Short rant incoming. I'm currently watching MasterChef Australia which I love for it's good-vibes-only approach and this time, genuinely super talented home cooks. They recently had a challenge where they had to recreate a dish inspired by the person they looked up to most with regards to cooking. Every single contestant named a mother, grandmother or a nonna - unsurprisingly. Their stories were super nice and they praised these wonderful women in their lives, not just for their ability to whip up a meal out of nothing but their devotion to their families, their strength, determination, love, etc. Overall really great stuff. Left me quite teary-eyed.

After each contestant had shared their own story, the judge then goes on to say "each one of you mentioned a member of your family as your inspiration" and I rolled my eyes so bloody hard. No, they didn't do just that, though. They all named women.

It might sound like a small thing but I reckon the food industry specifically is one of those fields where women make basically all of the work & invent all of the things (at least have done so historically); and manage to make meals and food something so important to us socially and culturally. And then some snobby dudes come along and act as if they single-handedly came up with the concept of cooking. Fuck off already!!

I'm so tired seeing women being sidelined in these tiny yet meaningful ways. Nearly every cook or chef who's asked about their inspiration name their mothers or grandmothers, but still zero to none of the actual credit goes to them. They were, you see, just these stepping stones for the marvelous men to enter the picture and make cooking cool and great. Ughhh.

The food industry is also massively misogynistic (to the surprise of no one) so it pisses me off that even this small gesture of saying "you were all inspired by the women in your lives" seems like too much to ask. Stop omitting us from our own history and this important part of our cultures and lives! You did not invent this.

We did.