Narda Lepes (Buenos Aires, 1972) remains unstoppable. After taking care of the culinary styling of Nada, the Disney miniseries in which Robert De Niro embodies the story of a food critic in decline, they continue their projects with the animation giant. He does not want to detail what they are up to, but he does affirm that a new book and an animated film focused, obviously, on food, will soon be released.
Meanwhile, the one who was the Best Female Chef in Latin America in 2020 according to The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, seems to live immersed between cooking and the feminist struggle. We met her last March at Parabere Forum Rome to talk about the situation of women in the Latin American labor market, the crisis facing her country and how she herself has faced that machismo in the kitchens that continues to this day existing.
-You hire women over 60 years of age to take charge of the dining room at your Narda Comedor restaurant (Buenos Aires). She says she does it because they make better conversation than a twenty-something…
– Yes, and they also take the time to get to know the client. The idea came to me when I started working with my aunt in television. I saw her wanting so much to leave the house, to get active, that I thought: there’s something here.
Like my aunt, the women who run the Narda Comedor room get up early and want to go out to work. His work is not something that someone his age cannot do. For running we have runners, much younger, who do not take the same time as them to get to know the clients.
– The older a woman becomes, the more invisible she is by society. Why did she want to give visibility to these women, precisely?
– Because I believe that the more mixed the team is, the better work environment is created. That younger boys interact with such experienced women, who know how to chat with people of that age, I think is very good. It’s even funny. Some women sometimes even end up “adopting” one of the guys if they see him half lost. Others also end up fighting with them, because just because they are older doesn’t mean they don’t have character. If they have to stand, they stand. Not because they are older ladies are they all good.
– What is the situation like for a young woman, who does not come from a privileged family, to access a kitchen today in Argentina?
– In almost all restaurants the entrance way for both men and women is the “bacha”, as we call the sink. When men come in as dishwashers, if they see that they like it and that they are interested, they ask if they can help you prepare the vegetables or clean the fish. I know great chefs who started like this. In fact, one of my head chefs was a dishwasher first.
What happens with women is that if they come in as dishwashers, they don’t dare to communicate that they also know how to cook. Because they don’t do it out of competition, like them, but in another way and they believe that they are not as valid. This is how we detected that there was no direct entry path for the woman.
As a result of all this, we have organized a scholarship similar to the one created by chef Elena Reygadas in Mexico. We are going to create a kitchen assistant course for women, but above all we are going to teach them soft skills: how to present themselves at an interview, how to behave in a work environment with people of different types, how to speak a little louder so that they become hear.
– It is curious, because if we review the situation of female chefs in the ranking of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, it seems that it is easier to achieve success in Latin America than in Europe as a woman.
-Without a doubt, but it is something that only happens in the capitals, in the large cities of Latin America. The complicated thing is that young women who are not in these capitals and who do not come from privilege have visibility.
– What do you think is happening in Europe?
-Almost every time I meet with chefs in Spain, I end up asking them: “Where are the women at this event? Don’t you have chef friends to invite?” To which they usually respond: “Oh yes, really, we would have to…”. It’s kind of semi-segmented, although lately I did see more female cooks. I think they were always there, but they had no visibility.
-Returning to Argentina, which is hot. How are Milei’s new policies affecting restoration?
– The country has become very expensive both for Argentines, who cannot face the new prices with the level of salaries that exist, and for tourists, because everything is going to reach the dollar price of any place. I don’t understand economics, but two plus two still equals four, and what is clear is that when there is hunger, there is no peace. I don’t want to live in a place like that, even though we Argentines are used to crises.
– What has been, for you, the biggest slap in the face?
-Social aid has dropped to 60%, poverty has grown from forty-something to fifty-something in less than 15 days. Traveling has become impossible: if before a ticket cost 270 pesos, in a week it has cost 870 or 1200. How can someone take the subway to go to work?
The ceiling for rents, for health, for schools, was released, and when there are monopolies (which in Latin America there still are) everything becomes complicated. It’s not a free market, that’s what.
– Well, you always said that you were raised strong. Empowered. Even to be able to deal with sexual abuse in a kitchen.
-I am the way I am because I was raised that way. Someone touching my ass in a kitchen doesn’t paralyze me with fear. I turn around and answer her, and if I can embarrass her in front of her friends, I do it. It has happened to me, and being able to face it with ease is a tool that I have, which for me is very valuable and I thank my mother. But there are women who are physically touched in their workspace and may become paralyzed with fright or feel like they don’t want to be there.
-How would you help another woman who was not able to report it?
– In any job there should be a clear communication system, so that if something happened to you you would know who you could talk to. You don’t have to tell people, “Don’t touch your classmates’ asses.” That is already known. What you have to do is make available a couple of people, a man and a woman, who do not make you feel uncomfortable and you can talk openly. Also create work spaces where these things do not happen, react in time. If you let any of this happen and the situation is not addressed immediately, a breeding ground will be generated that will cause problems later. The work environment must be comfortable for everyone.
– In Argentina, is the situation still as sexist as before?
-It improved, but in the capitals. In the provinces and smaller places it still has to improve. That is why it is important, as I told you before, to make it visible. I am 51 years old, I do not represent a young cook. My job now is to try to find those who can represent who I once was.
– You have always escaped from the conventions of luxury in haute cuisine, but you still remain within the system.
– For me in a dish the first thing is the flavor, the second is the performance (that the sauce reaches you, that it is crunchy enough, that you like the first bite until the last, that you don’t get bored in the middle of the plate) and the third is how it looks. Regarding very long tasting menus, I think that the cook should be seated and eat it in front of a camera. Let’s see what he does.
-What do you think of all the ego surrounding this “eat my art” Star Food System?
– I fed my ego working on television long before that existed. The visibility, the autograph… I had it before many chefs had it. Now it seems like this whole Rockstar System is starting to shrink. And I think it’s positive, because we went on television showing that cooking was super cool and it’s not. It’s not super cool to work in a kitchen, it needs to stop looking that way. This is demonstrated by the lack of staff experienced today in restaurants throughout the globe.
– Young people quit.
– Now in Argentina it is coming back, but for the wrong reasons. Not for pleasure, but because they need to work. Many young people who became freelance, seeing that they can no longer support themselves, return to the kitchens. But they don’t do it because they want to.