“I remember one year walking around and looking at people carrying flowers for their partners and feeling cynical,” photographer Circe Hamilton recalls of one Mother’s Day in New York. “I texted a picture of a plastic bucket over my head to my fellow single mother friends – my son had put the bucket over my head while we were playing and that was my reality. The following years, my single-mother-adoptee friends decided to celebrate this day together.”
The final instalment of our On Womanhood series explores the challenges and rewards of motherhood and the professional triumphs and endeavors of three inspiring women: Circe Hamilton (the photographer behind the lens of this very series), sous chef at The Ritz London Kae Shibata and renowned food author Skye McAlpine.
Part Four
Kae Shibata
Pastry Sous Chef at The Ritz London & Joint Owner of Oxeye
It could be said that Kae Shibata was born to be a chef – her mother spotted her ‘food baby’s’ love for eating at an early age. After realising that this love of cooking could be more than a hobby, Kae embarked on a career-changing path that saw her transform from high-fashion pattern cutter to sous chef. Here’s her story.
On my first day as a chef, I walked into The Ritz’ kitchen along with two boys who just had their 16th birthday. I was 25 years old. I’d left my career in fashion to pursue this and it suddenly dawned on me how out of my comfort zone I was. I was there for a week’s work experience as an unpaid ‘stagiaire’. Since I had no experience working in a professional kitchen, let alone any professional training at culinary school, I had to learn everything from scratch on the job, in a kitchen where there was no room for mistakes. I was much older than all the people who were teaching me but I was willing to dedicate my life to learn the craft as long as they were willing to have me, so I told John Williams, the executive chef, just that. I started with a salary, albeit a small salary, the next Monday morning.
Food was always in my soul. My mama called me a ‘foodie’ since I was a baby. I was the sibling with food all over my face, up my arms, in my hair. I love food and I love cooking for people. It was my sister who asked me, “Why don’t you become a chef? You could do what you love the most every day.” It never occurred to me that transitioning my hobby into a profession was an option but that was it and my mindset changed forever: I wanted to be a chef.
My role as sous chef means I’m part of the kitchen management – my day typically starts with briefing my team. The pastry section has three departments; The Restaurant, Afternoon Tea and The Bakers – we’re a team of 18 chefs. We all start at staggered times – it’s a 24-hour operation. Throughout the day I am responsible for making sure everything is executed to the highest standard, delicious and consistent. I consider myself a ‘hands on’ leader so I’ll be elbow deep in our 15kg macaron mix, piping them one by one, sandwiching them individually with the team.
Kitchens are high pressure and fast paced environments that traditionally attracted people with traits that thrived in these circumstances. More often than not, these were men. I’m incredibly pleased to say that kitchens around the UK are very different places these days and women can be found in all roles across amazing restaurants and hotels. We certainly, as hospitality leaders, still need to improve our industry’s accessibility and I’ll be striving hard to try and let all women and young girls know that the hospitality industry is a rewarding and positive place to be.
I’m in the process of launching a restaurant called Oxeye with my partner Sven, who is also a chef. Sven has been striving hard to bring his restaurant idea to life over the past few years. He has an amazing and incredibly strong vision for a very unique restaurant. Together, over the past couple of years we developed the concept for Oxeye and cannot wait to open to the public later this year.
I’m mum to a five-month old baby boy. It’s completely personal, of course, but for me motherhood has been so many emotions. It’s been hard, it’s been so much fun, it’s emotional, it’s draining, it’s incredibly rewarding, it’s the fierce drive behind everything I do. Sometimes it’s the only thing that gets me out of bed. It’s what makes me excited for the future. It’s what makes me scared for the future. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done but the most natural thing at the same time. I never knew I could feel this much love.
The mummy-baby WhatsApp groups and apps that I’m part of have really been eye-opening, and often, incredibly helpful. There’s this crazy support network of mums that may or may not live nearby, that you’ve potentially never met, that could just say the right words at the right time and that’s all you need. It’s a safe space to be vulnerable and ask for help and also give comfort. It takes a whole village to raise a child.
The strength and bravery of women throughout history is a weight that I feel on my shoulders, especially now as a mother. I’m here to do whatever I can in my life but it needs to make a positive impact on other women and all people.
