International Women's Day 2020 events: Where to celebrate women in the London restaurant industry

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Ailis Brennan5 March 2020

International Women’s Day is a day for both celebration and soul-searching across every industry, and the restaurant world is certainly no exception.

The sector suffers issues with both representation and recognition: women make up less than 20 per cent of chefs in UK professional kitchens and the World’s 50 Best Restaurants Awards still feels the need to award a prize to the “Best Female Chef”, with an even smaller percentage of women at the helm of top restaurants.

In London, we boast plenty of extraordinary women at the city’s culinary cutting edge. We would of course like to see more, but the capital should be immensely proud of its female foodies, who are often acknowledged as global pioneers across fields of food, wine, cocktails and front of house.

For International Women’s Day – or week, in some cases – restaurants, bars and organisations across London are throwing myriad events to celebrate the finest female talent in the hospitality world and question how the industry can better promote gender equality.

From collaboration dinners with superstar chefs to thought-provoking talks by big industry names, here’s how you can champion London’s female foodies for International Women’s Day.

Monica Galetti x Nieves Barragan dinner at Mere

MasterChef judge and Mere chef patron Monica Galetti will be welcoming Michelin-starred chef Nieves Barragan of Sabor into her Fitzrovia kitchen, marking a meeting of two of London’s top women chefs. The pair will cook a six-course menu for guests priced at £185 per person, which will see them fuse Galetti’s Samoan and New Zealand background with the flavours of Barragan’s native Spain. Dishes include crisp-fried braised Iberian pig’s head with mojo verde, veal jus and quince aioli and Herdwick saddle of lamb with glazed sweetbreads, burnt butter mash and Madeira sauce.

March 11, 74 Charlotte Street, W1T 4QH, mere-restaurant.com

Wander Women Week

Alexis Noble, chef-owner of Stoke Newington restaurant Wander, has rallied dozens of the top female names from the London hospitality – across food, wine and front of house – to put together five events across the week. The programme culminates on Sunday with the “Wander Women: 7 Women, 7 Dishes” dinner, featuring dishes created by Freddie Janssen (Snackbar), Elizabeth Haigh (Mei Mei), Maxine Thompson (chef uniform company Polka Pants), Anna Higham (Lyle’s, Flor), Mandy Yin (Sambal Shiok), Anaïs van Manen (Bao) and Noble herself.

March 1-8, 214 Stoke Newington High Street, N16 7HU, wanderrestaurant.com

Kitchen Balance talk with​ LDE London

The London iteration of philanthropic organisation Les Dames d’Escoffier is highlighting what women bring to the professional kitchen in a starry panel discussion. “Kitchen Balance: The Advantage of Employing Female Chefs” will see journalist Sheila Dillon quiz chefs Clare Smyth (Core), Skye Gyngell (Spring), Phil Howard (Elystan Street) and Geetie Singh-Watson (The Bull at Totnes) on the benefits of gender balance in the kitchen.

March 9, Smeg London, 14 Regent Street, SW1Y 4PH, eventbrite.co.uk

Ella Canta panel on gender equality

Louise Haywood-Schiefer

Mexican star chef Martha Ortiz will be in town at her London restaurant Ella Canta this week, and will be joined by five top London chefs to discuss equality in the restaurant world at a special event. Hosted by BBC broadcaster Edith Bowman, the talk will feature a 50/50 gender-balanced panel of London chefs including Ortiz, Santiago Lastra (Kol), Olivia Burt (Claridge’s), Sabrina Gidda (AllBright), Tom Phillips (Restaurant Story) and Ollie Templeton (Carousel). Attendees will be treated to a welcome cocktail and a selection of Ella Canta canapes.

March 11, One Hamilton Place, W1J 7QY, designmynight.com

Female winemakers menu at Ottolenghi

Wine is all about women at the various locations of Ottolenghi across the capital this week, where a limited edition wine list will feature only female producers. The list will be available all week at all locations, and include the likes of La Stoppa Wines by Elena Pantaleoni and the family-run Montenidoli vineyards. On March 8, Zainab Majerikova of Basket Press Wines will host a wine-focused sharing feast at Fitzrovia restaurant Rovi.

March 2-8, various locations, ottolenghi.co.uk

Women in a Word with Tess Ward and Gizzi Erskine

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Food blogger and Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef Tess Ward is currently in the midst of hosting her Soul Series talks at The Stratford hotel in east London, and will mark International Women’s Day with a special edition. She’ll be joined by TV chef Gizzi Erksine on March 11 to discuss topics including the idea of the chef as a “working man”, sustainability and our changing palates. The talk will be recorded live for Ward’s Down The Rabbit Hole podcast.

March 11, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, 20 International Way, E20 1FD, thestratford.com

Stoney Street female chefs lunch

At her latest restaurant Stoney Street, 26 Grains founder Alex Hely-Hutchinson will welcome a host of London’s brightest women chefs for Sunday lunch on International Women’s Day. Alongside Hely-Hutchinson and Stoney Street’s head chef Henrietta Inman, the kitchen will also be occupied by Shuko Oda (Koya), Sarit Packer (Honey & Co.), Freddie Janssen (Snackbar), Francesca Diliberto and acclaimed cookbook author Anna Jones. Each will cook a different dish in a menu that ranges from Janssen’s scallop and blood orange tostada to Packer’s feta and honey cheesecake. Tickets cost £45 and all profits go towards Women for Women International.

March 8, 2-3 Stoney Street, SE1 9AA, 26grains.com

Lyaness x WOW Festival

The women of London’s bar scene have had quite a year already, and Ryan Chetiyawardana’s South Bank bar Lyaness will be celebrating their ongoing success on International Women's Day. Curated by the bar’s floor manager Veronica Di Pietrantonio, this weekend’s Sunday Lyan will be an all-female takeover with seven brand ambassadors from different spirit companies behind the bar. A charitable donation from each drink sold will go toward the WOW Foundation, which runs the Women of The World Festivals.

March 8, 20 Upper Ground, SE1 9PD, lyaness.com

Women of the Past and Present cocktail menu at Seven Park Place by William Drabble

Seven Park Place by William Drabble, London’s smallest Michelin-starred restaurant, has dedicated its latest cocktail menu to some of history’s most remarkable women. Drinks include the “Hidden Cocktail” dedicated to suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst and the “FIY Martini Cocktail” inspired by Gracie Fields, the highest paid actress of the 1930s. The twelve women featured have each been depicted for the menu in the forms of charcoal drawings by artist Anna Mazzotta, while the cover features a drawing of the hotel by artist Annie Newman. For each cocktail sold, Seven Park Place will donate £1 to Springboard, a charity supporting women’s careers in hospitality.

From March 8, 7-8 Park Place, SW1A 1LS, stjameshotelandclub.com

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