It’s Time for Open Kitchens

Earlier today, at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, I asked an audience of several hundred how many of them had experienced some form of sexual harassment, or had a friend who had experienced it.

Nearly every woman — and most of the men — raised their hands.

I wasn’t surprised. As I wrote in this space last month, #WhoHasn’t?

Today, I want to talk about why, despite all the sickening headlines and the painful testimonies behind them, I’m optimistic.

And that reason is this: This is a moment that has become a movement. For the first time ever, women are stepping forward in amazing numbers — and they are being believed.

The collective catharsis has been like a tidal wave, upending institutions and leaders along the way.

Fundamental Change

In the restaurant industry, we are recognizing, as New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells put it: “Something has gone grotesquely wrong when chefs brag that the chickens they buy lived happy, stress-free lives, but can’t promise us that the women they employ aren’t being assaulted in the storage room.”

It’s time for fundamental change. No matter who you are or your role in a restaurant, whether you work in the kitchen or in the front of the house, everyone deserves to work in a safe and respectful environment.

My colleagues and I at OpenTable hope to be part of the solution. In the coming months, we’ll be working to empower restaurant owners, chefs, and employees to address issues of sexual harassment and gender equality.

I’m humbly aware that as an industry partner, OpenTable can play only a small part in a massive transformation that restaurants must undertake for themselves. But I hope the “Open Kitchen” campaign we are launching today in collaboration with several top chefs and restaurateurs will help get things started.

#OpenKitchen

Open Kitchen calls upon restaurateurs to join together to end exclusionary and abusive cultures in their kitchens, and to create and ensure safe, professional, and respectful workplaces in their restaurants.

At SXSW, I was proud to debut a new PSA describing the Open Kitchen commitment and featuring several chefs and restaurateurs who have already agreed to commit to an #OpenKitchen: Tanya Holland of Brown Sugar Kitchen in Oakland, Mary Sue Milliken of Border Grill in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, Edward Lee of Succotash in Washington, DC, and Nicole Krasinski and Stuart Brioza of State Bird Provisions in San Francisco.

We are also providing restaurants pledge posters that they can display in the back of the house to underscore their commitment and hold themselves accountable for maintaining Open Kitchens. Restaurants who make the pledge promise to:

1. Uphold a zero-tolerance policy for harassment of any kind;

2. Treat one another with the same hospitality as they treat their guests;

3. Listen to one another with care, compassion, and respect;

4. Grow the team with a focus on diversity and inclusion; and

5. Cultivate a professional environment always.

We’ll also be making it easier for OpenTable users to find restaurants that are doing right by their employees. Restaurants who pledge zero tolerance for sexual harassment and discrimination can choose to display an Open Kitchen digital badge on their OpenTable booking links and pages.

People come to OpenTable to find and book their perfect meal. You count on the user-generated reviews on our site and the information about available tables to make informed choices about where to spend your hard-earned money. With the Open Kitchen digital badge, you can also find establishments that honor your values.

Honoring Best Women Chefs

This is just the beginning. I am confident that sexual harassment will become less and less of an issue when more women are working in professional kitchens, especially in leadership roles. In the coming months, OpenTable will also be launching an annual list showcasing the best women-owned or operated restaurants across the country. I know that some people are ambivalent about an all-women chef list.

But the facts speak for themselves. Women chefs are still grossly unrecognized.

- At America’s top food and wine festivals — from New York to Aspen to Los Angeles — women chefs have barely cracked 20% representation [source: Eater].

- Just six of the 72 Michelin-starred restaurants in New York City are run by women [source: Eater].

- 2017’s Top 50 Restaurants in the World list featured just three restaurants run by women [source: Time].

I refuse to believe that women chefs are not as talented as the men. So, until women reach parity — until the percentage of women head chefs in America reaches 50 percent, and until women get the recognition they deserve, then we’ve got to keep shining a light on the pioneers.

Finally, we’ll continue to provide chefs, particularly women chefs and owners, a regular forum for discussing and addressing industry challenges. In January, I hosted the first of a series of “Open Conversations” for women chefs and owners in San Francisco. We’ll be taking these conversations to cities across the country so that more and more female chefs can participate.

Eyes on the Prize

I am confident that change is on the way. But I also know it’s going to be a tough, messy, and difficult process. We’ll face our share of awkward moments — moments we wish we could just ignore or pretend never happened. But the prize is worth it.

It’s no longer OK to be complicit. It’s on all of us — chefs, managers, restaurateurs, leaders, guests and consumers and more — to call out inappropriate behavior and hold offending parties accountable. We can work together to ensure creative, thriving, safe, and open kitchens. And together, we will one day end gender bias and sexual harassment.

I’m looking forward to joining you in this movement.