Time for women to claim their rightful place in the kitchen
WOMEN are making a big comeback in the professional kitchen and one top female chef leading the way is Valerie Storer.
She's French, she's feisty and she has strong views on a woman's place in the restaurant kitchen.
Valerie, 30, is the new head chef at the Dean Court Hotel, nestling in the shadow of York Minster.
"Male chefs have had it all their own way for long enough. It's time to move over because men are not better in the kitchen – women are," says Valerie, former head chef at the Mediterranean-inspired Restaurant Anise at Hazlewood Castle, between York and Leeds.
Valerie was born and raised in Angers in France's Loire Valley and was introduced to cooking by her father at the age of eight. She helped him prepare and cook for dinner parties which got bigger and bigger each time. She later helped an uncle in his restaurant before starting at a French cookery school in Angers, learning modern French cuisine – "and a little English cooking, including shepherd's pie!"
When she was 18, she moved to Britain to work in a private gentleman's club, The Atheneum, in London, and later the RAC Club in Pall Mall.
"I learned a lot working in those kitchens. You have to be tough to survive, especially if you are a woman. And if you can't banter with the boys you will get nowhere.
"But I've never been afraid of anyone."
Valerie, who spent a year as a chef in the six-star restaurant aboard the luxury, world cruise liner, Silver Shadow, met and married a Yorkshireman and considers the county her true home.
And she keeps reminding you of that in her cute, Yorkshire-French accent.
At D.C.H, the restaurant of the Dean Court Hotel, Valerie and her all-male team of eight source all their ingredients as locally as possible and she is dedicated to raising the profile of Yorkshire produce just as York gears up for it's renowned Food and Drink Festival.
"I have been in England for 12 years and the food has changed so much for the better in that time," she says. "England can be very proud of its food and Yorkshire has so much variety to choose from."
While she was working at the five-star Hanbury Manor in Hertfordshire, she took part in the television series, Faking It, where a burger van boy had to fool the judges into thinking he was a real chef among several others, including Valerie.
That's where she met her hero, Gordon Ramsay, who was teaching the boy tricks of the trade.
"I admire Gordon Ramsay because he is a very good businessman.
"He speaks with his hands like a Frenchman and he is very handsome, though he does not have to swear so much."
Valerie does admit she swears in the kitchen and she does it in English "because my brain now thinks in English." And she has to be firm but fair with her staff in the Dean Court's busy kitchens.
"Men are no better in the kitchen than women but I think men started to dominate in restaurants when women stayed at home to have babies. Now, we are making a comeback, we want to get out and get good jobs and we don't mind working long hours in hard, tiring conditions.
"But you have to be passionate about food. I am – and I love to experiment with new dishes that I feel the customer will want.
"My work is physically demanding so I keep fit by walking my dog, Patch, and doing sit-ups. I cannot just sit about and watch TV, I get bored. I have to be doing something."
Which is why, though husband, Carl, is a top-notch chef, Valerie does the cooking at home, with a little help with preparation.
"I love my food and I eat healthily, though I do like fish and chips and mushy peas," she says.
She knows that Yorkshire people are discerning diners – they want good, elegant food but they still expect a substantial meal that has to be good value for money. And that is what she strives to serve up at the Dean Court.
Valerie's advice to any woman wanting to become a top chef: "Go for it, it is no longer a man's world. But you have to be passionate about cooking and willing to work very hard."
Check out www.deancourt -york.co.uk for Christmas menu details.
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Sunday 12 February 2012
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