Even cooking hates Negroes...

(Who doesn't belong in this picture?)

Someone at the NY Times (good redesign) must have a new negro girlfriend or boyfriend or something, because these ridiculous stories about blacks just won't stop.

But as long as the Times keeps writing these ridiculous stories I will keep posting them.

The newest one is a hard hitting investigative piece about the dearth of negroes in the world of haute cuisine.

Wisdom nuggets cut from the article,

"Years ago, when cooking at even the best restaurants was considered menial labor, blacks often worked the stoves. But as employment options opened up for blacks in the 1960's and 70's, kitchen work became less attractive. Now, with the restaurant industry booming and chefs becoming celebrities and wealthy entrepreneurs, few blacks are sharing in that success, and as young black men and women enter the profession they are finding few mentors or peers. "The adulation that the chef gets now and the rank that chefs are on the social scale now, African-Americans are not taking part of it at all," said the chef and cookbook author Jacques Pépin."

"I don't think cooking, when parents want their children to grow up and prosper, it's something that comes to mind," he added. What is more likely to come to mind, in his words, is "the house Negro" or Aunt Jemima.

"The dining rooms of high-end restaurants often hold little more attraction for African-Americans than the kitchens."

"It's very common that you go and don't see a single black face in the entire restaurant," said Alain Joseph, a black chef in the test kitchen at Emeril Lagasse's headquarters in New Orleans. "A restaurant with 200 people, you don't see a single black face."

But while cultural stigmas have held back many aspiring chefs, others blame racism. Joe Brown, the chef at Mélange Cafe, which he owns with his wife in Cherry Hill, N.J., remembers, at his first job, being choked and called a racial epithet by the chef. He didn't stay long, but he continued to cook at numerous other restaurants.

"The first thing they say is, "The only thing you know about is fried chicken and collard greens,' " Mr. Williams said. "And anybody you know that's in this business that's a black chef — in most cases that's what he's cooking. Even if he came out of a French kitchen, he ends up cooking Southern food."

Mr. Knowling pointed to his own experience: "I'm classically French trained. I wanted to be the French chef, and that's what I studied for years and years, and now I run a barbecue restaurant — an upscale barbecue restaurant and soul food restaurant.

"There are so many black cooks," she said, adding: "We're on the verge of change. And thank goodness, because the heritage that we bring is a great addition to American cuisine as a whole."


Um, thanks NY Times.
Now, not only do I know why the caged bird sings, er... I mean, not only do I know why there are so few blacks in the restaurant, but I now have hope that a fellow Negro may walk through the door or come out of the kitchen any second now.
And that knowledge makes the food taste so much better.