Celebrity chefs and masculinities among male cookery trainees in vocational education

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to examine how media-generated professional identities in the culinary sector are reflected in Danish male cookery students' narratives about their own identity, experiences and expectations about the trade. Hence, this study takes its starting point in studies that show how the broad popularity of the culinary profession -almost exclusively through male chefsseems to be attracting more male students to the cooking programme. The previous research indicates, however, that there is a risk of unfulfilled expectations when cookery students realise the hard work involved in working in a professional kitchen. It is this contrast between the media presentation and the practical reality of a profession like cookery that we wish to explore from the students' perspective. IntroductionThe purpose of this article is to examine how media-generated professional identities in the culinary sector are reflected in the narratives of male catering trainees about their own identity, experiences and expectations of the trade. It contributes to other ongoing studies of the role of celebrity in informing young people's classed and gendered aspirations in complex ways (e.g. Allen and Mendick 2013). However, rather than a broad focus on more ubiquitous types of celebrity aspirations (pop stars, actors and royal personages), we introduce a focus on specific celebrity associations for vocational trainees.This study therefore takes its starting point from research that has shown how the broad popularity of the culinary profession -almost exclusively represented through male chefs in Denmark -seems to be attracting more male trainees to catering programmes (Friche 2010). Previous research indicates, however, that there is a risk of unfulfilled expectations when catering trainees realise the hard work involved in working in a professional kitchen. It is this contrast between the media portrayal and the practical reality of a profession like cookery that we wish to explore from the trainees' perspective.The purpose of the article is twofold: first, to identify celebrity chefs as accessible figures of professional chef identities that constitute part of the context to which male catering trainees must relate (Bureychak 2012); and second, to examine how

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