From the Baltimore Sun, Wednesday Oct. 17th
Women do dominate among pastry chefs. Eighty percent of the pastry students at CIA are women. Seventy percent of the culinary students are men. At Baltimore International College, the same is true: 71 percent of the baking and pastry students are women; 66 percent of the culinary students are male.
This is a chicken and egg quandary. Are more women interested in baking and pastry because it is a female thing? Or was this their only route into the male-dominated world of the professional kitchen?
"I used to think it was because women might have gotten their first exposure to the kitchen while baking with mom," said CIA’s Ryan.
"Then I decided there were more practical reasons for the division. Women say that being a pastry chef, with the early hours and the flexibility, made it easier to have a family.
"But there is something else going on there. Pastry chefs are cats. They are apt to be lone wolves who like to be off by themselves. Chefs are dogs. They like to work in packs, in teams."
And there seems to be an emotional ingredient in baking that appeals to the heightened empathy quotient in women.
Ha, ha, HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! That’s just craaazy. Please click here for some shock treatment. I’m going to go cut up a dead cow now. ‘Bye!