Fotia

Sofia Beleri had nearly a decade of experience in Greece and had established herself as an executive chef. CNA Women finds out what made her come to ...

“When I was rising up the ranks, I had to work 10 times harder and clocked in more hours than my male counterparts. “I was working from 9am to 11pm and only saw my daughter every Sunday when the restaurant was closed. “They invited me and my husband to their house and asked me to cook for them. Then I had to take her home, bathe her, feed her and cook for the next day,” she said. He only came to visit me at work about seven years after I joined the business and he was surprised to see me giving orders to a team of 14. I had to wake up early to feed her, send her to the other side of Singapore (where her babysitter was) and take the train to work. This was a good chance for people (in Singapore) to know us and our food,” she said. “In Greece, even though I was the chef, it was really, really hard for me to prove (myself). I was really tired. I had no one and I came with a 15-month-old baby. Beleri said it was typically not accepted for women to do the kind of work she does. They had to at least give me a chance,” she told CNA Women over a lunch of homemade pita bread, dolmadakia (stuffed wine leaves), grilled octopus and kunefe. CNA Women finds out what made her come to Singapore, where she had to start from scratch, and how she’s working towards a gender-equal future.