Cultural change driving Billie H success
Claremont bistro Billie H has come out of nowhere and has picked up acclaim and awards.
Gourmet Traveller and the Weekend Australian Magazine have named it as one of the nation’s top restaurants.
The secret to its success might lie with 30-year-old first time head chef Alia Glorie.
She was only one of three female head chefs listed in The Australian Magazine’s top 50 restaurants in the country.
As she puts it, there’s a certain significance in that, and it’s very much about cultural change in the nation’s kitchens. More women are now working the pans and the kitchens are adjusting.
“We don’t make inappropriate jokes about race or sex, we are pretty straight,” Ms Glorie told news.com.au.
“We swear a little bit, but only in laughter. My chefs don’t get yelled at, I’m not a screamer.
“It’s something that chefs are talking about now, that there is a new-school attitude and an old-school attitude and that’s not to say that the old-school attitude is wrong, it’s just that there are certain environments in that (world) that allow women to be vilified or judged.
“I know when I first started I had to be better than the other girls. That’s an awful thing to say but women are seen as, ‘You can’t cook, you’re not strong enough, you’re in a man’s world’, sort of thing, and that’s changed significantly.
“I’ve had a lot of women chefs coming in and out and 100 percent of the women who have come in have said to me that at some point in their career they felt unsafe in the workplace. Every single one.”
Restaurateur Daniel Goodsell is the man behind Billie H. And he is also the one who hired Glorie.
“I was kinda looking for someone who was going to take this on with a different sort of vision straight away,” Mr Goodsell told news.com.au.
by Leon Gettler, September 18th 2017
