About a quarter of the world’s chefs are women, yet only 6.4 per cent of the top positions in the top restaurants are held by them. These are the findings of a 2022 study by Chef’s Pencil which looked at 2,286 Michelin restaurants worldwide. The culinary publication, which also reports on industry trends, also found that only 6.73 per cent of the world’s best 100 restaurants are led by women. Currently, the only Michelin-starred restaurant in Singapore that is helmed by a female chef is Araya. Fernanda Guerrero runs the Chilean restaurant with her life partner, Francisco Araya.
Why are there so few women on top?
Most of the chefs we spoke to share that not many of their female peers move on to kitchen roles after graduating from culinary school. Reasons like the physical demands of the job, the macho culture in the kitchen, and the long hours of service—which will mean being absent at mealtimes (and therefore causing difficulties for mothers with young children)—are commonly cited. Despite the challenges and sacrifices to be made, there are still female chefs who have turned a deaf ear to the naysayers, rolled up their sleeves, sharpened their elbows and achieved success. Three of them share their stories with GRAZIA Singapore.
NATSUKO SHOJI, CHEF-OWNER OF ÉTÉ, TOKYO, JAPAN
Beneath Natsuko Shoji’s sweet face lies a steely determination.
In 2014, following the death of her father, Shoji took a loan of 10 million yen to finance her dream of owning a restaurant. Her father had died shortly after being hospitalised. Shoji was so busy working that her father’s condition didn’t sink in. Distraught with guilt, she decided that she should not tarry further with pursuing her dream. While taking out a loan, she also bought a life insurance policy, thinking that she would end her life if her business failed (and the payout would cover the debts so that her mother would not be burdened.)
The reason for having such an extreme do-or-die attitude had a lot to do with Shoji’s environment and journey. “Japanese society is very patriarchal and the local F&B industry is a boys’s club,” Shoji says.
Having a mentally disabled sister also meant a tough childhood. To seek solace from her sister’s frequent emotional outbursts, Shoji turned to cooking. In junior high school, she received high praise from her peers for her choux à la creme. They told her she should become a professional chef, and that planted the seeds for her to become one.
Shoji went on to culinary school where “there were more girls than boys.” But only a handful went on to pursue a culinary career. Sharing that there is sexual discrimination in the local industry, Shoji recalls that she was booed during the 2020 Asia’s Best 50 Restaurant awards ceremony in Japan where she was named Best Pastry chef. The ceremony had taken place behind closed doors in respective countries due to Covid-19 restrictions. While Shoji cried often during her early days as a chef, the bullying made her more determined to excel. In 2022, she clinched Asia’s Best Female Chef award.
Shoji’s attention to details and beautiful creations (her signature is a mango cake which is topped with roses shaped from silvers of the fruit) are so well known that brands like Louis Vuitton, Hermès and Chanel have collaborated with her. After all, fashion is the inspiration for the aesthetics of her creations.
While Shoji mentions Yusuke Takada as one of the Japanese chefs she admires for their techniques, and Hiroyasu Kawate of two-Michelin-starred Florilège where she worked before opening été for teaching her time management, she is hard pressed to name a male Japanese chef who had been particularly encouraging.
Thus, Shoji is determined to support budding women chefs. At her six-seater restaurant, she hires only women, so that there is a place in Tokyo where their talent can be properly nurtured.
VANIA GHEDINI, HEAD CHEF AT RISTORANTE ORO, HOTEL CIPRIANI, A BELMOND HOTEL, VENICE, ITALY
Vania Ghedini was in her final trimester of pregnancy in Marrakesh, Morocco when she was offered the position of head chef at Ristorante Oro at Hotel Cipriani in Venice, Italy where she would work alongside Massimo Bottura, chef-owner of Michelin three-starred Osteria Francescana. Bottura is the creative culinary director for Oro.
Ghedini looks up to Bottura, whom she says comes from a region “that is one of the most well-known in Italy for its fantastic produce.” Bottura hails from Modena, Emilia-Romagna, the same region as Ferrara where Ghedini grew up. “He taught me about respect for produce and traditions.” Together with Bottura, Ghedini relaunched the restaurant in April 2024 with a menu that celebrates Italian culinary traditions and Venetian produce, when her son was just a few months old.
“I hardly took a break between leaving Morocco where I was working at Sesamo in the Royal Mansour Marrakech and joining Cipriani,” says Ghedini. “It was a crazy time but my family said I would be crazy to turn down a chance to work with Massimo.”
Ghedini says that Italy also sees a grossly disproportionate number of women in lead roles in top restaurants. The reasons are similar. One of them is that demands of the job make it hard for a woman to balance other roles such as being a mother and wife. Fortunately, Ghedini has a lot of support—from her husband, a chef who also works at Cipriani and from the hotel. “We work different shifts so that one of us is always with the baby,” says Ghedini, who sometimes brings her son to work.
While Ghedini herself has not experienced sexual discrimination, she feels that there is a need for closer mentoring for rookie chefs, particularly women, as they have different needs and concerns. In her kitchen, she keeps a close eye on individuals—whether man or woman, ready to guide.
GARIMA ARORA, CHEF-OWNER OF GAA, BANGKOK, THAILAND
When Garima Arora was in Delhi this January to open Banng, her first restaurant in India, many young women flocked to see her. After all, Arora made history last year when Gaa, her modern Indian restaurant received two Michelin stars.
Arora admits reluctantly that she has become the role model for many of them to pursue their dreams of becoming a chef—a profession not usually encouraged by traditional Indian parents. “They will prefer their daughters to join an industry that is less male-dominated, and perceived to be less of a blue-collar one,” says Arora, referring to the labour-intensive nature of her job.
Arora considers herself lucky. Unlike many women in the patriarchal Indian society, Arora has a very supportive father. “Since day one—when I decided that I would like to be a chef—my father, who is also my greatest mentor, has been there for me,” Arora says with a smile. “It’s not because of a lack of skills or talent when women don’t go far.” explains Arora. “It is the ‘ecosystem’ around them—their fathers, partners and family members need to support them.” Garima counts her 20-month-old son’s nanny, her mother who flies to Bangkok often, and her hands-on commercial pilot husband as part of the support system that has enabled her to juggle multiple roles.
Arora was a rookie journalist when she decided to ditch the pen to pick up the pan. “Writing didn’t come to me naturally, but I didn’t know what I was getting myself into either when I decided to become a chef,” recalls Arora who adds that her initial motivation was a love for food. Her businessman father sent her to Le Cordon Bleu in Paris to pursue her dream.
While Arora acknowledges that many aspiring female chefs look up to her, she maintains that she will hire only on merit, not gender. “Whether male or female, the first year is the toughest for a new chef,” she says. “It is when they realise that being a chef is nothing like what they have seen on TV or social media, and decide to leave the industry, but this is where mentors can help.”
This story first appeared in the April 2025 issue of GRAZIA Singapore.
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