Paving the Way for Women in Culinary

Paving the Way for Women in Culinary

Chef Kristi Descher is a CASA MVP. As an academic facilitator, mentor, and curriculum writer she has a unique view of the program and a particular investment in her students. As a chef, she has garnered a lot of attention and acclaim, even winning the San Pellegrino “Almost Famous Chef” competition for the U.S. and Canada. We sat down with this wearer-of-many-hats to talk her life, career, misogyny in the kitchen, and her love of teaching. 

How did you become interested in the culinary arts? 

I’ve been working in restaurants since I was 15. However, I am a career changer. I didn’t seriously consider culinary as a career until after I graduated and got my bachelors degree from college. I was really unhappy at the corporate job I was working at. I was 19, hired full time at a mortgage company and worked my way up to being a corporate trainer of specialized products. It was great because it allowed me to buy my first house at 21, to pay for college without student loans, and I saw a lot of the country, so for that I’m thankful, but it did not fulfill me. So, I went to culinary school to pursue my passion and love for cooking.

How did you begin pursuing cooking as an actual career? 

I went to culinary school; La Cordon Bleu in Pasadena. That’s when I really thought, ‘Oh, I can do this for a living! Instead of it being a second job or source of extra cash.’ 

Was there a specific cuisine that you were gravitating towards?

Luckily, I come from a big food family. My mom was a great cook. My dad had a Chinese/Korean fusion restaurant when I was a baby. I grew up in that environment. I loved Asian fusion; my mom is Caucasian my dad is Korean. I grew up with both cultures. We were always eating fusion, even though I didn’t know that’s what it was at the time. I’ve always been drawn to that type of food. 

Was it your family’s restaurant you started working at when you were 15? 

No, they got rid of that early on, when I was still very young. 

Did you start working front of house or back? 

I started in front of house, but I would help out back of house if someone would call out or whatever. I would jump in. That’s where I got introduced to the back of house. I was like, ‘I kind of like this!’ I gravitated back there whenever I could. 

Did you face any obstacles as a woman pursuing a culinary career when you were starting out?

Oh very much! I’m not a soft spoken person, I’m very much assertive. After I graduated culinary school I was looking for my first job. I needed something kind of convenient because I was getting married and I needed a place that would give me enough time off to do all of the things I needed to do for that. I interviewed at this restaurant in Pasadena that was looking for a sous chef position. Because I already had experience as a line cook I thought, ‘I’ll go in and see if I can get this job.’ I got there and the executive chef was very young, I think he was maybe 24-years-old. He took one look at me and said, ‘I don’t hire women to work on my line.’ 

What?! He said that?

Yea, he really said that to me. I was like, ‘Excuse me? What?’ He was like, ‘Yea, I don’t hire women to work on my line. I just don’t think they are as good.’ He said that to my face. You know, I think that was coming from a young person with a lack of experience. He was thrown into that role and he didn’t deserve it. He said, ‘But, I do need a pastry chef, can you do pastry?’ Coming from the culinary side, we all think pastry is easy, so I said, ‘Of course I can do pastry.’ I had only had two pastry classes under my belt at the time. He hired me as his pastry chef, and I went to work for him to prove him wrong. I felt like I needed to prove a point. It turns out he ended up getting fired anyway. You know, I just had to prove him wrong. That’s how I’ve approached every job: If someone tells me I can’t do something, then I have to prove them wrong. Jokes on him though, because I ended up thriving in my role and it really changed my perception of pastry. It’s hard. It’s challenging, and I loved it. Professionally, I went on to only do pastry in restaurants from then on.

There have obviously been strides for women in the industry, but do you think it can still be an issue? 

It continues to be a daily struggle. Even if it’s not visually a struggle, you are going to see it in the pay scale for women in the kitchen. Women aren’t paid as much. They aren’t given as many opportunities. We have to work hard every day to prove that we belong. I just had this happen with [a female student] actually. She called me saying, ‘I just found out so-n-so is getting paid $2 more an hour than me, even though we got hired at the same time, because he’s a man and I’m a woman.’ We have had a lot of in-depth conversations about being Asian women in the kitchen– which is even more of a rarity. Misogyny is very much still prevalent. 

Can you take us through the evolution of your career trajectory? 

