The women of the festival. #IWD #Opinion

Victoria Hayes
8th March 2023

This International women’s Day, I’d like to take a moment to highlight the Taste Cheshire Food and Drink Festival as a female run event.

It may come as a surprise to many of you that one of the largest and most established food and drink festivals in the country is run by two women.

And whilst we are not the best at shouting about it, we are proud to be a female led festival held at Chester Racecourse, which incidentally has a fantastic female CEO in the form of Louise Stewart.

Women make up less than 30% of leaders in the hospitality industry. Let’s say that again, LESS THAN 30%.

Nisha Katona founder of Mowgli Street Food.

Each year, we fill our Chef demonstration stage with a combination of celebrity and local chef talent. Each year, I shake my head at the struggle to find those amazing women within our industry. Each time I am struck that so many brilliant women that do shine in their own kitchens and businesses are unwilling to step in to the spotlight.

At last year’s festival we had the great pleasure of being joined by Mowgli owner, tv chef,  Great British Menu judge, author and entrepreneur

Nisha Katona MBE. I had the great privilege of joining her recently at her book launch in Liverpool Waterstones. Hearing her speak I was reminded that even the most inspiring women suffer constantly with imposter syndrome and we must stand together and support each other to ensure that in our industry we are not leaving the women behind. This is a woman who runs a national chain of incredible restaurants, writes phenomenal cookbooks, appears regularly on ITV’s This Morning cooking up a storm but she still worries that she “isn’t qualified” to be in the position she is in.

Back to our chef demonstration stage and our guests are nimbly hosted by our female compere,  Izzy Grey. If you don’t know her, you should. Standing at the forefront of promoting Chester as a city and its fabulous hospitality, food, drink and attractions, so often she is one of only a small number of female voices campaigning for change and positivity.  She runs her own business, We Love Good Times and gives her time generously to our festival and other works within the city. I can’t tell you how much we appreciate both her talent and generosity.

Behind the scenes, another legendary woman is Chef Emma Shawcross. Providing chefs with equipment, ingredients and any random thing that desperately need, and have completely forgotten. The chef demonstration stage simply would not and could not run without her. Alongside being the ultimate shoulder to cry on for the festival team, she is a fantastic home economist and private chef as well as being a terrific mum. Emma will inspire, and feed you, all at the same time.

Chef Emma and Compere Izzy Grey with Chris Bavin

Lisa Hinze is heading up our adult cooking classes this year with her plant based cookery school All About Greens. She is a force both of and for nature. She creates and teaches plant based recipes to individuals or businesses through online courses, virtual masterclasses or business to business events. She is kindly offering adults at the festival the opportunity to try their hands at plant based cooking with immeasurable patience and a wicked sense of humour.

On the stage this year for the first time we welcome Valentina Aviotti from Michelin Guide recommended Da Noi. Despite running her own phenomenal kitchen at Da Noi, and gaining praise from every corner, the spotlight is not Valentina’s natural home.  Like many Italians, Valentina’s first childhood memory in the kitchen is of rolling fresh pasta where she would watch her Nonna Marcella (another strong woman!) prepare delicious authentic Italian dishes.
After moving to the UK, she realised there was a gap for truly authentic Italian cooking in the North West and decided it was time to try her hand at becoming a restaurateur.
In just a few months, MICHELIN were at the door and shortly after Da Noi was awarded a prestigious Distinction for 2020 (confirmed for 2021 and 2022), that makes them one of the few Italian restaurants in the Guide.

Chef Valentina

According to the most recent data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) less than 17% of chefs are women.  Female chefs only count for six percent  of the 638 Michelin-starred chefs, and the UK only saw its first female three-star Michelin winner in 2021. According to misogynists, a woman belongs in the kitchen. Curiously though, professional kitchens do not appear to be subject to the same harmful rhetoric.

Women have long encountered difficulties in hospitality, and barriers still exist today, even though women work in all areas and at every level of the industry.

We are proud to also be featuring local female chefs, Jade Cheema from Artezzan, Jemma Melvin, winner of the platinum jubilee dessert competition and Laura Billington of Graze Cheshire.

With each of these amazing women on stage we hope to inspire new generations of women into the professional kitchen and into the higher levels of hospitality. We encourage every young person to try one of our free kids cooking classes and we have met several women in the industry now who had their first real cooking lesson at the Chester Food and Drink Festival.

We must continue to inspire women, to show them there are paths of possibility in every industry, even hospitality.

From the all female team here at Taste Cheshire HQ, we wish you a happy international women’s day and hope that one day, we won’t need one.

For tickets to see any of these amazing female chefs and to enjoy a wonderful day out over Easter weekend at Chester Racecourse, please head to chesterfoodanddrink.co.uk