Celebrating International Women's Day

In the past the hospitality industry was often seen as male-dominated, but now there is a greater gender balance, and we are proud to count many impressive women in our alumni network, from Michelin-starred chefs and culinary competition winners to successful business owners and entrepreneurs.

Elaine McCarthy, Programme Development Manager at Le Cordon Bleu London, commented “The hospitality and in particular in the culinary industry is growing in its diversity of people, more and more women are opening food businesses, taking leadership roles and taking food innovation rapidly into the future."

At Le Cordon Bleu we see many graduates leading kitchens, writing books, creating food concepts, designing food technology and taking management and specialised roles across the hotels and restaurant industry all over the world.

"Right now, in the industry there are wonderful networking opportunities and a very strong momentum of women supporting and encouraging each other in a dynamic forward moving manner.”

To explore this and help to highlight women's role in this industry, we spoke to four women in leadership roles in hospitality, Shaheen Peerbhai, Head Chef and Owner of Miel Bakery; Patience Hlophe, Director and Pastry Chef of Madeleine’s Cake Boutique; Laura Dove, Director International Operations at AllBright and Julie Walsh, Head Pâtisserie Chef at Le Cordon Bleu London. We invited them to share their experience of being a woman in hospitality, the importance of gender equality and how people can support this in hospitality. We will be releasing full versions of each interview on our social media channels, including YouTube.

Read more of our fantastic alumni success stories, or discover how you can join our culinary family with our professional cookery courses and other culinary programmes.