Narda Lepes and social activism in the culinary industry

A little about Narda

Narda Lepes was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1972. She lived in different countries with her family and developed the loved for cooking from an early age, deciding finally to dedicate her life to this profession. Her first approach was with the Japanese cuisine where she discovered cooking practices, valuable to develop habits to improve healthfulness. She led two Japanese restaurants and then, in 2008, published her first book called "Comerla y pasarla bien" (Eat and have fun) that is a manual to enjoy food and built good habits, with a plus of nutrition and shopping tips and how choose the ingredients. After that she also published, in 2017, "Ñam ñam. Manual para alimentar a un pequeño omnívoro" (Ñam, Ñam, manual to feed the little omnivore) orientated to develop good practices in food since an early age.

Her Activism

Her motto in Spanish is "comer rico" (eating well, or literally, eating richly) but this not is a reference only to develop good flavors, it also means that this richness is related with good habits and a balance with health, and to try new ingredients. In her own restaurant, "Narda Comedor" the philosophy in her own words is "we do is to encourage people to try things they wouldn’t normally eat or wouldn’t consider delicious.”, and this make reference to vegetables that customers do not know or are taken as not desirable, like cauliflowers or broccoli. In Argentinian cuisine, the beef is the main ingredient in almost every dish offered in restaurants, on the contrary and going in the opposite direction, Narda Lepes focused her business in encouraging customers to try other options, orientated to a wide range of vegetables, offering a tasty menu with less meat and more veggies. Many thought that she would fail since the average Argentinian loves meat, however this was not the case and her restaurant became successful and started a trend.
She also is a social activist, focused in the opportunities of women in the culinary industry. In Narda Comedor she open the doors to young women chefs to take place in the industry, traditionally dominated by men, giving them the opportunity to built confidence and sureness. She teaches to her females chefs and cook assistants that they do not need to prove anything to anybody, like lifting heavy things that after end in back problems, they only have to show what they know and learn from experience. Narda also designed her kitchen as a wide space, with corridors 25 cm wider than average so workers have enough room to move, preventing accidents by

eventual touching or physical collisions from happening.In her own experience, a small space in kitchen have negative impact in the performance of the workers.
 
During the pandemic and obliged to close his restaurant, she did not stand still and developed an app in the Android Play store called "Come+Plantas" (eat more plants). The app basically to people information about different vegetables, their benefits, nutrition facts , tips to correctly clean them, and suitable recipes. In addition to the mentioned features, the app also provides shopping tips to have a better organization in order to build positive eating habits.

Despite being an established chef, a successful business woman anda reputed professional, Narda did not abandon her activism. Her cooking books reflect her desire of making positive changes by encouraging people to eat according to season and take full advantage of the nutrients that each vegetable offers. This also means to favor local farmers when buying fresh products instead of intermediaries, such as supermarkets.

In 2020, she was awarded with the title of Latin America’s Best Female Chef, and was included on the 50 Best Restaurants in Latin America list for the third year in a row. She took advantage of this visibility to spread out her activism and give more relevance to women in the industry, something that is paramount to reduce the gap in this business.

Social Activism in the culinary industry

As an active worker in the industry I consider that there are several things to change, not only in terms of sustainability or changing habits to become healthier, is also regarding social issues, and specially how this business treats their workers. My personal own experience, not only in Canada but also in Argentina, showed me that the average culinary lacks of good labor conditions, despite the fact that they are a major workforce around the world. I strongly believe that this should change

Food is important as a social link among humans. we eat throughout our whole lives, but what about the people who make this food? What are their work conditions? Are they well paid? Have they any work rights? I think is really nice to talk about eat better, eat healthy, however in that equation, it is often forgot that these changes are made and carried by people, cookers, chefs, sous chefs, etc

Many argued that kitchen are tough places, that it has always been that way and therefore, can be considered "normal". However, as a person who love cooking and worked for several years in this business, I do not agree with this normalization of work abuse in the culinary industry, I really think that things can change. However, I am also realistic about how the traditional system in kitchens are well-established. As Lindsey Danis wrote in Eater (2021, February 4) "For decades now, the dining public has understood restaurant kitchens to be tough places to work. From yelling to physical threats, bad behavior has historically been accepted as part of coming up as a cook. If you didn’t like it, the saying went, you could leave". Yes, in the industry, cookers and chefs are treated as if they were
disposable. There are exceptions, of course, but it is not the standard: it is quite easy to find a new worker in urgent need to make money who will accept deficient work conditions. It can be quite hard to love something so much and at the same time to suffer bad treatment, knowing that it is accepted like a normal thing and that protesting is most likely a waste of time.

