Chef Suzette Gresham of Two MICHELIN Star Acquerello's love of food comes from family, traveling, and the ingredients themselves. "They all just seemed to intertwine," Gresham explains. That love, along with Gresham's tenacity and desire to create new culinary combinations, is Gresham's main inspiration today.
But before all the accolades and Stars, being a chef for the California native seemed out of reach—maybe even impossible. "In the 1970's women were still not prominent in the professional food world. I did not think that I could or would ever be a chef" Gresham tells me. "The idea did not occur to me until after I enrolled in a community college culinary program and began to follow my heart in the kitchen."
Since then, Gresham has continuously challenged the status quo of women in the world of gastronomy. From becoming the first female chef’s apprentice to accompany the U.S. Culinary Olympic Team to Frankfurt, Germany in 1980 to winning Acquerello's first MICHELIN Star in 2007, the trailblazer has cultivated a career few can only hope to achieve.
Below, Gresham tells us about the most important lessons she's learned, her career defining moment, and advice for those hoping to follow in her footsteps.
What were some of the most important lessons you learned along the way?
For once my stubborness (or stupidity) and tenacity paid off. I quietly refused to fail. Somehow, I began to understand that "adversity" was not the enemy. It gave me several opportunities, that I otherwise would not have had access to. As I advanced, I aligned myself with whatever the "elephant in the room" was and brought it to light. If I was already unwanted or the target, then why not give a good reason to be so. It helped to propel me to a place of respect, even if disagreed with, I learned to have a voice. It helped to flush out the important topics and gave me credibility. Even if I didn't have the answers, at least I proposed the questions. Gaining the ability to see any issue from other perspectives. Taking responsibility when someone else wouldn't, gave me power. Staying real, listening, being vulnerable and human when the job would dictate otherwise. The list goes on...
Who or what inspires your food today?
Everything. Especially things that I do not like... my first thought is how could we make that better? It is often outside of the realm of food that inspiration flows to me. In nature, in a museum, traveling, seeing a farmers market in a foreign country, reading history of food, studying traditions and why they came to be, wondering about new combinations and what makes them work. Eating cheese!
Have you faced any challenges as a woman in the industry?
I do not want to enter into a "pissing match" of who had it worse. I am a survivor and am very grateful to the many male chefs that contributed to my education. But, to understand the challenges, you'd have to BE a woman.
Do you have any role models?
I admire the brave and the brazen (female & male) For forward thinkers, it can be a scary place to be and (simultaneously be a woman). Instead of being different or unique, you are just "wrong". We all know the past, but who will determine the future?
Who have been your mentors?
Everyone that I have encountered in this profession. I learn from everyone at every opportunity. Of course, I look up to a select few, but they are not names that anyone would recognize from a mass media perspective. They are the ones that invested in me, and inspired me to continue. In fact, it is on the backs of all the unsung heroes, chefs that quietly dedicated their lives to daily fulfilling the obligations of this profession, without recognition, that I admire most.
What advice would you give a young woman who aspires to be a chef?
First, ... I would say it to any gender. If we ever want to erase this silly line between the sexes then we need to stop using it.
Of the prejudices against women that exist... I would prefer to just prove them wrong.
Go cook. Do your homework. Is this what you want to do? If so, then make a committment. Be passionate. Own your mistakes and learn from them. Be of substance, not bullshit. Don't name drop. That is someone else's story, not yours.
Be humble. Do not hide behind femininity, it is an asset not a shield. Write a curriculum for yourself and stick to it.
You are in charge of your future, do not expect it to drop from the sky into your lap. There are SO many things to share...
What has been your career-defining moment thus far?
Receiving respect from other chefs, validating all the years I have tried to uphold and support the idea (on a daily basis) that we are here to make this a true profession, and make the industry better than we found it.
If you weren't a chef, what would you dream career be?
There is no other. I am a "dyed in the wool" Chef. Do or die.
Hero image: Chef Suzette Gresham
