PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Some well-known male
chefs are getting behind a New Jersey girl's call for Hasbro to make a
gender-neutral
Easy-Bake Oven.
Chefs including Manuel Trevino of TV's "Top
Chef" and Michael Lomonaco of Porterhouse New York are featured in a
YouTube video
applauding McKenna Pope's online petition, which had reached about
40,000 signatures as of Tuesday on the website Change.org.
The 13-year-old 8th-grader from Garfield,
N.J., started the petition when she went to buy an Easy-Bake Oven for
her 4-year-old-brother,
Gavyn Boscio, but discovered it comes only in purple and pink. She
wants Pawtucket, R.I.-based Hasbro to feature boys on the
box of the toy and to make it in gender-neutral colors.
Celebrity chef Bobby Flay said last week he agreed that Hasbro should make an oven in other colors to appeal to boys, and
in the nearly 3-minute-long video posted online Tuesday by Flay's publicist, several chefs from around the country joined
in on the call.
Lomonaco is known for his TV appearances and was executive chef at Windows on the World atop the north tower of the World
Trade Center at the time of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. In the video, he and other chefs root for McKenna.
"We signed your petition McKenna! You get Hasbro to change that packaging! Little boys and little girls can all be chefs,"
he says to cheers from the rest of his kitchen.
Laurent Tourondel, who has started restaurants around the world, says cooking is for girls AND boys, while New York chef Spencer
Rubin asks: "Hasbro, please make an Easy-Bake for dudes."
Joshua Whigham, of The Bazaar by Jose Andres in Los Angeles, says he supports making an Easy-Bake that's more friendly for
boys.
"I can understand not wanting to cook on a pink oven," he says. "Ask Hasbro for a steel, or a black or a something really
cool oven."
Brad Spence of Amis Trattoria in Philadelphia says he has young children at home.
"My son, I cook with him every Sunday, so I'd love to see something like that happen," he says.
McKenna's mother, Erica Boscio, told The Associated Press that McKenna is scheduled to meet with Hasbro on Monday.
A spokesman for Hasbro did not immediately return a message seeking comment.