pick yourself up] however you can. Like, the human ability and desire to pick yourself up 鈥 is incredible, and it's just one step and then another step forward. If you fall down the stairs at some point, you pick yourself up, and start again one step at a time. And yeah, your first steps will hurt because you've just landed on the floor, but I think the bigger journey is much more interesting than the physical reality of each moment 鈥 and both can work in parallel.
On why chefs and the food they make matters鈥
Chef H茅l猫ne: Guests are king and queen. Some guests will come once in their life in our restaurant so we always think of a guest first 鈥 What can we do better to please them? It's not about Michelin stars. It鈥檚 not about 50 Best Restaurants. It's just about the people who [either] one time or every day are in your restaurant 鈥 and that鈥檚 the nicest compliment. I have an open kitchen, so when I see them leaving the restaurant with a smile like that, it鈥檚 just 鈥 it鈥檚 the most important thing.
Chef Apollonia: The act of feeding someone is a beautiful opportunity to share love, to build a community 鈥 [Our starter] has been around since 1932 鈥 [and there鈥檚 a saying in France] that "200 miles in the US is like 200 years in Europe.鈥 I keep on smiling at this cute sentence because I was greeting an American visitor into the bakehouse recently and when I told her this quote she said, 鈥淒oes that mean there鈥檚 a bit of 1932 in this batch?鈥
Chef H茅l猫ne: I'd say it's a difficult job [being a chef], but it鈥檚 also the most fabulous job in the world.
