Brigade (Our Very First Episode)

Exciting announcement: today Copper & Heat Radio is joining Heritage Radio Network, an independent, nonprofit podcast network with a mission to build a more sustainable world by shifting the way we think about food. To mark the occasion, we’re bringing our first episode ever back to the top of the feed. 

It’s called “Brigade”, and it’s the first episode in our James Beard Award-winning first season, Be A Girl, released in 2018. 

Why are restaurant kitchens organized the way they are? What is a kitchen brigade? What does a typical day of a cook look like? How does someone move up the ranks? And what do women do to work their way up the ranks in a kitchen?   

Some of the stats: 

• Women make up a little over 50% of students graduating culinary schools 
• Women make-up over 50% of total foodservice employees 
• Somewhere between 30%-50% of back-of-house employees identify as women 
• 27% of line cooks are ladies 
• 19% of chefs are ladies 
• 7% of head or executive chefs are ladies.