Out of culinary school I was working at La Grande Orange Cafe in Pasadena, then I was part of the opening team of Thomas Keller’s Bouchon in Beverly Hills, which was amazing. It was great to be a part of that opening team. Even more amazing, [Keller] was in the kitchen everyday, which was phenomenal to be around. After that I worked with Chef Andre Guerrero, a Filipino Chef, whom I have a lot of respect for. He actually did a couple of our CASA videos. I went to work with him at Max Restaurant in Encino. I just fell in love with how he ran a kitchen. He took me under his wing and I followed him to a couple restaurants. He opened BoHo in Hollywood. I worked at his restaurant Maximiliano in Highland Park. He has since retired, but I keep up with him. Then I started teaching at College of the Canyons in Valencia ten years ago. I teach pastry, culinary, safety and sanitation and food costing. I started writing educational curriculum for CASA, I wrote the whole program. Then there was also an opening for an academic facilitator and I stepped in. Teaching now is my primary focus.

How do you find time to sleep?!

Yea, actually, I also work for a catering company a couple days a week, I’m their executive pastry chef. I’ve been working with them for 15 years and I adore them so I would never leave. I also have a husband, two kids, and three rescue dogs. I’m on my kids’ executive PTA board at school and I volunteer by teaching cooking classes to Foster Students in my community. So yeah, I’m busy.

You are clearly an extremely hard-working person. Do you ever wish you had more of a lazy bone and could relax more? 

No, you know, I always say, ‘I’m a Capricorn to the max.’ I have to have multiple jobs, I’m always doing something. If I’m ever not doing something, I’m thinking, ‘What should I be doing right now?’ Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy my downtime, but I’m happiest being productive. I’m an extroverted introvert for sure. An extrovert when I have to be, but I love staying in and catching up on my shows as well.

What do you enjoy about switching your focus to teaching? 

I love training students to be the next chapter in the culinary world. So many of my former students I keep up with. I see where they are now– a couple of them are working at Michelin Star restaurants, quite a few have their own businesses. I love seeing them succeed. It’s so gratifying to see them succeed in this cut throat, crazy industry.

What misconceptions do you see your students exhibiting when they begin their studies?  

A lot of students see The Bear or Hell’s Kitchen and they think that’s what a kitchen is like. That’s such a small snapshot of what it’s like. It is long hours on your feet and is strenuous on your body. We are so drastically underpaid it’s laughable. A lot of students come into this thinking, ‘Oh, I’m going to be a chef.’ But no, you’re not. You aren’t a chef until you’re running your own kitchen which takes years and years of time and hard work. These newbies want to skip over all that and go straight to the title. That’s not how it works.

I have students who say, ‘This isn’t what I thought it was going to be. I thought kitchens were going to be full of people yelling at me.’ Executive chefs who yell, yes, I’ve had those situations a lot– especially in nicer restaurants and in culinary school. But I make a conscious effort to not yell at students. I feel like if they don’t know, then they don’t know, and you have to teach them. Why bother yelling at them for something they don’t know yet. I tell my students, ‘The chefs that yell in kitchens are just insecure.’ Instead of telling them to do something ‘just because,’ I like to tell my students the ‘whys.’ Why we do something the way we do, the science of it even. Then it usually clicks, they get it, and it stays with them. 

That sort of tough, gruff chef behavior is increasingly not tolerated. 

I agree. It’s verbal abuse. Who wants to take that all the time? The more you treat students with respect, the more respect you get back from them. 

You mentioned the lack of pay for back of house employees within restaurants. It seems like the tide is turning on that a bit. 

I think it’s a great thing that people are starting to recognize all of this. Show some respect to the people who are actually making the food for you! Even if [the tips] aren’t split totally equally, just anything. A lot of restaurants now are putting on their menu, ‘Buy a round of beers for the kitchen.’ It’s a start.  

Are there any other trends you see coming over the horizon for the restaurant industry? 

Since COVID, restaurants have been having a really hard time. Also, the high food costs, everything like that. It’s all too expensive. I think we are going to see a rise in pop-up restaurants. Smaller, more intimate settings. More chefs trying to hone and show off their skills on a smaller scale and go for quality over quantity. We are also seeing more chefs move towards [sourcing] from farmers’ markets, which I think is great to support local and sustainable within your community. I also think the consumer is becoming more educated on where their food is coming from and are demanding better quality. As a chef, that’s music to my ears.