From young cooks to Blazing Trails and Driving Change
Lyde Buchtenkirch-Biscardi was also an out-of-the-box thinker when she pursued a formal culinary education in the late 1960s. While, historically, women had been excluded from entering the professional kitchen via culinary school, Lyde became one of the few women at the time to graduate from The Culinary Institute of America, in 1972. She recalled that when she began her culinary studies, she was offered a blue dress as a uniform—but insisted on receiving the chef’s whites. That kind of persistence led to a successful career as a chef, and eventually, Lyde returned to the CIA as a faculty member. She also became the first woman ever to achieve Certified Master Chef status from the American Culinary Federation. Similarly, Sara Moulton found that when she first came to the CIA, “some of the male faculty maintained that women couldn’t do the physical work in the kitchen. But soon chefs saw that the women worked hard, focused more, and could lift those large stockpots. In fact, we excelled.” Sara encourages young women chefs to stay in the kitchens as long as they have that “fire in the belly” because it gives a chef the credibility that nothing else can. She believes that there are more opportunities for women in the industry today but acknowledges that women have to put themselves in the position of going after what they want. Sara has practiced what she preaches—today she’s a successful chef, TV personality, and author, as well as a recent James Beard Award nominee. Over the years, many other talented female chefs have gone after what they wanted, helping to pave the way for future generations with their accomplishments and initiatives: