Johanna Yorke has always thought being a good cook is in her blood — her parents were both great cooks, and her grandfather was a chef.

Yorke found inspiration for the name of her first restaurant in her mother, who used to work at a Spanish-speaking clinic. She would give high-fives to the young children, to which they responded with in Spanish: “Alto cinco!” The name stuck.

But it wasn’t until a month after Yorke opened Alto Cinco that she learned her late grandfather used to own a restaurant too — The Alto House.

Through all the tough times in Yorke’s career, including financial hardships and working in a men-dominated industry, she said her connection with her grandfather kept her going. To Yorke, the idea that some other force was at work helped.

This Friday marks one year since the #MeToo movement swept across the United States. Women who own, operate and work in central New York-based restaurants are still trying to change age-old stereotypes and rise above the gender bias that exists in the men-dominated industry.

Ciara “Miggy” Migliaccio, assistant kitchen manager at Alto Cinco, said in most of the kitchens she’s worked in, she’s been the only woman on the line.

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Beyond making inappropriate or derogatory remarks, Migliaccio said her male counterparts would pick up the heavier things in front of her, thinking that she couldn’t carry them herself.

“Nobody wanted to give me a shot in the kitchen, being a female,” she said.

At the beginning of her career in the early 1990s, Yorke said when she would walk into a professional kitchen, the calendars hanging on the walls would be nearly pornographic. She was shocked that they were hung up in the kitchen, out in the open. Being patronized for her appearance, standing on the receiving end of sexual remarks — it was apparent to Yorke she was alone.

But both Migliaccio and Yorke said the visible gender bias in the restaurant industry has improved over the years.

“I don’t feel like there’s the same blatant sexism as when I started … now that kitchens aren’t as male-dominated,” Yorke said. “… When I started 20 years ago, you were a minority.”

At previous jobs, Migliaccio said there were many men on the line who were, in a way, immature and whom she found difficult to “click with.” But at Alto Cinco, even though there are more men than women in the kitchen, “the gentlemen there are actually gentlemen,” she said.

Migliaccio also credits working for a strong, independent woman as changing the game for her — Yorke is a mentor for her both inside and out of the kitchen.

“It can get tough,” Migliaccio said. “But there’s a willpower to want to rise above it and make a name for other females out there.”

Sometimes even today, when Yorke discusses Alto and Otro Cinco in social settings, if she’s accompanied by a man, people will often assume the man is the owner of the restaurants. Yorke said that kind of response doesn’t bother her anymore — she’s aware of her success and doesn’t feel the need to outwardly take credit for it.

“I just look back and I think of the first handful of people that I hired, and that type of experience had nothing to do with male and female. Just really good people,” Yorke said. She just celebrated the 23rd anniversary of Alto Cinco.

Maria Norris, a senior film student at SU who works the counter at Alto Cinco, has been employed at several restaurants in the Syracuse area. With any restaurant, even one that’s run by woman leadership, there is still a sexist culture that needs to change, she said.

But unlike the other restaurants she’s worked at, Alto Cinco has separate documentation for sexual harassment policy, Norris said. The document states the restaurant’s no-tolerance policy for sexual harassment and also how to go about reporting any instances that occur.

“I think the best thing we can do, male and female, is exercise your voice when you’re around something you don’t condone,” Yorke said. “You’ve got to say something. And I think that’s the biggest part of #MeToo that’s empowering.”

Published on October 2, 2018 at 11:22 pm

Contact Sandhya: ssiyer@syr.edu