Pastry Sous Chef at The Ritz London & Joint Owner of Oxeye
It could be said that Kae Shibata was born to be a chef – her mother spotted her ‘food baby’s’ love for eating at an early age. After realising that this love of cooking could be more than a hobby, Kae embarked on a career-changing path that saw her transform from high-fashion pattern cutter to sous chef. Here’s her story.
On my first day as a chef, I walked into The Ritz’ kitchen along with two boys who just had their 16th birthday. I was 25 years old. I’d left my career in fashion to pursue this and it suddenly dawned on me how out of my comfort zone I was. I was there for a week’s work experience as an unpaid ‘stagiaire’. Since I had no experience working in a professional kitchen, let alone any professional training at culinary school, I had to learn everything from scratch on the job, in a kitchen where there was no room for mistakes. I was much older than all the people who were teaching me but I was willing to dedicate my life to learn the craft as long as they were willing to have me, so I told John Williams, the executive chef, just that. I started with a salary, albeit a small salary, the next Monday morning.
Food was always in my soul. My mama called me a ‘foodie’ since I was a baby. I was the sibling with food all over my face, up my arms, in my hair. I love food and I love cooking for people. It was my sister who asked me, “Why don’t you become a chef? You could do what you love the most every day.” It never occurred to me that transitioning my hobby into a profession was an option but that was it and my mindset changed forever: I wanted to be a chef.
My role as sous chef means I’m part of the kitchen management – my day typically starts with briefing my team. The pastry section has three departments; The Restaurant, Afternoon Tea and The Bakers – we’re a team of 18 chefs. We all start at staggered times – it’s a 24-hour operation. Throughout the day I am responsible for making sure everything is executed to the highest standard, delicious and consistent. I consider myself a ‘hands on’ leader so I’ll be elbow deep in our 15kg macaron mix, piping them one by one, sandwiching them individually with the team.
Kitchens are high pressure and fast paced environments that traditionally attracted people with traits that thrived in these circumstances. More often than not, these were men. I’m incredibly pleased to say that kitchens around the UK are very different places these days and women can be found in all roles across amazing restaurants and hotels. We certainly, as hospitality leaders, still need to improve our industry’s accessibility and I’ll be striving hard to try and let all women and young girls know that the hospitality industry is a rewarding and positive place to be.
I’m in the process of launching a restaurant called Oxeye with my partner Sven, who is also a chef. Sven has been striving hard to bring his restaurant idea to life over the past few years. He has an amazing and incredibly strong vision for a very unique restaurant. Together, over the past couple of years we developed the concept for Oxeye and cannot wait to open to the public later this year.
I’m mum to a five-month old baby boy. It’s completely personal, of course, but for me motherhood has been so many emotions. It’s been hard, it’s been so much fun, it’s emotional, it’s draining, it’s incredibly rewarding, it’s the fierce drive behind everything I do. Sometimes it’s the only thing that gets me out of bed. It’s what makes me excited for the future. It’s what makes me scared for the future. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done but the most natural thing at the same time. I never knew I could feel this much love.
The mummy-baby WhatsApp groups and apps that I’m part of have really been eye-opening, and often, incredibly helpful. There’s this crazy support network of mums that may or may not live nearby, that you’ve potentially never met, that could just say the right words at the right time and that’s all you need. It’s a safe space to be vulnerable and ask for help and also give comfort. It takes a whole village to raise a child.
The strength and bravery of women throughout history is a weight that I feel on my shoulders, especially now as a mother. I’m here to do whatever I can in my life but it needs to make a positive impact on other women and all people.
Circe Hamilton
Photographer
When it came to capturing portraits for our On Womanhood series, there was only one person for the job: Circe Hamilton. Starting with the profiles of childhood friends before going on to capture the famous features of Maya Angelou and Marianne Pearl, Circe’s made a career of immortalising her subjects in a moment in time. Here, she talks about the rise of her photography career and the loved ones that have supported her in raising her son as a single parent.
My love of photography started aged 12 when my mother gave me a Nikon FM camera. I began photographing my friends in London. The first images I sold to magazines were photographs of my friends hanging out in their bedrooms and they were trying on different clothes. My shoots were inspired by magazine images which we would then try and recreate. Years later I moved to Upstate New York to complete a photography degree.
As a single parent to an adopted child, photography is a career that that has allowed me much flexibility. I usually shoot during the day and edit images once my son is in bed.
