Wealthy bourgeois families hired outside help both as a practical matter and as a mark of status. The vast majority of domestic servants were women. While the family matriarch oversaw the household, the kitchen staff took care of the cooking and other laborious chores. Here we see two domestic servants in a bourgeois kitchen. Cooks were not only responsible for the preparation of food, they also bought the groceries, washed the dishes, and cleaned the dining room after meals. The woman on the right is probably consulting a cookbook in preparation for the family’s next meal.