6 female chefs who are changing the world of cooking

To reach Aragosta at Goose Cove, an oceanfront restaurant on Maine’s craggy coast, guests follow State Route 15 over a dramatically narrow suspension bridge, then cross the Deer Isle Causeway. Turning onto Goose Cove Road from State Route 15A, the road narrows even further, with pine trees closing in on both sides, until it turns into a bumpy graveled way. Just when you suspect you might be lost, however, the vista opens up to reveal a cove with a rocky beach and views of pine-tree packed islands beyond. To the left, a building covered with weathered shingles, partly obscured by lush vegetation, bears a subtle green sign that simply reads: Aragosta.

For an ambitious prix fixe restaurant, the spot is unusually remote, but it exactly suits Executive Chef/Proprietor Devin Finigan. She is just one of many female chef/owners in Northern New England who is using her talent and leadership to build a restaurant that serves her way of life and family, in an industry where the upper echelon is still very much dominated by men.

Here is her story, along with those of five other women who are carving new paths in the restaurant world.

The freshness of the ingredients, combined with Finigan’s fine-dining background, contribute to a magical dining experience. The eight- to 10-course tasting menu changes weekly, reflecting a generosity of spirit, a thoughtful combination of flavors and textures, and the sheer joy of coastal Maine.

“I want to reflect everything around me on the plate,” she says, right down to the moss growing on the stone walls out front, which she uses in table settings. “I think that it’s important to take a moment to look at the moss, because you drove by it and might not have noticed.”

The chef had been testing the waters for a couple years at Bresca and the Honeybee, her summertime ice cream snack bar on Sabbathday Lake’s Outlet Beach. While that location focuses primarily on gourmet scoops, The Purple House will push ice cream in new directions, including nondairy options. “I love Drumsticks,” she says of the classic ice cream truck sundae packed into a cone. “The crunch and the creamy and the cold and the acid—all those things you want to put on a plate as a chef—I’m now going to be challenged to put into a cone or a cup.”

Cutting expects her COVID-compliant patio, indoor dining room, and new sidewalk seating to be full this summer, with people ordering summery favorites like fresh tomato bruschetta and buffalo-style duck drumettes—a returning favorite featuring duck confit and a spicy sauce. At that point, takeout will hopefully take a backseat, a decision she gets to control as the boss. “It’s something I feel proud of, to be able to say, ‘We would make more revenue offering takeout on Saturday nights, but it’s not worth it. It would be a struggle for my staff.’ ”

The chef/owner has also been attracting national attention with Emshika’s, her new line of canned Thai iced teas and coffees sweetened with monk fruit. Thai iced tea has always been on the menu at her restaurant, as it was at her mother’s food stand in her native Thailand. The recipe Alberini uses is borrowed from her relatives. But Alberini has moved beyond those roots: Her pan-Asian menu also includes sushi, ramen, poke bowls, and even red curry ramen—a delicious mash-up of Thai and Japanese.

The chef is driven by an artist’s sensibility, her wife says, keeping a pad by her bed to capture sudden inspiration. “Jevgenija considers the plate a blank canvas,” Mehlman says. “She’ll draw how she wants the plate to look, and then she starts putting in the ingredients.” Perhaps langoustines from New Zealand, Wagyu beef from Japan, or octopus from Spain. “I think that’s what makes Chef so sought after,” Mehlman adds. “Customers are intrigued by her approach.”

The cheese, like much of Honey Road’s menu, is locally sourced—just one of the many reasons the chef has garnered national acclaim, along with three James Beard semifinalist nominations for Best Chef, Northeast (and one for Best New Restaurant in 2018). Interestingly, when everything shuttered last spring, Tobin was surprised to realize she didn’t miss the spotlight.

“James Beard awards, and any sort of recognition—everything was just gone,” Tobin recalls. “So all I had to do was cook food and make sure that the restaurant was making enough money to get by. Awards don’t pay the bills. They are satisfying for a minute, but at the end of the day, it’s about stability, and working in a caring environment.”