WOMEN CULINARY AND SPIRITS PROGRAM
The Women Culinary and Spirits Program creates a path to leadership for women in the food and beverage industry through mentorship, training, and continuing education opportunities. The goal of this program is to elevate more women into leadership positions within the industry with the mindset that doing so brings more equity and diversity to the industry. Mentees are experienced professionals in the early-to-mid stages of their food and beverage careers and are ready to take the next steps towards becoming industry leaders.
M. Frances: Continuing The LEE Initiative’s Commitment to Mentorship
Over the last six years, our Women Culinary and Spirits mentorship program has focused on offering support at the individual level. Our primary goal has been to help women better succeed in the restaurant industry - through a variety of professional development opportunities, externships with experienced industry mentors, and targeted skill-building workshops.
Through this programming, we’ve built a dynamic national peer network of women working across the industry - possibly the most valuable asset to come out of WCSP. However, we’ve also learned that there is no amount of professional development that can compensate for the lack of a long term safe and supportive environment in the kitchen. Once mentees leave our program, they too often return to a professional life that is simply a continuation of the same inequities we strive to combat. A systems level intervention is needed to create a more equitable industry. That intervention is M. Frances - a new model for fine dining.
At M. Frances, we intend to refashion WCSP as an inhouse program - offering mentees the opportunity to grow in a dynamic environment that pushes the limits of possibility. Pulling from our alumni network - in addition to new mentees selected on a rolling basis - our kitchen will be a self-governed, democratically organized, and women-led environment, usurping the traditional brigade system.
At M. Frances, all employees will be paid a living wage and receive workplace entitlements. They will model equitable labor policies, pilot sustainability initiatives, engage with every aspect of running both a kitchen and a business, and collaborate with some of our industry’s leading female chefs. Rather than continuing to focus on individual solutions, M. Frances will be an experiment in creating a holistic system of equity and sustainability for an entire restaurant model.
Both our successes and our failures will be shared as open source collections of data-driven annual reports, directories, and toolkits - housed in one online location. By sharing our findings in a way that is easily accessible to peer organizations, independent restaurant owners, and industry professionals, we hope to collectively progress, as an entire community, towards creating better pathways to care, safety, and mutual respect in restaurants across the country.
Take a look at some of our past curriculum highlights:
Externship: Mentees will experience a weeklong externship under a notable and successful Chef or Beverage Director of a
female-led restaurant or restaurant group in the United States. The externship will include training in all aspects of the
restaurant business, from back of house to accounting, addressing the gap too many Chefs experience when they move into
ownership positions without a comprehensive skill set.
FAB Summer Camp: FAB is 48+ hours of educational and inspirational workshops created by women, for women in the
hospitality industry. This is an invaluable opportunity to build community and network with some of the most successful
women in the industry and expand our mentees’ knowledge on the financial and business side of the industry.
The Kentucky Experience: Mentees will travel to Louisville, Kentucky, for an immersive experience that highlights some of the
unique aspects of the hospitality industry in Kentucky. NOTE: Mentees must be available to travel to Louisville May 19-22.
Capstone Dinner: At the conclusion of the program, the mentees will host a dinner to raise funds for the next class of
mentees. This is another opportunity for this year's class to work together, showcase their skills and celebrate their
accomplishments and experience in the Women Culinary and Spirits Program.
Continuing Education: Mentees will have opportunities throughout the year to
participate in continuing education experiences to expand their knowledge and skills.
The LEE Initiative pays for travel and lodging during your externship and other
programmatic events requiring you to be in attendance, in addition to a competitive rate
of compensation for wages missed while participating.
Meet our Mentees and Mentors
2023
2022
2021
2019
2018
Women Culinary & Spirits Program: This program brings qualified women into the restaurant industry and equips them with new skills, powerful mentors in the industry.
Restaurant Workers Relief Program: This program supports pandemic relief and restaurant rebuilding efforts and will directly benefit restaurant employees.
Restaurant Reboot Relief Program: We provide cash infusions to sustainable farmers to allow independent restaurants to purchase goods to heal the food system.
Southern Restaurants for Racial Justice: We partner with the Southern Restaurants for Racial Justice to provide grants to Black-owned restaurants throughout the South.
The LEE Initiative's Culinary Education Program: this program addresses gaps in job training and preparedness for high school students and young people in our community.
The Maker’s Mark CommUNITY Batch – a special release bourbon created by the community, for the community, to support trade and hospitality partners around the country, only available through LEE.