Dominique Crenn, San Pellegrino’s ‘Best Female Chef,’ Calls Out Company For (Latest) Gender Bias

Dominique Crenn (Atelier Crenn, Petit Crenn) is delivering a long-delayed memo to San Pellegrino this week, casually observing in an Instagram post that, you know, women represent half the population, and calling out the company for including far more men than women in its award competitions. The post was a response to San Pellegrino’s 2018 Young Chef competition, where 37 jurors from nine different regions of the contest all have one thing in common: They’re dudes.

“I thought we all got the memo that women are 50 percent of the population. Oh wait.. 54 percent,” Crenn wrote. “Your leadership skills are disappointing,” she continued. “You are not inspiring and I hope you learn from this, and show up for all of us. Please evolve and do the right thing.”

While the complete list of jurors for the San Pellegrino Young Chefs competition isn’t 100 percent male — women jurors include Jen Agg for Canada, April Bloomfield for the USA, and Ana Ros for Eastern Europe — the numbers are stark. Meanwhile, San Pellegrino’s World’s 50 Best Restaurants List has sorely lacked women-run restaurants for years.

Crenn, a two-Michelin starred chef who won further fame with an appearance on Chef’s Table, is no stranger to calling out sexism in the restaurant industry — and there’s no lack of it, either. She’s criticized San Pellegrino before, questioning the brand’s “Best Female Chef” category, a dubious honor she received in 2016. Meanwhile, Crenn has rejected a steady stream of misogynistic questions and remarks, like one from Chronicle critic Michael Bauer, who said “she cooks the way the men are cooking,” which he seems to have intended as a compliment.

• @dominiquecrenn [Instagram]
• San Pellegrino’s ‘Best Female Chef’ Dominique Crenn Blasts It For Gender Inequality [Eater National]
• S.Pellegrino Young Chef 2018: Local Juries and Mentors [S.Pellegrino]