It’s a familiar trope: angry men berating each other in kitchens as pots furiously boil, sauces burn and a giant slab of beef rests in the background. The dominant view of a professional kitchen is one of chaos and pent-up fury, a gladiatorial contest of male ego. Why then, do we also hear the misogynistic refrain that women ‘belong in the kitchen’ if, in a professional context, they’re all but erased from them? A Woman’s Place is in the Kitchen is the story of Sally Abe’s rise to become an award-winning chef in the brutal world of restaurant kitchens; how a girl from the midlands who used to cook herself Smash to get by is now one of the most successful fine-dining chefs working today. More than that, Sally’s story is also a stirring manifesto, drawing back the curtain on restaurant kitchens to show how she is endeavouring to change them for the better. Filled with stories of Michelin-starred food, the relentlessness of kitchens, as well as the hope for the future of the culinary landscape, Sally’s memoir is set to become a classic.