British female photo editors gave me my first assignments. My first paid assignment was photographing cigarette girls in a bar on Wardour Street for a women’s magazine called Company. I shot the assignment on my mother’s old Hasselblad. My first published images were the catalyst to being hired by magazines in New York.
I’ve met and photographed some incredible women who have been through so much and lived to tell the tale: Marianne Pearl, Ingrid Betancourt and Maya Angelou to name a few. I love learning about their worlds. Through recent assignments I have been able to meet and photograph policewomen, foodbank volunteers, adoptee families, artists, writers, politicians and figures of living history. I photographed Lady Jane William, who was Churchill’s secretary, and spoke of Churchill’s fastidiousness for truth telling.
I love the challenge of photographing a camera-shy person and giving them confidence to shine. It’s all about getting people to drop the preconceived notions they have about photography and enjoy the moment. Quite often I shoot a lot of exposures then delete all but a few because if the subject relaxes it comes through in the images. With a celebrity you might have 2-12 minutes to get the shot, so then it becomes more of a technical matter – making sure the lights are firing and the exposure is right. The tension adds to the image.
Photographing women is different to men but maybe not as different as you think. Women feel much more pressure to look good but also to look young. Any actress or TV presenter will tell you the ageist society we’re in, so often the shoot becomes a discussion about whether their stomach sticks out and if their roots show. Men of today also want to be seen as fit and healthy, especially if they’re older. The filtered-selfie nation has created a cry for Photoshop like never before. My reminder to my subjects is that you still need to look like your real self.
You learn from the hard jobs, for example, being sent to Morocco to photograph Jesus on a TV series. Your allotted time with the subject a sandstorm comes out of nowhere and you have seconds to move inside and capture what you need, then the client isn’t happy with the images. Or shooting in snowy super cold conditions in Czech Republic and learning which gear will work and which doesn’t.
I’m inspired by the great female photographers that came before us. Julia Margaret Cameron who took her wooden plate camera and had her subjects sit still for many minutes to create such passionate portraits; Dorothea Lange capturing American History and the plight of the poor; Imogen Cunningham’s botanical photographs and nudes; Diane Arbus and her need to document the world as she saw it.
For me, womanhood is about supporting those around you, whether it’s words of encouragement, lending a hand, helping make connections. My circle of women in New York and London are an exceptional group of individuals and I’m proud to know each and every one of them.
This feeling extends to my son’s birth mother too. I am thankful to her and I know a day doesn’t go by that she doesn’t think of him and wonder how he’s doing. Luckily, we are part of a pilot adoption program where we keep in touch with his birth family in Ethiopia. I took my son back to visit them when he was five and hope to go back again in the near future.
My friends supported me adopting solo and very much embrace my son as one of the pack. When I adopted my son in 2011 it was my female (and male!) friends and my mother that came by and helped me with the transition of being a new parent. They bought over food, came and shared meals with me and my son, joined us for walks in parks, on camping trips, and gathered with us for seasonal celebrations. They were helpful and took it in turns to babysit him.
Photographer
When it came to capturing portraits for our On Womanhood series, there was only one person for the job: Circe Hamilton. Starting with the profiles of childhood friends before going on to capture the famous features of Maya Angelou and Marianne Pearl, Circe’s made a career of immortalising her subjects in a moment in time. Here, she talks about the rise of her photography career and the loved ones that have supported her in raising her son as a single parent.
My love of photography started aged 12 when my mother gave me a Nikon FM camera. I began photographing my friends in London. The first images I sold to magazines were photographs of my friends hanging out in their bedrooms and they were trying on different clothes. My shoots were inspired by magazine images which we would then try and recreate. Years later I moved to Upstate New York to complete a photography degree.
As a single parent to an adopted child, photography is a career that that has allowed me much flexibility. I usually shoot during the day and edit images once my son is in bed.
British female photo editors gave me my first assignments. My first paid assignment was photographing cigarette girls in a bar on Wardour Street for a women’s magazine called Company. I shot the assignment on my mother’s old Hasselblad. My first published images were the catalyst to being hired by magazines in New York.
