Guess who’s coming to dinner

Guess who’s coming to dinner
Female chefs cook up a restaurant industry fundraiser

By SARAH NORRIS

When chefs Barbara Sibley and Margaritte Malfy were at the closing of the East Village space that would become their Mexican restaurant La Palapa in 2000, their new landlord asked their lawyer, “What if the girls can’t pay the rent?”

There would be more chauvinism to come. Sibley recalls purveyors coming in and addressing her as “honey” and expecting her to relay messages to her boss, instead of guessing that she co-helmed the successful eatery.

The assumption is partly understandable. Despite the fact that more than half (various records show between 53 and 57%) of the people working in the food industry in the United States are female, less than one-tenth of those women are executive chefs. Which is why, in 1993, Women Chefs and Restaurateurs (WCR) was founded by eight female chefs aiming to promote the advancement and education of women in the industry. Offering networking, professional and support services, the nonprofit organization’s membership now exceeds 2,000 women, who work in all areas of the food business.

“When I first started working in restaurants,” Sibley says, “I worked for a female chef, and it was wonderful to have a positive role model. Any women who’s worked in this business, especially in management or as a chef, has come across a lot of sexism, and has had to fight very hard for respect and for growth.”

Sibley and Malfy joined WCR when they opened La Palapa, and have subsequently sponsored employees as members. “Knowing there’s an organization that provides contacts like this is very important,” Sibley adds, though her reason for participating in WCR’s second annual Toasting Women Chefs & Restaurateurs fundraising gala and dinner on Oct. 18 isn’t quite as altruistic. “It’s so much fun!” she says. “People in the restaurant business are always so busy that it’s exciting to get together with everyone, especially for such a great cause.”

The money raised by both the tickets, $150 each or $1,000 for a table of ten guests, and the accompanying silent auction, fund the 40-plus annual scholarships available to aspiring and working women in the restaurant business. One such award, which sends someone to study in China each year, is named for Barbara Tropp, a founding member of WCR who specialized in Chinese cuisine. Other scholarships include a month-long study at the Washington Square Hotel, rotating through different positions in order to learn about running a boutique hotel, as well as a weeklong seminar on how to be a personal chef. All of the scholarships, explains board member Carol Durst, are designed to promote mentoring and connecting.

Durst, who has taught at myriad culinary schools in New York, played an instrumental role in the career path of Lisa Doht, 53, who recently uprooted her life in banking to switch to baking. “I always had a passion for cooking,” Doht explains, “and I was tired of the corporate rat race and politics.” After September 11th, she asked herself, “Am I going to wait until I’m 70 to do what I love?” The answer was obvious.

Doht had previously taken a class taught by Durst at the Institute of Culinary Education about opening a gourmet shop, and joined WCR for networking. “While lots of people in my life discouraged me from going into the food industry, people from WCR couldn’t wait to help me with advice, support, and encouragement.” She undertook an unpaid internship at Amy’s Bread, owned by renowned baker and WCR member Amy Scherber, where she worked in the sweet kitchen. Doht credits Scherber for encouraging her to go out and work in a commercial kitchen so that she would be prepared for what she was getting herself into. She then worked for two months at a bakery in Brooklyn, again for free, observing everything and taking feverish notes. And then, Doht says, “I was diagnosed with breast cancer, which motivated me to open up my own business.” She scouted for locations during her recovery, settling on Farmingdale, Long Island, where she now runs the sweet shop My Little Cupcake.

Last year’s WCR gala, also held at the Prince George Ballroom, raised more than $20,000, and was attended by approximately 200 people. This year’s dinner menu includes courses cooked by some of the city’s top female chefs, including Heather Carlucci-Rodriguez, owner of the Indian restaurant Lassi and Mary Cleaver of The Cleaver Company and the all-organic Green Table, a catering business and restaurant in Chelsea Market specializing in sustainable agriculture and produce from local farms. Some of the other nine participating chefs are Amy Scherber, a former board member of WCR; Rebecca Charles of Pearl Oyster Bar; and Nancy Olson, dessert chef at Gramercy Tavern. Sommeliers Julee Resendez and Yukari Pratt will be on hand, in addition to myriad silent auction prizes that range from culinary books to private Italian cooking classes; membership to Slow Food (replete with heirloom beans); and a weeklong stay in Mexico with local chefs.

“At the first [WCR] meeting I went to thirteen years ago,” Durst says, “Amy Scherber showed up carrying huge paper bags of her rolls, and you can see we’ve come a long way since then — Amy doesn’t do her own deliveries anymore.”

At the Table New York: Toasting Women Chefs & Restaurateurs fundraising reception and 5-course dinner presented by women chefs, winemakers and sommeliers. Chaired by Sara Moulton of “Gourmet” magazine. Oct. 18, 6-10pm. $150 each or $1,000 for a table of 10. Prince George Ballroom, 15 E. 27th St (btw Madison & 5th Aves). For tickets, call 877-927-7787 or visit www.womenchefs.org.