Monday night in Hamburg, something happened for the first time in Germany: an awards show built entirely around women in the restaurant industry. The CHEF:IN Awards, handed out nine awards across seven categories, including kitchen, pastry, bar, wine, service, and Berlin hospitality professionals ended up dominating the awards.
Chef of the Year ended up being a tie between Sarah Hallmann (Hallmann & Klee) and Julia A. Leitner (CODA), both Berlin and both icons of the scene. Pastry Chef of the Year also ended up being split two ways between Larissa Metz of Vendôme in Bergisch Gladbach and Emma Betti of Tantris in Munich. A 22-person jury led by Anja Wasserbäch made the calls and both ties came down to identical scores.
The rest of the night's winners: Ilona Scholl of Tulus Lotrek took Gastgeberin des Jahres, Nancy Großmann of Grill Royal got Sommelière, Maria Gorbatschova of Green Door Bar took Barkeeperin, Kristin Hendricks-Fuchs of Romantik Hotel Spielweg picked up Unternehmerin, and Ana Roš of Hiša Franko in Slovenia won Internationale Köchin des Jahres.
Founder Denise Snieguolė Wachter summed up what the whole thing is actually about: "Craft excellence gets you in the door here, it's not the whole answer. Running a kitchen where people stay, where training happens, where the schedules are fair - that's work nobody sees on a plate, and it still changes this industry more than any technique."
CHEF:IN is Germany's first platform built around visibility for women in fine dining, founded by Wachter and currently tracking 72 names across five watch lists. A fact worth pondering on: of Germany's 339 MICHELIN-starred restaurants, only 15 are run by women (that's 4.4 percent). This project sets out to change that More at chefin.watch.
Image via Judith Gilles