THE CHEF

TitleTHE CHEF
BrandUSACHEVSKY MARKET
Product/ServiceUSACHEVSKY MARKET
Category A04. Travel, Leisure, Retail, Restaurants & Fast Food Chains
Entrant ART UNION Moscow, RUSSIA
Idea Creation ART UNION Moscow, RUSSIA
PR EXPLOSIVE PR Moscow, RUSSIA
Credits
Name Company Position
Dmitriy Senderov Art Union CEO
Vitaliy Gevorkyan Art Union Executive Creative Director
Mikhail Goryaninov Art Union Executive Creative Director
Egor Gournik Usachevskiy Market Director
Nikita Senderov Art Union Chief Creative Officer
Olga Popova Art Union Copywriter
Mariya Nesterenko Art Union Agency Producer
Anna Usacheva Art Union Art Director
Oleg Egorov Art Union Producer
Vladimir Konarev Art Union Video Director
Aleksandr Nosovskiy Art Union DOP
Roman Maslennikov Взрывной PR CEO
Aleksandr Andrianov Взрывной PR PR Manager
Julia Khramchenkova Взрывной PR PR Manager
Andrei Filatov Взрывной PR PR Manager
Anfisa Sultanova Взрывной PR PR Manager
Ilnur Haev Взрывной PR PR Manager
Anton Regitov Взрывной PR PR Manager
Alexandr Bersenev Взрывной PR PR Manager

Why is this work relevant for Direct?

The Chef project explores the problem of gender inequality and negative attitudes towards female chefs. We interacted directly with our visitors through tastings and further calls for e-voting for the best concept. Voting took place in the Usachevsky market.

Background

In Russia, there is a stereotype that the best chefs are men. Main stereotypical arguments against female chefs: • Physically hard work. • The most important thing for women is family. • Women have low gustatory sensitivity. • Women have less developed managerial skills. The goal of our project was to draw public attention to the problem of disrespectful treatment of female chefs in Russia. The mission of our project was to dispel the stereotype that the best chefs are only men.

Describe the creative idea (30% of vote)

To influence the attitude towards female chefs, we conducted a vote on the Usachevsky market for the best restaurant concept using a mobile application. The voting was carried out among the visitors of the market who tried the dishes in our restaurants. The result of the vote helped determine the winners, who were mostly female chefs. So, we were able to dispel the myth that the only professionals in the kitchen are male.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

We conducted a study on the problem of negative attitudes towards female chefs in Russia and the world. Most ratings of chefs are complied with men. Moreover, unlike English all words in Russian have a gender assigned to them most professions have two forms associated with them a masculine and a feminine. The word “Chef” was only considered as a masculine word.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

In order to influence the situation, we organized a tasting for restaurant visitors at the Usachevsky market. The call to action was to vote for the most delicious restaurant using a mobile application. Moreover, we contacted online dictionaries and added a new gender for the Russian word Chef.

List the results (30% of vote)

We defied the stereotype that the best chefs are men.We got a lot of media and public attention. The total number of impressions of The Chef project amounts to more than 87 million throughout Russia. And for the first time ever, the LARGEST online dictionary of Contemporary Russian has announced officially that the word “chef” can be used both in the masculine and feminine genders. The number of visitors to the Usachevsky Market has doubled and the revenues of restaurants with female chefs has, in turn, increased by 230%.