From fundraising for feminism to preserving culinary heritage, these women-run restaurants remind us that no one should underestimate a woman in the kitchen.
LessFounded by a small women's collective in 1977, Bloodroot is a restaurant on a feminist mission. Its cozy, self-service dining room, decorated with political posters and lined with books harkens back to an earlier era, but its seasonal vegetarian menu—and the vitality of owners Selma Miriam and Noel Furie—keeps things fresh.
In her ancestral home, one chef preserves ancient Filipino recipes and serves up traditional, home-cooked food to history-loving foodies.
Tucked away on a dusty street amidst a cacophony of rickshaws and pedestrians stands Sheroes' Hangout. This pay-what-you-choose cafe employs women who have survived harrowing acid attacks, often at the hands of their own family members or romantic partners.
This women-run eatery and cooking school is putting India's long-neglected tribal cuisines back on the menu. The brainchild of rural-development-worker-turned-entrepreneur Aruna Tirkey, Ajam Emba is fighting to save India’s tribal cuisines.
Natalia Mendez, La Morada's matriarch and head chef, hand-picks ingredients from local farmers' markets to create the rare moles at this Oaxacan eatery.
Parts of the civil rights movement unfolded in this historic eatery helmed by Leah Chase, the "Queen of Creole Cuisine."
A weather-beaten structure serves as the Ama divers’ headquarters in Mie Prefecture. Salt encrusted huts like these were once an integral part of working Ama life, where the all-female divers could rest and socialize between diving for shellfish, seaweed, and pearls.
This 12th-century Buddhist temple, sits atop a mountain in Seoul's Bukhansan National Park. The entire operation is run by women with shaved heads and gray robes, nuns who are renowned for their cuisine, which epitomizes the ancient art of Korean temple fare.
This brunch and lunch spot is owned by Nyoka Hrabinsky, an ethnobotanist from the indigenous Yidinji nation, and her husband Laszio. With inventive use of indigenous ingredients like cinnamon myrtle, wattleseed, Davidson plum, and macadamia nut, she brings bush tucker to urban Sydney.
Tokyo’s only Ainu restaurant serves Indigenous food from northern Japan. Opened in 2011 by Teruyo Usa, Harukor is a gathering place for Ainu in Tokyo and a venue where non-Ainu can learn about the group's history and culture.