Women Chefs and Cooks on TV : The Realities of Reality TV – Wednesday 3rd July 2024

Women Chefs & Cooks on TV Panel Event – Recap

Women in the Food Industry presented a fascinating panel event, along with delicious Malaysian food, refreshing gelato, & award-winning drinks and looked at the realities of reality TV and how women are portrayed on competitive cooking shows.

Being on national TV is the dream of many in the hospitality world. It can boost your career and change your life overnight. We spoke to leading cooks, chefs, restaurateurs and an award winning food TV producer to discuss how you can get on TV, what to consider before applying, how to deal with the cameras, how to deal with social media, what success is like and how to make the most of your time in the public eye.

We welcomed an impressive all-female panel of chefs, cookbook writers, publicans, restaurateurs, TV producers and commissioners to discuss what it takes to succeed on TV. The event was open to all – both women and men.

The event was chaired by:

Mex Ibrahim is co-founder of Women in the Food Industry. After almost 8 years as Head of Social Media & Marketing of the UK’s fastest growing food website, Great British Chefs, Mex has delivered a variety of award-winning digital marketing campaigns & now runs her own freelance social media, content creation & digital strategy business. Passionate about women’s equality & female empowerment, she co-founded Women in the Food Industry in April 2019 which became a Community Interest Company in July 2023.

Our panel included:

Candice Brown is the winner of The Great British Bake Off 2016. Born in North London, Candice grew up in the pubs that her parents ran – and that she famously immortalised in gingerbread for her most talked about showstopper. Taught to bake by her beloved Nan, Candice strives to emulate her style, often referring back to her treasured recipe book and hand written notes. Candice loves everything vintage and her sense of style certainly captured Great British Bake Off viewers’ attention.

Since her GBBO victory, she has been extremely busy with a diverse range of projects. She was a columnist for The Sunday Times’ writing in the magazine and The Dish, she has baked on This Morning and Ainsley’s World Cup Flavours and has appeared as a panellist on Loose Women.

​She has worked with a vast array of brands on PR and social media campaigns and enjoys relationships with Breville and Canderel for whom she creates recipes and content. She has been featured in Hello and OK! magazine and has been an ambassador for Avon Cosmetics.

Candice’s first book, Comfort (Ebury Press) was released in July 2017.

In December 2018, Candice and her brother Ben took on The Greenman Pub in Eversholt. After a full refurbishment and menu overhaul they opened to great reviews and excitement of the local community in February 2019.

April Jackson launched London’s first Caribbean Tapas restaurant, Three Little Birds, in Brixton in 2015 after a stint on BBC’s Apprentice as a way to showcase her culture through warm hospitality, small sharing plates and rum based cocktails. The Jamaican-inspired concept was well received allowing her to open a second location in Clapham Junction just three years later; bringing curry goat, jerk roasted cauliflower and honey-jerk wings to another neighbourhood.

Before restaurants, April began sharing recipes via her blog The Yummy Truth then appeared on UK TV screens on Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch, Dirty Secrets of Britain’s Takeaways, BBC’s MasterChef and ITV’s Cooking With The Stars and This Morning. April is the foodie entrepreneur to watch, determined to make inspired Jamaican food a firm fixture on the UK palate.

Without any experience in hospitality, April went from managing lifestyle events in Jamaica, to owning and operating one of the best Caribbean restaurants in London, catering for weddings and becoming a champion for Jamaican food and drink. She relaunched her Brixton site, post Covid, as Wood & Water and then opened a cocktail bar in Brixton, SideChick, Batanga and ABV, with her partner Lee Tan.

Kate Austen competed on the BBC2 show ‘Great British Menu’ in 2024 and was the first woman to win the main course in 19 years of the shows history.

Kate’s love and passion for food took her to Scandinavia, where she spent a large part of her career working in some of their world renowned establishments.

In Copenhagen, she worked at the two Michelin starred Restaurant AOC, where a combination of ambition, drive, and good timing landed her the role of head chef – she was the youngest female head chef of a two Michelin star in the world at the time.

She moved to Sweden to take up the role as the Sous Chef of the three Michelin starred Restaurant Frantzen and spent an intense few years there, training hard and always learning.

Post pandemic she became a senior development chef for Gordon Ramsay enabling her to have a better work life balance whilst continuing to do what she loves.

Kate Austen is currently cooking for a family, learning different food from all over the world, and enjoying the widening of her culinary knowledge.

Antonia Lloyd is a producer of award-winning TV cookery and professional chef competition formats and a regular Food and Features Writer and Ambassador for Women in the Food Industry. She has been Series Editor of BBC Two’s flagship series Great British Menu for the last five years, has won a BAFTA for BBC’s MasterChef: the Professionals, and has worked with the UK’s top chefs for two decades from Monica Galetti to Mary Berry, Gordon Ramsay to Michel Roux Jr. For Women in the Food Industry, she interviews trailblazing women chefs to shine a spotlight on the changing industry, reviews the very best new cookbooks and writes features.

At our Women Chefs & Cooks on TV panel and Q&A we discussed the following:

How do you get on TV in the first place? Is it something that is right for you at this time in your career?

What should you expect? Do you get immediate fame and fortune?

What are the opportunities – the panel discussed some of the good things that had come their way, but realistically admitted that lots of hard work and negotiating social media (a double edged sword) is also involved.

What are the pitfalls? What were some of the negative aspects they weren’t expecting, but they gave tips on dealing with those and when to ask for help or potentially take on an agent.

Is it different for women?

During this event, attendees were able to:

Enjoy award-winning drinks: including B Corp 58andCo’s Apple & Hibiscus Gin (Founder Carmen O’Neal), Bemuse alcohol free honey wine (Co-Founder Anna Chalov), and they also enjoyed a wonderful range of tasty Malaysian snacks prepared using Dapur Mariae Malaysian Sauces (founder Mariae was on hand to serve the dishes & explain their origin).

Plus round off all of the delicious food & the night with some refreshing Bertotti Gelato from co-founder, Suzy Bertotti.

Discount at Divertimenti:

All registered attendees to this event enjoy a 10% discount from Divertimenti’s cookshop – a true treasure trove for food lovers – on the day.

BOOK YOUR TICKETS HERE