"This, is nothing compared to the army." A case study of male pastry chefs in Singapore

Abstract

Abstract

Popular discourse suggests that cooking is a feminine activity. I would like to refine this statement with my research project by suggesting that cooking (specifically pastry making in the industrial kitchen) is not gender neutral. Instead, gender stereotypes are masked and internalized by male pastry chefs. Pastry making is meaning making and it has symbolic value that allows social actors to be gender blind and thus privileges accrued to them are masked from themselves. This is due to previous social experiences that males have encountered in their life course and most importantly, the army. Hence, there is a need to expound on how males view the act of pastry making and how they view their female counterparts in social setting of the industrial kitchen.

Word count: 9010 words