This issue become more visible during the pandemic, because the culinary industry was one of the most beaten and many workers found their situation worse than ever. Now, after the vaccination campaign, the hospitality sector recovered to a certain extent, but is facing serious challenges to find the necessary workforce, simply because workers changed of sector in their quest for better work conditions and more stability. Many of them are not willing to take back jobs that mean lots of work, harassment, in exchange for pennies. “A lot of people start in hospitality and move to other sectors. This has pushed people to say, ‘If it’s not my long-term career path, maybe now it isn’t something I’m committed to" (Finaldi, L. S. H. 2022, March 5). This resulted in business closing doors because they did not have enough staff. Managers and owners complain but the reality is that many of them are not willing to change the current conditions of the jobs they offer.

How things can change?

I am convinced that regardless of how harsh reality presents to us, change is always possible. I also understand that change may imply lots of years of striving to achieve results that might not come to fruition in the short term. In my particular case, I am sure that there are ways to contribute to solving this issue, as I know many others are already doing it. Personally, I already participated in reunions with other workers and I am definitely not the only one with these concerns. A first step is to share the situation through media, contact workers and talk with them, because it is important to unite people with the same issues so they know they are not alone. Second step would be to gather information about the work conditions in a establishment, make surveys, organize all this information and make it visible for people to know the actual reality of the workers in the culinary industry. Nowadays we have highly effective tools to spread information, such as social media, virtual news, etc., which in time could help to raise awareness in the public It is important that customers also address this issue so they can take a more active role. In this sense I can speak from my personal experience: I knew nothing about the situation of workers in the culinary industry until I became one. To realize how others are suffering can make a huge difference.
I know that this task can take several years as it requires to change bad habits that are deeply rooted in the industry, but I think it is possible if the work is done in small steps with consistency. Working as a chef, cooker, line cook, should not equal to experiencing violence or bad treatment. Discipline and organization are inherent to cooking, but they do not equal to cruelty and disrespect, and we must change that mindset if we intend to have a better workplace environment.

 Sources

 Artina, F. (2020, November 25). Narda Lepes, infatigable: “Todo ha cambiado, tenemos que redescubrir las cosas realmente buenas.” https://www.finedininglovers.com. https://www.finedininglovers.com/es/noticia/entrevista-narda-lepes

 

Danis, L. (2021, February 4). Leaving the Restaurant Industry Allowed Me to See Its Problems Clearly. Eater. https://www.eater.com/22264517/restaurant-kitchens-abusive-working-conditions

 

Feor, B. (2021, November 11). Food service labour shortages in Canada: exploring average hours worked as an indicator. LMIC-CIMT. https://lmic-cimt.ca/food-service-labour-shortages-in-canada-exploring-average-hours-worked-as-an-indicator/

 

Finaldi, L. S. H. (2022, March 5). Sarasota not alone in struggling with thousands of people leaving restaurant industry. Sarasota Herald-Tribune. https://eu.heraldtribune.com/story/business/2022/03/04/hospitality-employees-turning-to-other-jobs-health-risks-burnout-new-careers-better-pay-covid/9211882002/

 

Kelso, A. (2021, October 13). BLS: Hospitality worker quit rate is more than double national average. Restaurant Dive. https://www.restaurantdive.com/news/bls-hospitality-worker-quit-rate-is-more-than-double-national-average/608112/

 

Kelso, A. (2022, February 7). Despite January job gains, the restaurant industry continues to struggle. Restaurant Dive. https://www.restaurantdive.com/news/despite-january-job-gains-the-restaurant-industry-continues-to-struggle/618386/

 

Sgarbi, G. (2020, November 3). Why Latin America’s Best Female Chef 2020 Narda Lepes wants to recalibrate how you look at food. Https://Www.Theworlds50best.Com/. https://www.theworlds50best.com/stories/News/latin-americas-best-female-chef-2020-narda-lepes-recalibrate-how-you-eat.html