A chef is a chef, whatever the sex!!
Since our childhood, most of us have seen our mothers cooking in the kitchen and our fathers going to work. And even if fathers come to kitchen for cooking, it is only once in a while. Why is it that always women are expected to cook for the family? And when it comes to professionalism, why it is always expected from men to take up job roles of chefs? No doubt, we see more male chefs than female ones. This conventional way of running a household is well justified if the woman of the house is a home maker and the man is responsible for earning money to run the household, since you cannot expect a man to slog hard the entire day and to come home at night and do all the cooking too. But nowadays the scenario is changed. In most of the houses, both the husband and wife are working and in such cases it is not fair to put the burden of cooking on women alone.
In such circumstances, there are mainly two possibilities. If the couple lives separately then they can hire cooks and servants for their ease. This proves to be very helpful as both the husband and wife can continue with their routine job without being bothered about the kitchen work. But if they are in a joint family, the situation may get worse. If the in-laws are supportive, the woman can do her work freely. But if the in laws are not understanding then the problem arises. In such situations, they expect the woman to do all her duties as a daughter-in-law which puts undue workload on her.
Nowadays, most of the parents encourage their daughters to study hard and focus mainly on studies but when it comes to marriage then they want them to learn the basics of cooking as well. Women and cooking complement each other. But this nexus is limited within the four walls of home because when it comes to taking up cooking as a profession, women are not being given much consideration.Very few women in India have taken up this job as a profession. So when it comes to cooking for the family, women are expected to be the perfect chef . Modern husbands do help their wives a lot, in cooking too which cannot be denied but why are women not encouraged and motivated to take this up as a profession? Answers may be there, may not be. They may be satisfactory, they may not be. It all depends on the thinking of the people around. A woman can certainly prove the connotation of ”a chef is a chef, whatever the sex” true if she is given the right opportunity and support to excel.
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About the Author: This article is contributed by Neha Thakur, our Intern.