I’ve met and photographed some incredible women who have been through so much and lived to tell the tale: Marianne Pearl, Ingrid Betancourt and Maya Angelou to name a few. I love learning about their worlds. Through recent assignments I have been able to meet and photograph policewomen, foodbank volunteers, adoptee families, artists, writers, politicians and figures of living history. I photographed Lady Jane William, who was Churchill’s secretary, and spoke of Churchill’s fastidiousness for truth telling.
I love the challenge of photographing a camera-shy person and giving them confidence to shine. It’s all about getting people to drop the preconceived notions they have about photography and enjoy the moment. Quite often I shoot a lot of exposures then delete all but a few because if the subject relaxes it comes through in the images. With a celebrity you might have 2-12 minutes to get the shot, so then it becomes more of a technical matter – making sure the lights are firing and the exposure is right. The tension adds to the image.
Photographing women is different to men but maybe not as different as you think. Women feel much more pressure to look good but also to look young. Any actress or TV presenter will tell you the ageist society we’re in, so often the shoot becomes a discussion about whether their stomach sticks out and if their roots show. Men of today also want to be seen as fit and healthy, especially if they’re older. The filtered-selfie nation has created a cry for Photoshop like never before. My reminder to my subjects is that you still need to look like your real self.
You learn from the hard jobs, for example, being sent to Morocco to photograph Jesus on a TV series. Your allotted time with the subject a sandstorm comes out of nowhere and you have seconds to move inside and capture what you need, then the client isn’t happy with the images. Or shooting in snowy super cold conditions in Czech Republic and learning which gear will work and which doesn’t.
I’m inspired by the great female photographers that came before us. Julia Margaret Cameron who took her wooden plate camera and had her subjects sit still for many minutes to create such passionate portraits; Dorothea Lange capturing American History and the plight of the poor; Imogen Cunningham’s botanical photographs and nudes; Diane Arbus and her need to document the world as she saw it.
For me, womanhood is about supporting those around you, whether it’s words of encouragement, lending a hand, helping make connections. My circle of women in New York and London are an exceptional group of individuals and I’m proud to know each and every one of them.
This feeling extends to my son’s birth mother too. I am thankful to her and I know a day doesn’t go by that she doesn’t think of him and wonder how he’s doing. Luckily, we are part of a pilot adoption program where we keep in touch with his birth family in Ethiopia. I took my son back to visit them when he was five and hope to go back again in the near future.
My friends supported me adopting solo and very much embrace my son as one of the pack. When I adopted my son in 2011 it was my female (and male!) friends and my mother that came by and helped me with the transition of being a new parent. They bought over food, came and shared meals with me and my son, joined us for walks in parks, on camping trips, and gathered with us for seasonal celebrations. They were helpful and took it in turns to babysit him.
Skye McAlpine
Author & Cook
Growing up with parents who embraced an open kitchen policy meant that mealtimes for Skye McAlpine had a ‘party’ feel. This community approach to feasting spawned a blog that grew into a book and a column in The Sunday Times. Here’s Skye’s story.
I’ve always loved eating. Growing up my parents would cook and entertain all the time. I’m an only child but it was never just the three of us sitting down to lunch or dinner – there were always six, ten, sometimes even more people around the table. I grew up believing that food tastes best not when perfectly cooked but when shared with friends.
When I was at university, I started cooking for myself for the first time and it was then that I discovered the joy of cooking for others. It was also round about that time that my love affair with cookbooks began. I used to – and still do – read them like novels, in bed with a mug of tea before going to sleep. I am endlessly fascinated by the idea that we all eat but the story of what we eat, how we cook it, what that recipe or dish means to us and so forth is perhaps one of the most personal stories we have to tell.
My blog really began as a hobby. At the time I was researching my PhD in Latin literature and was looking for a creative outlet of sorts – an escape from the rigours of my more academic work and indulge my passion for writing in a more creative, free way. I started collecting recipes and stories together in a blog, then I started taking photos to illustrate my posts. It opened a whole new world for me and connected me with a community that shared my interests and passions. I loved it instantly. With time it began to be work.
Writing a cookbook had always been a dream for me. As my blog and Instagram began to grow an audience and receive some attention in the press my confidence grew and a cookbook began to feel like something I could actually make happen. It took about a year to write A Table in Venice as I was determined to get it just right.
