NEW YORK — Few women make it into the top ranks of chefs in New York City. It’s even harder for women who are not U.S. citizens, but one young Pakistani woman has broken this barrier.
Fatima Ali is the sous – or assistant – chef at the famous Café Centro in Midtown Manhattan. She is also one of the very few Pakistani women to graduate from America’s top culinary institute, the Culinary Institute of Arts.
But what makes Ali even rarer, according to a VOA survey, is that she may be the only non-American female chef in any of 70 top New York restaurants.
Ali grew up in Pakistan, and she says there’s so much for her to take back to her home country.
“There’s so many things that I’ve been exposed to in the U.S., that I may not have been exposed to in Pakistan. Like the plethora of ingredients that are available here,” she said. “But it’s been really interesting, taking what I have learned in America and then whenever I go back home to visit, cooking for my family and friends with the ingredients that I love from there.”
