The world's online business reporter Ni Yirong
On April 17, a civil lawsuit by the heroine of the "Minnesota Incident" once again pushed Liu Qiangdong to the cusp of the storm. Previously, in addition to "students", the heroine's "entrepreneur" identity has also attracted the attention of the melon-eating masses. In a business world where most capital and resources are controlled by men, compared with "entrepreneurs", the hardships of "female entrepreneurs" seem to have a little more inexplicable peach meaning.
Over the years, I have met female drivers, female substitute drivers, female couriers, female electricians, all of whom are women who work hard in the male world, each with its own difficulties. However, the most impressive thing is a female chef from Taiwan.
The female chef is named Ma Junyi, she is petite and has exquisite features. The day we met, her black leather coat was matched with metal earrings, and her handsomeness did not lose her feminine femininity. Talking about excitement, the Taiwanese girl suddenly rolled up her sleeves and put her arm in front of me—she had an ugly scar on her arm. For Ma Junyi, this scar is a "medal" that she has been a female chef for 6 years, but she can survive.
At first, I was particularly surprised, after all, in ordinary families, there are many women who cook. But Ma Junyi told me that most of the women who love to cook go to dessert bakeries, like the back kitchen of a restaurant — a place full of fumes, iron and high temperatures, a world of men without compromise.
When she first stepped into the French restaurant where she worked, Ma Junyi found that among the 15 chefs, there were only two women counting her. Soon, Ma Junyi understood the reason for the "yang sheng yin decline". In the case of a Taiwanese-based French restaurant, chefs work 10-15 hours a day and are so busy that they don't even have time to go to the toilet. If it is a high season, it is busy until two or three o'clock in the morning, and you can only sleep on the cold floor of the restaurant.
In addition, the most common work in the kitchen is manual work. The pot full of oil, weighing more than 30 pounds, needs to be lifted by one person; the huge butter and steak, it takes a lot of effort to be cut open... Petite Ma Junyi, when she first entered the back kitchen, had to climb on the table because she could not reach the pot; in order to carry the heavy kitchen utensils, she also went to the gym to practice a muscle. "In the kitchen, no one will help you, and if you can't do it, just go." This is the "law of the jungle" in the kitchen world.
Ma Junyi was once burned by a grill of more than 400 degrees Celsius while roasting lamb chops — which is the origin of the scar on her arm. Another time, a trainee chef next to him overturned the oil pot, and the boiling oil was all spilled on Ma Junyi. That time, she was burned all over her body, but after a simple bandage, she still had to go back to work. "There's no time to be hospitalized, everything is waiting for you."
For Taiwanese girls, it is not only physical pressure and risk that they have to endure.
In the fast-paced kitchen, there is no mechanism to train new people, and if you want to "steal the teacher", you can only rely on diligence and cheekiness to entangle the master. Once, Ma Junyi asked the chef for advice, however, the chef who was in a bad mood, thinking that she was slow, directly dropped the 10-pound pot on her feet.
Another time, Ma Junyi made more than 700 fresh milk desserts in a row, and her two hands were trembling with pain due to high-intensity labor. However, no one felt sorry for her, and she was immediately arranged to clean the kitchen utensils. When she put her hand into the cold water, she heard a male colleague say, "Why are you moving so slowly, are you not awake?" Watch me slap you awake! Then, a real slap flew over.
That time, Ma Junyi couldn't help but shed tears. Dropping things, hitting people, and saying hurtful things are all too common in the back kitchen. Even, because she is a woman, many chefs are still restrained. Ma Junyi has seen with her own eyes that when facing male colleagues, the chef will directly throw vegetables and pots on their faces and bodies.
Hard work, coupled with a harsh working environment, makes leaving the job too common in the chef world. Often someone says ,"Go to the bathroom, and then never come back." Several times, after work late at night, when Ma Junyi dragged her tired, smoke-filled body on the way home, she would also question the meaning of her persistence.
I originally chose to become a chef out of a love of making food. Ma Junyi admits that over the years, her cooking skills have indeed improved, in addition to a variety of French dishes, molecular cuisine and other difficult dishes, she is also good at it. Fortunately, Ma Junyi also has a boyfriend who is also a chef, who will not dislike the smell of oil smoke on his body, and can understand all the hardships of the chef she says. All this gave Ma Junyi the courage to continue walking.
As a result, the former Taiwanese "sister" became stronger. As a beautiful girl, Ma Junyi is often "oiled" by male colleagues, and almost every day, someone "opens the yellow cavity" to her. When she first entered the industry, a male colleague smiled badly and said a lot of explicit things to Ma Junyi, almost scared her into tears.
Today, she knows how to protect herself - whenever a male colleague "opens the yellow cavity", she responds casually, even more exaggerated than the male colleague. Seeing their horrified expressions, Ma Junyi felt a little proud in his heart, but also a little lost. Her previous education had always taught her to be a lady, but in the world of men, she had to twist herself to a certain extent in order to survive. This is also the substitute driver she must pay. "If you ignore them, or show fear, they will talk more and more vigorously, so attack poison with poison!" On the surface, the Taiwanese girl smiled easily.
In Ms. Ma's family, most of her family only knows that she is a chef at a high-end Taiwanese restaurant and feels that it is a decent job, but few people know what is behind it. Ma Junyi never mentioned these bad things to them, and the next day, the sun rose as usual, and she went to work. However, during the New Year's Festival, when the family gathers, some male relatives and friends who are also cooks, after hearing about Ma Junyi's profession, their words are full of admiration: "Female cook, great!" This is probably also the time when Ma Junyi feels most relieved and satisfied.