The French model of the professional chef has been adopted in restaurants around the world, and with it, a gendered system. Although historical and sociological research (Black 2021, Ferguson 2004, Haddaji 2017, Trubek 2000) has been conducted on how female chefs have been marginalized in haute cuisine restaurants, little analysis has been done on how gender in French cuisine is represented in popular culture films. Representation plays an important role in the image of the profession as it is presented to the French, but also international, audience. These representations are the primary source of cultural information about haute cuisine, and fictional images of chefs define the expectations of the culinary profession around the world. This study examines the role that gender plays in the representation of haute cuisine chefs in popular culture films through an analysis of the characters, scenes, and plots of six films: Comme un Chef (2012), Burnt (2015), Les Saveurs du Palais (2012), The Hundred Foot Journey (2014), No Reservations (2007), and On a failli etre amis (2016). By examining how chefs in haute cuisine are represented from a gendered and feminist perspective, I show that these representations reinforce the dominance of normative masculinity and the exclusion of women in the profession, thus contributing to the marginalization of women in haute cuisine.
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