Women, Food & Politics | Parabere Forum 2024
For one weekend in March, women in food from across the globe – chefs, producers, writers, photographers, bartenders and advocates – came together at the bucolic campus of Luiss University in Rome to exchange ideas, tactics and learnings on the theme of the Politics of Food.
Food is Political
They were there for the Parabere Forum, an annual summit for women in hospitality to come together and push the industry – and in turn global food systems, politics and more – forward.
Image credit: Kim Low
Intentions for the weekend were set from the off as the audience was asked by host, Australian journalist and food critic Joanna Savill, to speak briefly about what they hoped would be covered during the forum.
Responses ranged from acknowledging the ongoing conflict in Gaza to the importance of progressing sustainability in our food systems and the ethics of who grows our food.
Not only did this session proclaim from the beginning that we were in a room full of people who didn’t want to hold back on tackling big issues and ideas, but it set a kind and respectful tone that remained important through the rest of the event as women gathered between sessions to swap stories and thoughts.
“Every time you buy food you vote for something,” said Narda Lepes, the celebrity chef-owner of Buenos Aires restaurant Narda Comedor. Lepes, who is also a TV host and uses her public profile to work closely with the Argentinian government to change and equalise food systems, spoke of the potential of collaboration – and the importance of being well informed when challenging the powerful and trying to push for change.
Her sentiments were echoed by Dee Woods, a UK cook, educator and advocate who movingly called for more equality in our food systems. “We often talk about a broken food system,” she said. “But it’s not broken, rather it’s working in the way it was designed. It’s about profit and power.”
UK cook, educator and advocate Dee Woods. Image Credit: Borough Market
Woods reflected on the women and children who are often co-opted into near-slavery conditions so those in developed countries can enjoy luxuries like chocolate and coffee. But she also looked closer to her own country, where more people than ever are relying on food banks or going without healthy food because it’s becoming unaffordable.
Her solution to all these problems? Agroecology – a circular food system where every element empowers the other, and is in turn kinder to the environment, more sustainable and thus more equitable.
Clockwise from top left: Monica Suh, Asma Khan, Chiara Pavan, Narda Lepes, Annalisa Corrado, Audrey Bourolleau, Joanna Savill, Dee Woods. Image source: Parabere Forum
One of the most powerful speakers was Asma Khan, the Indian-born owner of London’s respected Darjeeling Express – the only Indian restaurant in the world with an all-female kitchen.
Many of Khan’s chefs have never worked in a commercial kitchen before and, radically, the average age is 50. Khan spoke beautifully to Alice Quillet of Paris’s Ten Belles about harnessing womanhood and feminism for good. She called out London’s Michelin-starred female chefs for never speaking up about the bad behaviour of the men in the industry, and spoke on the importance of teaching “women how to get into a space and shake the world gently”, rather than disguising their femininity behind the masculine aggression that has been associated with the industry for generations.
‘I want to show women how to come into a space and shake the world gently.’
-Asma Khan
Image Credit: Kim Low
Monica Berg, of London bar Tayer + Elementary also preached kindness – in the form of paying employees a living wage and treating them with fairness, and how in turn those employees will find meaning in their work and perform at their best.
Perhaps the most engaging of the talks was by Chiara Pavan of Venissa, a restaurant in Italy’s Venice Lagoon. Pavan is genuinely making a difference to her community – and showing a way forward when it comes to dealing with the impact of climate change, equality in hiring staff, and cutting down on food waste.
As climate change sees invasive species enter the lagoon, Pavan is asking her local fishermen to catch them for her so she can cook them – thus reducing their numbers, attempting to allow native species to flourish, and giving those fishermen income when they are struggling to find their traditional catch. She attempts to use every edible part of every item that passes through her doors. And she actively aims for gender parity in her kitchen – despite a recent role receiving 90% of applications from men, she worked to find a woman.
While every speaker at the forum was powerful and making real change, Pavan’s open-mindedness, creativity and resilience lay the foundations for further action for many, and felt the most doable.
Food is inherently political: invasive species presented by Chiara Pavan, and farmers’ protests in France by Audrey Bourolleau. Image credit: Kim Low
For some, the forum was a state of play: a gauge of where the industry is at right now, and where it's heading in the future. But for many others, the forum provided impetus to acting on ideas that had been sitting in the 'draft' section of our brains.
It offered a multitude of ways to spur on action – whether that was by creating the pathways and connections between people to get an idea off the ground, or offering a concrete solution to a problem faced in the kitchen or when feeding our own local community.
Whether we went looking for something practical, were hoping simply to share a room with like-minded people, or wanted to find a way forward with our own singular concerns, the forum offered shape and structure – and plenty of food for thought.
The Aussie Possie! Image credit: Joanna Savill
Che-Marie Trigg is a writer, editor and digital content producer based in London.
You can sign up to her Substack here.
