Food
Women led Restaurants: 9 Of The Famous Restaurants Ruled By Women
Women led Restaurants: Since the #MeToo movement rocked the globe in 2017, the global hospitality sector has grappled with gender equality in the kitchen and behind the bar, with hundreds of global efforts to honour women’s accomplishments and combat bias.
Occasion International Women’s Day, we’ve compiled a list of nine of the many female-led venues that are propelling the hospitality industry around the world, all of which were found by women who #ChooseToChallenge assumptions and preconceptions.
Popular 9 Restaurants in the world | Women led Restaurants
1. Lima, Peru, Baan | Women led Restaurants
Francesca Ferreyros, a Peruvian chef who studied under Joan Roca in Spain and Gaggan Anand in Thailand, established Baan in December 2020 to explore the culinary ties between South America and Southeast Asia.
Ferreyros began experimenting with recipes blending Peruvian and Thai flavours in her home kitchen and publishing them on Instagram. Same time, she put her projects on pause due to the epidemic, and the concept for Baan was born.
Baan was a takeout idea before moving to its nine-table dining room in Lima’s San Isidro neighbourhood, and Ferreyros has been refining her meals based on her feedback.
Everything at Baan sang with flavour, from fried chicken marinated in Thai spices and served with a pickled turnip to a whole fish wrapped in banana leaf and served with velvety coconut milk curry and Burmese rice – a promising start from one of Peru’s most up-and-coming chefs.
2. Cocktails by the Flying Dutchmen, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Tess Posthumus, a Dutch mixologist, and her business partner, Timo Janse, looked to the world’s restaurants while designing their bar. They reasoned that the guest must first comprehend what eggs Benedict entails before a chef can deconstruct a dish like eggs Benedict.
Their three-year-old establishment attempts to establish a new cocktail culture in the Netherlands by focusing on the classics.
Flying Dutchmen Cocktails, which is the house in the 350-year-old Odeon building in the heart of Amsterdam, focuses on cocktail education, with each drink accompanied by fascinating stories about the spirits, recipes, and bartenders who created them, as well as consumer workshops and professional training programmes.
Posthumus and Janse are on a mission to teach their country how to walk, run, and eventually fly through the world of drinks, and they have the wind at their backs.
3. Accra, Ghana’s Medina | Women led Restaurants
Medina is an initiative by chef Selassie Atadika to challenge guests’ ideas of African cuisine. Radhika enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America after spending a decade working on humanitarian projects with the UN and teaching herself to cook.
She has now created her brand of modern African cuisine. Since its inception in 2017, Midunu – which means ‘let us eat’ – has amassed a devoted fanbase and a rising worldwide following, with a promising future ahead of it.
The restaurant’s culinary philosophy is all about itinerant eating, despite having a physical home and events area in Accra’s residential Tesano neighbourhood. The chef creates multi-course dining experiences throughout the city that focus on bringing Africa’s wealth to the table through underutilized grains and proteins.
Selassie debuted Midunu’s line of truffle chocolates in the US and Canada in November 2020, handcrafted by a team of female chocolatiers in Accra and always providing a sweet ending to her dinners.
4. New York, USA, Double Chicken Please | Women led Restaurants
Double Chicken Please was a pop-up bar that toured the United States for three years aboard a yellow Volkswagen minibus, getting excellent reviews.
In November 2020, Taiwanese bartender Faye Chen and her business partner GN Chan debuted the venue’s physical site on the Lower East Side, with a premise of “beverages inspired by cuisine and food inspired by drinks.”
Chen contributes all of her inventiveness to Double Chicken Please, having trained with Japanese mixology master Shingo Gokan in Shanghai and winning multiple international bartending championships.
Delicious Taiwanese sandwiches are served with various liquids that may include fresh apricots, peppers, or sea buckthorn. Once constraints in New York are loosened, the brilliant bartenders aim to offer an ambitious cocktail-and-dish combination menu.
5. Beirut, Lebanon’s Em Sherif
Chef Mireille Hayek created Em Sherif as a tribute to Lebanon’s culinary tradition. After getting married and starting cooking for her family, the self-taught cook discovered a passion for the culinary arts and has since risen to become one of the country’s most respected chefs and restaurateurs, with locations in Kuwait, Riyadh, Doha, Damascus, Dubai, and Cairo.
She’s already planning trips to the United Kingdom, France, and the United States, among other places.
The original Beirut restaurant, named after Hayek’s son Sherif, is the family’s labour of love, where the drip of water fountains meets traditional taarab music. The chef did away with menus from the outset, opting instead for a communal dining experience.
Customers are served a sequence of 30-plus meze plates featuring great mainstays like fattoush and tabbouleh. Em Sherif is a must-visit for anyone looking for an authentic Lebanese dining experience.
6. Sydney, Australia’s Door Knock | Women led Restaurants
Door Knock was founded by Australian bartender and innovator Natalie Ng and inspired by old-fashioned speakeasies once known as ‘knock knock’ pubs.
The tiny bar tucked away in a basement at the bottom of three flights of stairs is all about having a good time, with a menu that includes biodynamic and natural wines, inventive variations on classic cocktails, and delectable bar nibbles.
“Cocktails should bridge the gap between what you think you like and what you truly like,” says Ng, who formerly worked at Café Pacifico and helped create Mojo Record Bar in Sydney.
Take ‘Mez-sage in a Bottle,’ for example, which blends mezcal, herbal liqueur, apricot nectar, sea salt, and apricot and sesame seed paper in a truly wonderful combination that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
During the coronavirus-related closures in 2020, Ng became a shining example for the industry, outlining the steps she took to protect her employees and offering guidance to bar owners.
7. L’ Argine a Vencò, Dolegna del Collio, Italy
Located in a small village in north-eastern Italy with a population of less than 500, L’Argine a Vencò – opened in 2014 – is an inspired exploration of the region’s terroir and multicultural history through food.
A historical building next to a 17th-century mill is the playground where chef Antonia Klugmann lets her creative juices flow, inspired by the fields, hills, rivers and villages that dot this territory near the border with Slovenia.
With only eight tables and large windows that overlook the vegetable garden and surrounding vineyards, L’Argine a Vencò majors on little-used vegetables and local weeds, presented in striking dishes such as radicchio leaves marinated in red wine vinegar and truffle butter.
Klugmann’s sensitivity shines in her use of whole ingredients to reduce waste and revival of traditional product combinations through a modern lens – such as serving meat and fish with local fruits. L’Argine a Vencò is breathing fresh life into a rural area with a long culinary history.
8. Casa Cavia, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Behind Casa Cavia are three figures who are rewriting history in Buenos Aires’ hospitality: Guadalupe García Mosqueda, founder and creative director; Flavia Arroyo, who leads the bar; and Julieta Caruso, in charge of the culinary offer.
Together, the power trio created a multifaceted venue that takes in a bar, restaurant, library, publisher, garden and a flower shop, celebrating the many ways in which gastronomy, culture and design are interconnected.
Arroyo’s cocktails use contemporary techniques such as gasification, clarification and fermentation to extract strong flavours from Argentinian ingredients.
In the kitchen, Caruso focuses on a farm-to-table concept of reinvented traditional dishes and vegetable-forward creations, such as soybean and cashew gnocchi with beans and roasted peas.
Writing a new chapter for modern hospitality in the Argentine capital, Casa Cavia is at the forefront of a multidisciplinary movement expanding the boundaries of hospitality.
9. Baan Tepa, Bangkok, Thailand
Opened in March 2020 by Blue Hill at Stone Barns alumnus Chudaree ‘Tam’ Debhakam, Baan Tepa is a culinary space hidden within a majestic Thai house in bustling Bangkok.
Having trained with chef Dan Barber and been an ambassador for national campaigns against food waste, 28-year-old Debhakam applies a philosophy of authenticity and sustainability to everything she does at Baan Tepa.
The restaurant features seasonally changing 12-course menus that make the most of the Thai produce grown in the urban garden within the premises, while showcasing the chef’s modern flair.
Debhakam says she wants to “create environmentally-conscious menus while learning new things, alongside local communities and producers” – a mission that is attracting ever-growing interest from the city’s foodies.
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