Women’s Food Alliance Seeks Allies Among Men

The Women’s Culinary Alliance, which was founded in 1986 as a support and information-sharing group for female members of the food-service industry in Los Angeles, is soon to be no more--at least under its old identity.

In a recent letter to current and proscpective WCA members, president (and restaurant consultant) Debbie Slutsky announced several new membership requirements. And effective Sept. 1, the group will drop the most basic of the extant ones: that members be female. “The name of our organization will be changed to the Culinary Alliance of Los Angeles,” she wrote, “. . . to encourage a broader base of membership, including our male peers.”

The new rules require that members work at least 30 hours a week in a food- or beverage-related profession, that they supply resumes and two letters of reference from other industry professionals and that they participate regularly in alliance committees and meetings.

Does this mean female chefs and restaurateurs no longer need a support group in L.A.--or that they haven’t supported one?

Neither, replies Slutsky. “Basically,” she says, “the majority of the women who started the group had strong feminist ideals, and they eventually dropped out for their own reasons. As we went along, we found that the number of women in important positions in the industry was increasing, and we didn’t see the point in isolating ourselves any longer from our male counterparts. We didn’t want to be separatist anymore, because when you do that, you tend to make the schism bigger.

“Anyway, there are no exclusively female kitchens in L.A. that I know of, and probably very few in the world. If we were sharing kitchen space with men it seemed sensible to share ideas and information with them too.

“We want to be considered a viable group within the industry,” Slutsky says. “That’s what’s behind the new membership requirements. We’re going to turn into a group of people who are truly in the food and beverage trades instead of just foodies who merely dabble in it. We’ve got about 110 members right now, and I suspect we’ll probably lose 10 or 15 percent of them when the changes take place. But I think we’ll get some good new people, too.”

RUMORS ‘N’ THINGS: Last year, I noted in this column that Madame Wu’s Garden in Santa Monica was to be demolished and replaced by a smaller edition of the place.

That hasn’t yet happened. Wu informs me that preliminary permits for the conversion have only just now been granted, and she expects that it will take at least another six months to get approval of the architect’s plans for the new structure. Thus, the familiar old Madame Wu’s remains in business as usual--and, Wu adds, “It is safe to tell you that it will still be here by the next Chinese New Year in spring of 1991.”