Even though service and care occupations are becoming more feminine, gender inequality remains deeply entrenched in France’s gastronomy sector. This study explores the underrepresentation of women in leadership and creative positions within French gastronomy, focusing on how gender norms, labor divisions, and media portrayals affect women’s access to recognition and professional development. Grounded in feminist sociology and supported by statistical data, ethnographic fieldwork, and media analysis, the research challenges the barriers that cast women aside as secondary figures in a traditionally male-dominated industry. The analysis is divided into three sections. From Escoffier’s brigade system to modern culinary schools, the first traces a gendered progression of kitchen hierarchies, providing a historical and structural overview of the culinary arts. The theoretical framework is explored in the second section, which uses academics like Joan Acker, Pierre Bourdieu, and Marion Buscatto to explain ideas about gendered organization, symbolic violence, and professional capital. To attempt to investigate the lived experiences of female chefs, the final section employs a mixed method that combines interviews, observations, and media content analysis to explore the lived experiences. Findings suggest that while women are present across all sectors of gastronomy, their pathways to leadership are systematically constrained by institutional practices, gendered expectations and media discourses that reinforce traditional norms. Recognition is rarely based only on skills or merit; rather, it is deeply intertwined with gendered visibility and symbolic power. The study concludes that true inclusion in gastronomy requires both structural change and a cultural shift in how culinary excellence is defined and celebrated.