Why We Need More Black Women in Culinary Like Carla Hall to Win

Chef Carla Hall and I bonded instantly over our hair when we met at Chicago Gourmet in 2014.

”It’s great to meet another ‘curly Black girl!’” she exclaimed as she admired my much coilier locks, then hugged me. She then leaned in and whispered: “There aren’t too many of us front and center in the [restaurant] industry.”

It’s almost six years later and not much has evolved on that front. Not for a lack of availability, of course, but Black women just don’t have the visibility as other groups. Recently, we’ve all cheered on the successes of the likes of vegan darlings Aisha “Pinky” Cole of The Slutty Vegan and Tabitha Brown, a social media influencer and actress. But they’re few and far between.

Before the civil rights unrest following the murder of George Floyd by a racist police officer, Black female culinary artists were largely ignored outside of their communities. Though some of these restaurateurs, chefs and bartenders were literally getting hour-long waits and lines down the street, much of the mainstream food and beverage media wrote them off. I’ve discussed frequently that when I’ve traveled the country on media food tours, black-owned restaurants were rarely on the agenda. They were dismissed as “one note” and serving the same type of food. When one was finally highlighted by mainstream media, she was presented as a novelty.

Oh, how wrong they were. After recent call-outs by Black food media—which have actually been going on for quite some time, yet pretty much ignored—suddenly Black chefs are en-vogue. They’re booked and busy, along with their beverage counterparts, as mainstream America has a sudden fascination with them. Many act as though they’ve discovered hidden gems when they’ve been right there in the open all along.

My only hope is that this is not a temporary trend. That Black culinary artists—particularly female ones—will become part of the narrative without someone reminding them to include them. That Black female chefs and bartenders will be considered for promotions as much as their white counterparts. That they will be hired for the job in the first place, without preconceived notions about their skills being inferior. That they will be hired in upper management positions so that operators can see that they are able to make sound decisions. That they will be privy to financial literacy so that they may open more of their own establishments if that’s their goal.

And that they will be given the visibility they deserve so that they may become the next Carla Hall.