On International Women’s Day: Chef Lana Lagomarsini Says The Days of Gatekeeping Are Over
It’s 2024, and chef Lana Lagomarsini is over the one-seat mentality regarding women leading the culinary industry.
“There’s room for everybody at the top,” the chef and caterer told 8it.
On this International Women’s Day, Lagomarsini, 34, reflects on what it was like to come up in the restaurant world largely among men.
📸: lanacooks.com
“I feel like the industry in itself can kind of [push] women into one of two categories: You can be a girls’ girl or you can kind of be like a boys’ boy on the team,” she said. “I don’t know if that culture has really shifted. I feel like it’s gonna die a slow death.” While the Lana Cooks founder did build lasting relationships with some of the men she worked with, she relished any opportunity to learn from and work with women.
Chefs Mavis-Jay Sanders, Ghaya Oliveira, and Adrienne Cheatham are just three of the women she said helped guide her along the way during those early years and into the present. Cheatham is one who Lagomarsini turns to still when she needs advice on how much to charge a client, how to approach a deal, or anything else of the sort. Their relationship set the tone for how the young chef communicates with peers now.
“Gatekeeping information does not make you go farther, it just squanders and hurts other people. I don’t see the point to that.”
She says sharing information, details, and advice will only increase the value of those around you, not decrease yours. “If we are a collective as a chef unity, that’s powerful,” she adds. “I hope that the days of gatekeeping are long behind us.”
“Savory is, like, my world,” the chef said. But Oliveira had her questioning a move over to sweet. Oliveira was the executive pastry chef at Daniel while Lagomarsini was working in the kitchen. “I made it my business to chat with [Ghaya] and get to know her a bit,” she said, even convincing her boss to “lend” her to Oliveira’s team.
Lagomarsini said she spent so much time asking questions, observing, and learning from Oliveira’s techniques but also from her leadership style.
Throughout her career, Lagomarsini worked under women who were tough but not unfair, calm but efficient, and who dropped supportive gems at just the right moments. She said her leadership style now is a tapestry of them all.
The chef met Sanders while working at Blue Hill At Stone Barns, a New York restaurant with an alleged culture of yelling and humiliation of staff.
Early on, she said Sanders’ warmth translated instantly. “I could tell that she could tell that I’m just like a little softie, and I definitely needed someone in my corner,” Lagomarsini said.
When it comes to running a “chill” kitchen, the chef said she learned that from Oliveira; an important takeaway she holds onto and one she’s come to see as standard for women-led kitchens.
While you can taste food that’s been made with love, Lagomarsini says you can also taste when a dish was made out of fear: “You’re like, ‘Ooh someone got yelled at.’”
“It’s a nuanced flavor, the fear,” she joked. “But it is in there.” In women-run kitchens, though, she says that culture of fear is far less common, though it has been known to exist.
“Most women don’t wanna be at an [anger level] 11 unless you make us go there,” she joked. “I have gone there; It’s usually a one-way ticket to whoever’s going with me.”
Ultimately, Lagomarsini learned a well-run kitchen is built on respect. And that’s something she wants to see given out more consistently to women throughout the year, not just during International Women’s Month.
Lagomarsini says she’s been inspired by the women in her family her whole life — she learned to cook watching her mother and grandmother make Southern food, and has also incorporated her paternal grandmother’s German roots into her recipe development.
Cabbage with beurre blanc and salmon roe 📸: :@lana_cooks
Ever since leaving restaurants and starting Lana Cooks, the chef found both community and inspiration in her peers as well.
“It is an honor to be among them, and it’s a beautiful thing to watch,” she said of her closest friends who are chefs, each carving out their own lanes in the industry.
“My career is constantly flowing and evolving and I think they’re influencing that right now,” she added.
The chef says she’s lucky to be a part of a collective of women who mold and lift each other up.
“We see ourselves in each other,” she said, and she hopes more visibility leads to even more support. “As women continue to gain equality in the industry, hopefully it will be a snowball effect where we see us mentoring one another.”
“Our voices are carrying further and louder these days,” she said. “I hope we can keep that energy.”
I struggle with what to think about a concept like International Women’s Month, and in speaking with Lana it’s clear I’m not alone in that. We love the idea, the fact that it’s a dedicated time to celebrate all the women in our lives and in the world who have put themselves on the line or in uncomfortable situations, some by choice and others not. But it’s disheartening to watch people rally behind women for one month - or one day - and then forget about it the rest of the year.
Lana and I both hope to see more. More equity, more respect, and more of a platform. And as the chef herself put it, we really don’t think we’re asking for much.
📸: @steve8it
Stay in the loop on all Chef Lana’s upcoming pop-ups on the 8it app. She’s got a few extra tickets left to her pop-up dinner on March 13th in Harlem, check it out on 8it!
