I knew things could be rough and tumbly back in the kitchen. I’ve had clients working as line cooks with the hopes to be chef someday. They came to our meetings with nasty burns on their wrists and barely able to stay awake.

Sometimes I park myself at that counter where a restaurant lets you eat inches from the comings and goings of food making and I can observe the chaotic rhythm of sautéing, grilling, frying, passing, placing, dripping, dropping and shouting. It’s intense.

But thanks to Charlotte Druckman’s book Skirt Steak: Women Chefs on Standing the Heat and Staying in the Kitchen, I have a deeper appreciation for the work overall and how women chefs prevail in this cut-throat, male-dominated industry.

She examines the stages of and influences on a chef’s career through the experiences of 73 women. Think of it as 73 unfettered informational interviews.

What does it take to make it?

The traits, of course, are fascination with food and the desire to communicate through this particular medium, says the author.

It also takes physical and mental endurance.

Chef Liza Shaw, says, ‘“It takes a very strong physicality {and} a strong mind to be able to work the hours and get pummeled physically in the way that you do…”

Chef Ann Cashion points out that “most of the women who thrived in her kitchen were those who had played team sports, excelled athletically, or possessed physical confidence.” The idea “that they are physically capable of enduring so much,” made them “better equipped to handle life in the galley,” writes Druckman.

It takes sacrifice. Chef Waylynn Lucas says, ‘“I’ve given up everything to become a chef and do what I do…holidays…family…to know and live food, and to be able to now, somewhat, create freely.”

What used to bother chef Gina DePalma most was always feeling “like I had to sacrifice my femininity”–like nurturing. “You have to buy into the whole pretend to be one of the boys.”

To get along in a galley women cooks have frequently had to choose between “acting like a man (renouncing all vestiges of femaleness) or becoming invisible….” says the author.

It requires the ability to operate under pressure. It’s “hard to sleep at night when you actually do get the hours to sleep,’” says chef Melissa Perello. You never stop thinking of how your food is portrayed and received by customers and peers. Partially, she says, it’s “related to being a woman in the industry and being surrounded by other male chefs…’”

Chef Shuna Lydon recalls this piece of advice from a female line cook: “Just know this: You’re going to work twice as hard for half the respect.”

It takes a thick skin.

According to chef Stephanie Izard, ‘”There’s a lot of offensive stuff said in the kitchen…that’s what seems to trip most women up…”

Like many professions dominated by men, it’s relatively easier these days to be a female in the professional kitchen, says Druckman. “Doors for professional kitchens are now slightly open to women,” says food writer and author Jennifer Rubell, in an AOL On Food video. But, “Restaurant cooking is still basically the province of men.”

Pastry chef Heather Bertinetti said that the only way to survive “is if I know I can go toe-to-toe” with the men…to stick up for myself”…and make my mark…”’

DePalma says that it takes a long time to be old enough and confident enough to say, ‘”You know, I’m not one of the boys and that’s what I’m bringing to the kitchen, bozo.’”

The professional kitchen is hard, hard work for anyone. Rubell adds, “The people who do it are my heroes.”

Mine too.