I’m releasing my second book later this year. It’s called A Table for Friends: The Art of Cooking for Two or Twenty. It’s one that I’ve longed to write for years and I wish I had owned it when I first started cooking all those years ago at uni. The book is a collection of recipes, but also a collection of pretty much everything that I’ve learned through years of cooking for more people than it’s ever seemed sensible to squeeze around the table in our kitchen. I tackle lots of questions including how to cook for friends in a way that allows you to really enjoy yourself at the same time – that way you’ll want to do it more often!
A big part of what has inspired me to build a career doing what I love has been seeing other women, many of them friends, forging their own paths in this world. Their doing what they love and juggling it all so gracefully with the highs and the lows of motherhood. Social media, and Instagram in particular, has been really inspiring for me on this front, as it’s been a window into their worlds, successes, struggles and run-of-the-mill days at work.
Juggling being a mother and your own venture can definitely be challenging at times. That being said, I feel incredibly privileged that because I am my own boss I can, to a certain extent at least, dictate my own schedule. If I need to be with the boys or put them to bed in the evening, I can pick my work up again later that night or early the next day. I also feel incredibly privileged to do something that I love and be able to call it work – I hope it will inspire my own kids to the same one day too.
Being a mum has changed my view of what it is to be a woman. I’m less harsh on myself than I used to be. With time I’ve learned to accept that I can’t be a ‘perfect’ mother any more than I can be the ‘perfect’ wife or ‘perfect’ at my work. I can just do my best and be proud of it.
Author & Cook
Growing up with parents who embraced an open kitchen policy meant that mealtimes for Skye McAlpine had a ‘party’ feel. This community approach to feasting spawned a blog that grew into a book and a column in The Sunday Times. Here’s Skye’s story.
I’ve always loved eating. Growing up my parents would cook and entertain all the time. I’m an only child but it was never just the three of us sitting down to lunch or dinner – there were always six, ten, sometimes even more people around the table. I grew up believing that food tastes best not when perfectly cooked but when shared with friends.
When I was at university, I started cooking for myself for the first time and it was then that I discovered the joy of cooking for others. It was also round about that time that my love affair with cookbooks began. I used to – and still do – read them like novels, in bed with a mug of tea before going to sleep. I am endlessly fascinated by the idea that we all eat but the story of what we eat, how we cook it, what that recipe or dish means to us and so forth is perhaps one of the most personal stories we have to tell.
My blog really began as a hobby. At the time I was researching my PhD in Latin literature and was looking for a creative outlet of sorts – an escape from the rigours of my more academic work and indulge my passion for writing in a more creative, free way. I started collecting recipes and stories together in a blog, then I started taking photos to illustrate my posts. It opened a whole new world for me and connected me with a community that shared my interests and passions. I loved it instantly. With time it began to be work.
Writing a cookbook had always been a dream for me. As my blog and Instagram began to grow an audience and receive some attention in the press my confidence grew and a cookbook began to feel like something I could actually make happen. It took about a year to write A Table in Venice as I was determined to get it just right.
I’m releasing my second book later this year. It’s called A Table for Friends: The Art of Cooking for Two or Twenty. It’s one that I’ve longed to write for years and I wish I had owned it when I first started cooking all those years ago at uni. The book is a collection of recipes, but also a collection of pretty much everything that I’ve learned through years of cooking for more people than it’s ever seemed sensible to squeeze around the table in our kitchen. I tackle lots of questions including how to cook for friends in a way that allows you to really enjoy yourself at the same time – that way you’ll want to do it more often!
A big part of what has inspired me to build a career doing what I love has been seeing other women, many of them friends, forging their own paths in this world. Their doing what they love and juggling it all so gracefully with the highs and the lows of motherhood. Social media, and Instagram in particular, has been really inspiring for me on this front, as it’s been a window into their worlds, successes, struggles and run-of-the-mill days at work.
Juggling being a mother and your own venture can definitely be challenging at times. That being said, I feel incredibly privileged that because I am my own boss I can, to a certain extent at least, dictate my own schedule. If I need to be with the boys or put them to bed in the evening, I can pick my work up again later that night or early the next day. I also feel incredibly privileged to do something that I love and be able to call it work – I hope it will inspire my own kids to the same one day too.
Being a mum has changed my view of what it is to be a woman. I’m less harsh on myself than I used to be. With time I’ve learned to accept that I can’t be a ‘perfect’ mother any more than I can be the ‘perfect’ wife or ‘perfect’ at my work. I can just do my best and be proud of it.