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When I first started in this food game, women in restaurant kitchens were

really rare beings outside the pastry department. There were the great exceptions, Joyce Molinno, Sally

Clark, Myrtle Allen. But as one of Northern Ireland's very best chefs who also happens

to be female said to me recently 20 years ago 10 years ago you

had to struggle to be seen as anything but a wee cook and that struggle marked her.

In the restaurant world it's still a battle. You might

remember Time magazine's now infamous Gods of Food cover featuring a trio of

professional chefs all male.

The article inside mentioned just four women,

none of them chefs.

And in the land that Chef Alice Waters

has transformed from prisons to schools, that's really beyond

understanding.

Which is why on a cold November night I've been drawn to a tent in Bristol.

It's sparklingly illuminated, promisingly warm, where ten women chefs are gathered to cook a feast for a good cause.

My name is Ole Herkiles.

My name is Alyssa Timoskinan.

My name is Laura Field.

They're part of a new generation who are making their way in the food world.

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