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Left to right: Chefs Marcie Turney of Barbuzzo, Jennifer Carroll of 10 Arts and Erin O'Shea of Percy Street Barbecue.
(Photos courtesy Barbuzzo, 10 Arts and Percy Street)

In honor of Women’s History Month, and inspired by Where Magazine’s recent “Girl Power!” piece, we’ve rounded up some of the cream of the female cooking crop in Philadelphia.

Philadelphia has an amazing roster of female chefs and they’re doing their part to make sure even more women get into the game.

Below, there are some super familiar faces, and some less so. Let us know if there are any we forgot!

• Jennifer Carroll, 10 Arts at the Ritz-Carlton: The Top Chef and Top Chef All-Stars alum is a hometown gal; she grew up in Northeast Philadelphia and attended the Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College in University City. Jen worked as sous chef at Eric Ripert’s prestigious Le Bernardin in New York, after which Ripert recruited her to lead 10 Arts’ kitchen. Check out our exclusive interview with Jen back in ’09 here.

• Marcie Turney, Lolita, Bindi, Barbuzzo: Turney and partner Valerie Safran are an unstoppable entrepreneurial duo: they’re responsible in large part for a complete overhaul of Midtown Village’s 13th Street, opening seven businesses all to critical acclaim. You can’t go wrong with either Lolita’s modern Mexican, Bindi’s farm-fresh Indian or Barbuzzo’s inventive Mediterranean. Also check out the pair’s special We Heart Philly gift series.

• Erin O’Shea, Percy Street Barbecue: We don’t need Bon Appetit Magazine to tell us that Erin O’Shea is one of the country’s best, and only, female barbecue pit mistresses. Formerly of West Philadelphia’s cozy BYOB Marigold Kitchen, O’Shea serves up some of the city’s best Southern food. Watch her demonstrate how she makes her Root Beer Chili here. Or just make a reservation and drool over her food in person.

• Susanna Foo, Susanna Foo Gourmet Kitchen: For more than 25 years Susanna Foo has changed the paradigm of Chinese food, melding traditional Chinese dishes with classical French techniques. Susanna and her restaurant have earned national acclaim (two James Beard Awards, Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs award). But it comes down to this: one taste of her handcrafted dumplings will slay you.

Lots more, below.

• Gina Rodriguez, Kokopelli: A Philadelphia transplant from California, Rodriguez helms the kitchen behind a creative Southwestern tapas menu served alongside nearly five dozen varieties of tequila. And she’s no stranger to breaking the gender barrier in the restaurant industry: she served as the first female behind the stoves at the acclaimed Ventana Room at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort in Tucson, Arizona.

• Anne Coll, Meritage: Raised in Media and self-taught, Coll was executive chef for six years at Susanna Foo on Walnut Street (now defunct), following formative experiences at Le Bec-Fin and Savona. She blends traditional French techniques with Asian flavor profiles, and with a new-last-year Vegan Tasting Menu and expanded bar, there’s no telling what she’ll explore next.

• Kira Baker-Doyle, John & Kira’s Chocolates: Education professor-cum-chocolatier Kira crafts, alongside her husband John, nationally lauded confections with flavors like Lavender Honey and Lingering Lemongrass. They use local ingredients sourced from family farms that implement biodynamic and organic agriculture. The married pair’s divine artisanal chocolates are available at the Fair Food Farmstand, area farmers’ markets and Reading Terminal Market.

• Sheri Waide, Southwark: Co-owner and chef Sheri, who spent time at Striped Bass and Django, is passionate about serving quality ingredients in a casual setting. She and her husband, co-owner and head bartender Kip, rely on produce and meats from local farms and co-ops. The homey Queen Village spot has attracted both a loyal neighborhood following and national attention.

• Roberta Adamo, Penne Restaurant & Wine Bar: Both this chef and her excellent Italian restaurant are undersung. Adamo earned her pasta-making cops at Brasserie Perrier, where she was hired to create pasta for the Italian section of the restaurant’s esteemed fusion menu, followed by the Ritz-Carlton. Adamo calls making food “an art she adores”; we feel the same about her, and all of her local female chef cohort.

• Heather Annechiarico, Hawthorne Cafe: This Italian Market spot is a true beer cafe with over 1,000 single bottles, 12 specialty growler fills and four rotating drafts, but that’s not to say that Heather doesn’t cook up a mean breakfast, lunch and dinner. She makes everything on-site from chips to oven-roasted meats (despite the fact that she’s a vegetarian).

• Moon Krapugthong, Mango Moon and Chabaa Thai: With Chabaa Thai (voted Best Thai in Philly by Zagat’s 2009) and newer Mango Moon, both in Manayunk, Moon infuses her food with artistic expression and joy, determined to give customers an experience that satisfies all five senses.

• Lynn Marie Rinaldi, Paradiso and : Born and raised in South Philadelphia, Lynn opened Paradiso in 2004 with a modern take on the traditional Italian cooking she learned in her mother’s kitchen. Prior to that and her latest venture Izumi, Lynn ran the café at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts for nine years.

• Delilah Winder, Delilah’s Southern Cuisine: Delilah has turned her great love of food, cultivated as she grew up nearby her grandmother’s kitchen in Philadelphia’s Germantown section, into a small empire: she has four Delilah’s Southern Cuisine stands throughout Philadelphia, a cookbook, and has appeared on everything from The Food Network’s Throwdown with Bobby Flay to ABC’s The View. We would like to officially thank Delilah’s grandmother for passing on such culinary talent (that macaroni and cheese, sweet potato pie, Southern fried chicken… we could go on).

• Franca DiRenzo, Tre Scalini: Chef Franca and her daughter Francesca Kauffman operate this Passyunk area Italian BYOB built on culinary traditions handed down through generations. And with this current, successful mother-daughter partnership we don’t see the delicious authenticity waning any time soon.

• Angela and Michele Iovino , Girasole: Another Italian mother-daughter team working it in and out of the kitchen. The pair visits Italy every year to search for new exciting recipes to bring back to Philadelphia. And we get to reap the edible benefits.

Check out the Philadelphia chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier, an international philanthropic society of professional women in the fields of food, sustainable farming, fine beverage, and hospitality, for recipes from local female chefs and news about upcoming events.