Masterchef Ranveer Brar explains: Why commercial kitchens were male dominated
Indian celebrity Chef and Restaurateur, Ranveer Brar is the latest guest in the episode, that dropped this week, of What Women Want hosted by Kareena Kapoor Khan on Mirchi Plus Radio channel. Among many hats apart from chef’s he wears, Ranveer is also an actor, with his debut being for Amazon Prime Webseries, Modern love: Mumbai and recent outing being Buckigham Murders, co-starring the host of the radio show.
On the show they discussed many topics, however, what was interesting is his understanding of the skewed ratio of men-women chefs, with women being on the lower end. The host asked that despite cooking coming naturally to women, why were there such less women chefs. He reasoned that for commercial kitchens were bastions of men and traditionally too royal chefs or Khansamas were men. The major reason was the food cooked on a bulk scale which ranged from anything between 500-5000 patrons, so that required much more physical effort too, therefore, men almost ‘muscled through’ the kitchen opportunities. Also, the legacy continued of the cooks' heirs taking up their father’s place. Continuing he said, now the things are different as mechanization has now replaced muscle power. He mentioned Garima Arora, two star Michelin Chef and Chef Niyati Rao have become popular chefs. In the past, India had a superstar chef with Tarla Dalal, a trendsetter; commercial chefs were predominantly men.
Along with the issue of women and men chefs, Ranveer and Kareena discussed that phase in the chef went through a depression two decades ago, when his French Asian restaurant shut down due to recession and how he combatted that episode and what he learnt from it.
The other topics were lighter and fun like his hobbies and passion for acting. He revealed that he is coming up with a book, which isn't a cookbook but a book of his poems. Also, he has a collection camera from 1953 till now. In a fun rapid fire round, when he was asked to choose between Veg Biryani and Yakhni Pulao, he chose the latter, saying the concept of Veg Biryani is debatable.
