According to the National Restaurant Association (not to be confused with another NRA) women make up over half of all restaurant workers, but a meager 19 percent of chefs, and only 8 percent of head chefs. In a world where women-led restaurants have shown to be glowing up and staying hot at a faster rate than the national average, it makes sense on a social level and a monetary level to help them keep doing them. Luckily for us, the delivery service GrubHub recently announced that they have created a database of all of the women-led restaurants around the country so that it can be even easier to support them.
What Is The Database?
GrubHub created the database of more than 25,000 restaurants on a new website called RestaurantHER.com, in partnership with Women Chef's & Restauranteurs, who champion for the support and representation of women in the food industry. It is a searchable database that uses zip codes to show a map of all of the restaurants majority owned by women or led by a woman as head chef in the area. Fans of girl-powered restaurants can nominate any that are not in the database so that they can be approved and added to the list.
The website also contains stories and interviews with some of the women behind the restaurants in the database, from Lulu's Ice Cream in Miami to Pasta Sisters in Los Angeles.
How It Came About
The database was created to raise awareness about the gap in gender representation in the restaurant industry during Women's History Month, although it has plans to continue to grow and support women restauranteurs long after the end of March. Katie Norris, GrubHub's manager of corporate communications told the NRN that they "were shocked that there wasn't another map of women-led restaurants" and hope that the money raised from the database can give the restaurants the tools they need to succeed.
Why The Database Is So Important
While the number of women who are in leadership positions in restaurants is growing, women chefs still earn 28 percent less in base pay than their male counterparts. No matter the industry, if your soufflé is just as good as the other guy's soufflé (or better), you should be paid the same amount for it. RestaurantHer.com and its database are so important because they draw attention to all of those restaurants that are supporting women equally.
The money raised during Women's History Month is also going towards creating toolkits to help restaurants run "equitable kitchens" that promote diversity and equality for all employees.
The Gems You Could Find On It
The database has everything from Michelin starred restaurants to the Subway down the street, with thousands of restaurants in almost all major cities across the country. The number of possibilities just keeps growing as more and more restaurants are verified, with new ones popping up every day. Whether you feel like eating Indian or just a simple sandwich, there is a woman-led restaurant for you.
Next time you're planning to head out for a bite to eat or settling in for a night of delivery and Netflix, head over to RestaurantHer.com to support the female restaurant queens in your area.