Get A Taste Of Women’s History Month Without Leaving Home

In pre-pandemic times, I liked to use Women’s History Month as an excuse to travel to restaurants owned by women or headed by women chefs.

Although this year was obviously different, I found a way to keep the tradition, thanks to Goldbelly. I’ve written about Goldbelly as the travel hero of the pandemic, and they definitely came through this month with a Women’s History Month page dedicated to top female chefs, entitled, “Who Run the Culinary World?”

Based on many of their recommendations, my husband and I ate our way through the month, and took a couple of classes I recommend highly.

The first was Stephanie Izard’s “Global Street Food.” I’ve been raving about Girl & The Goat since I ate there a decade ago when my friend and I attended a taping of The Oprah Show that resulted in us taking a trip to Australia with her and 300 other fans. But I digress.

Izard is a fantastic host and instructor (and, um, chef), and she taught us how to make her signature goat empanadas, skirt steak tacos, Thai-style sausage, lettuce wraps, and shrimp summer rolls. Goldbelly does a great job of sending everything you need for their classes, which are easy to follow and always a blast.

"We really appreciate Goldbelly supporting our business and helping to get the food we make here in Chicago to people across the nation," said Izard. “I am very proud to be a female business owner and to employ so many hard-working, talented women. I hope that I can inspire other women to get out there and follow their dreams. Take a risk—anything is possible!”

We also took Carla Hall’s Nashville Hot Fried Chicken Live Eat-Along, where we stuffed ourselves with her incomparable chicken, mac and cheese, cornbread and oatmeal cookies.

Earlier this year, we took classes in which we made pizza with Emily Hyland, Founder of Emmy Squared, and banana pudding with Bobbie Lloyd, Chief Baking Officer, Magnolia Bakery. I drool just thinking of both of those.

According to Hyland, “Goldbelly has been a great champion of the pizza classes I teach through our Emmy Squared page; we continue to evolve and grow our offerings in partnership with them, and I am so excited to hold space to connect with guests in a fun and accessible way through the Goldbelly platform! I feel empowered and supported as a woman in the food industry, as I have found so much amazing community with other female founders. And it is fulfilling to be recognized as a woman in the field.”

Lloyd agrees. “Throughout my career, I’ve been inspired by so many women in the hospitality industry. Here’s to all the female chefs and owners—you guys are rock stars! I’m thrilled we can share food love around the country through Goldbelly.”

This month, we also decided to try some new-to-us chefs. We enjoyed (Ha ha! What an understatement!) the most flavorful Italian gelatos from two-time James Beard Award-winner Nancy Silverton, the most Southern comforting biscuits from James Beard Award-winner Chef Mashama Bailey and the best dumplings from Top Chef runner up, Chef Shirley Chung.

“When I was a young cook working for celebrity chefs, usually I was the only woman working on the hotline, savory side,” remembered Chung. “Now that I own and operate my restaurants, I always go out of way to give women, especially moms, more opportunities in my kitchens. Many of them have never worked in a professional kitchen before but they are natural leaders because they manage their kids and family every day! During the pandemic, our restaurant was only able to be open for take out. Although our in store sales dropped 70%, our Goldbelly sales grew over 500%. We didn't lay anyone off from our kitchen and we were able to give employees overtime during the busy holiday shipping seasons. We now have three mamas and one mom-and-daughter pair on our team. I am so proud of them, and proud of their continuing progress. I know when I expand, I will have a team of women leaders to run my kitchens!"

My husband and I had an amazing meal from Melissa Cookston, the only woman in the world to be a world BBQ champion and the first woman pitmaster to be induced into the Barbecue Hall of Fame. We also snacked on delicious cornbread and cookies from Chef Kelly Fields of Willa Jean.

One of our new favorites, which we’ve been eating almost every day for over a week, is the Stuffed French Toast from Flour & Branch. (We polished off the cookies within a couple of days.) Don’t ask us to choose between Mashugana and Beshert – look them up; the descriptions themselves are mouthwatering – because they are both out of this world.

“I'm looking to grow the business into something amazing and far reaching, and Goldbelly is a bridge to help us reach new foodies across the whole USA,” said founder Lauren Arnsdorff. “Goldbelly is the best and most reputable national food shipping platform, and the opportunity to be included is an incredible honor. My background of financial services and corporate retail never seemed very different from the work cultures many chefs experience. Although we didn't throw knives or pans at one another, there was frequent yelling and belittling, figurative shoves under the bus, and an unspoken assumption of 60-70+ hour work weeks. From the moment I began interviewing chefs, I made it clear that Flour & Branch wouldn't foster an environment like that. We won't yell, we'll respect and lift each other up, have as much fun as possible, and take breaks and time needed to rest and recover. I get to build the kind of business and culture that I had dreamed of working in myself. Flour & Branch is one of the top rated female owned businesses on Yelp San Francisco, which is, of course, humbling and a huge source of pride. If I'm really lucky, maybe one day I'll impact other women the way great females like Sara Blakely and Brene Brown have impacted me.”

Arnsdorff and her Goldbelly colleagues have certainly impacted us this month – so much so that we’ve happily switched to wearing stretchy pants and are considering eating only salad in April.