The female tradition of cookery has been home based.  Women are good enough to cook at home, but not in hotel and restaurant kitchens.  

The macho French belief that women cannot be great chefs is even entrenched in their language.  The word for cook - le Cuisinier  has its feminine counterpart, la cuisiniere, but yet there is no feminine equivalent to le chef.Paul Bocuse in an interview with Le Figaro was quoted as saying: "The chef who names a dish after a woman is a gentle man and a diplomat. The chef who invites that same woman into his kitchen as a colleague is a fool."

If women are good enough to cook in their homes and skilled enough to serve in restaurants, then surely they are capable enough to handle jobs in the professional kitchen?

Five female chefs have taken the men on at their own game and are proving that not only can they handle the frying pan; they can also handle the fire.  Nicky Gibbs is executive head chef at the trendy March at Melrose Arch Hotel; Tammy Henton is head chef at the award-winning Sides at Ten Bompas; Denise Vedor is head chef at that shack chic Mama Tembo's Cafè; Pinky Maruping is executive sous chef at the Intercontinental Airport Hotel while Rita Swart is heading up Ciao Baby's new London operation and planning two more restaurants for the UK.

Nicky Gibbs has been dubbed South Africa's "chef to the starts" as she's cooked for big names like the Rolling Stones, Paul McCarthy, Tina Turner and Bono.  After training with the Protea Hotels group, Gibbs spent 13 years working overseas, including a stint on cruise ships and six years in London cooking for music industry glitterati.  

"I was bullied around quite a bit but what din't kill me made me stronger."  Her advice to anyone entering the profession?  "We are thorough.  Don't be pushed into doing pastry or starters and never doing the mains.  Do the grill and play with the boys.  "You have to prove that this is what you want to do and never stand back."  

Prue Leith trained Tammy Henton may only be in her early 20s but she's already head chef at one of Jozi's top boutique hotel restaurants, Sides.  Like Gibbs, she also cut her culinary teeth with an overseas stint working at restaurants in the UK.  She too, has been exposed to kitchen prejudice:  "However, you have to get on with it andnever pull what i call 'the pathetic card'.  Women are as good as they want to be."

Denise Vedor from the Afroquisine delight Mama Tembo's Cafè, which has just moved to funky new premises in Greenside, agrees that "you can't be a lady in the kitchen."  Mozambican-born Vedor, a graduate from Pure Leith  worked for a hotel group, moved onto Moyo and became the personal cook for the British High Commissioner before joining Mama Tembo's.

It's not easy for a man who has 40 years experience in grilling to listen to new ideas, especially from me with my baby face.  "You have to insist on how you want things done.  I think women add their own flair to the kitchen because of their feminine touch.  We need to be more adventurous and not to be scared to air our views.  Women chefs have something to bring to the table."

Tembisa-born Pinky Maruping is certainly not afraid to say what she thinks.  This Intercontinental Airport sous chef has a driving ambition to succeed: "I want to become the first black female executive chef for a 5-star hotel.  It would break my heart if I didn't succeed and I would like to do it withintwo years.  Unfortunately women are seen as being inferior, so it's hard.  "You have to constantly prove that you are superior.