On Monday March 22, 2021 from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm an all-female chef lineup from San Diego College of Continuing Education (SDCCE) will join you virtually from your kitchen in honor of Women’s History Month, showing you step by step how to make homemade pizza and pizza dough. The event is free and open to the public.

Learn the royal history of the Margherita Pizza with SDCCE’s Chef Megan Leppert, Chef Nikki Austria, and Chef Liz Trevino as they lead a live cooking demonstration inside SDCCE’s industrial kitchen in Point Loma while students and community members tune in on Zoom.

To celebrate all women behind the food, SDCCE’s chef instructors will discuss establishing their careers in a historically male dominated field. “As women we had to overcome so much, earn promotions, titles, it is not an easy task in an industry where women aren’t expected to be leading,” said Chef Megan, a graduate of Johnson and Wales University and a 3-time American Culinary Federation Medalist.

Less than 7 percent of restaurants in the United States are led by female chefs, reported NPR.

SDCCE offers local residents seven no cost Hospitality and Culinary Arts Certificate programs including Beginning Culinary Arts, Advanced Culinary Arts, Professional Bakeshop, Introduction to Hospitality Industry, Culinary Nutrition, and Baking and Pastry Arts.

To advance female students in their food and beverage studies and career, SDCCE partnered with the San Diego women's chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier International (LDEI) to award culinary arts scholarships. On International Women’s Day, LDEI donated a $1500 success grant that benefited fourteen of  SDCCE’s female culinary students to afford kitchen equipment.

Due to barriers faced in online learning, SDCCE’s Hospitality and Culinary Arts department  hosts weekly Ingredient Distributions to provide enrolled students with essential food items and spices required to participate in the culinary labs.

“We felt like it was the only way to still offer the culinary arts certificate program during the Pandemic, this is for all students who are interested in education at SDCCE and who really want to enter the industry,” said Chef Megan. “It is the equitable thing to do, items like lobster and saffron are expensive.”

SDCCE’s Women’s History Month Cooking Demonstration is hosted by SDCCE’s Associated Student Body and the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee.