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5 YEARS SINCE THIS ARTICLE 👀📰👩🏿‍🍳 THAT CHANGED A RESTAURANT INDUSTRY.

Wow! This 2-piece investigative article that I wrote for @svenskadagbladet turns 5. 

For many years I had covered the restaurant industry from all angles, even the not so nice ones – like sexism in kitchens and the patriarchal structures in cooking competitions, and I was pretty much the only journalist in Sweden to do it.

The editors wanted fluffy pieces on food, the industry magazines wanted to stay friends with the big chef names. 

But then came @dagensetc investigative article with revelations of a long history of sexual harassments at restaurant Operakällaren and it sent shockwaves through not only the industry but the whole society. As Sweden didn’t really see a strong #MeToo movement within the restaurant sector this blew up and super chef @sofia_b_olsson contacted me and said: ”We need to end this abusive behaviour once and for all”.

I turned to SVD, one of Sweden’s biggest daily newspapers, and we got to work.

This investigative article followed Sofia and a group of women who mobilized themselves and started an appeal; we collected their stories of sexism, violence and sexual abuse. I remember fact checking their personal stories, as any serious media does, and crossing my fingers for the women not take back the worst stuff which I had verified from sources and knew had happened.

The article included 65 women: leading chefs, restaurateurs and sommeliers who signed the appeal that we published and the story went viral becoming one of 2021’s most read articles at Svd.se. The result? Well, the industry started talking about these issues. 

And the group developed and formed an association @framtidenskrogkultur working for a better work environment for all hospitality workers in Sweden.

This piece makes me especially proud of being a journalist. Last October I got to be a speaker at @foodontheedge in Galway and talked about this process and the importance of role models and representation. 

Also, brilliant ideas travel. Last year my fellow English food writer friend @jo.m.taylor collected stories from 70 female chefs in the UK and wrote a similar story @telegraph.
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