The toque fits this lady just fine

A dish by Anne Sophie Pic, who describes her cooking style as "close to nature, more visual and sensible". [Photo provided to China Daily]

As much as she wants to make changes to the male-dominated and perhaps more grumpy French kitchen, when talking about femininity in cuisine, Pic tries to blur the differences between male or female chefs.

"It's not really a matter of gender. It's really hard to say that because I am a woman, my cuisine is especially feminine. There are also some male chefs making very feminine cuisines, or vice versa," she says. Instead, she describes her cooking style as "closer to nature, more visual and sensible", resembling women's way of thinking.

"I think most women basically and instinctively cook like a mother, even though it's professional. For me and many other female chefs I have seen, there is always the kind of message in mind once in the kitchen that 'I am cooking for the family'," says the mother of a 7-year-old son, although she adds that the sense of mother hood has been with her long before she had her son.

"I am always thinking of my childhood when I am cooking, probably because that's the souvenir from my father," says the self-taught chef, who first rolled up her sleeves in her father's kitchen at the age of 23. Three months later, her father died and she was pushed to "the front of the house".

Cooking has been the "real passion" in her life, which "summoned" her back to her hometown and the family restaurant after she'd been studying and worked overseas for various companies as a management trainee.