"There are a lot of important opportunities to raise up one's voice, to throw bricks, but this one just seems suspiciously too simplistic and low-hanging — even for me who is always so quick to ire. I just don't like the way it perfectly sets me up like a dog on a leash: Master kicks the dog and I'm supposed to bark? I think the kicking of the dog speaks for itself."

It's a compelling notion — that Time is essentially poking readers in anticipation of their cries. But then Hamilton asks a more important question: Where are all the neighbors who see the master kicking the dog? What do they think? What do Chang or Keller think about being lauded on a list that left out an entire segment of their peers? What is more important, more meaningful: women standing up for other women or the fawned-over men admitting the Time piece is unbalanced?

Hamilton concludes her brief by writing:

"Waiting to get on a list, working to get on a list — this is a time- and soul-suck with no good end. To slip the leash and leave the master standing there holding it while you meanwhile are around the corner throwing an awesome party with all of your friends is the greatest act of defiance I can think of."

Other chefs who commented for The New York Times looked for a way to place blame for the fact that women do, in actuality, wield less power in the culinary world. Chef Anita Lo, who owns Annisa in Manhattan, says that investors and media consumers should be held responsible. Amanda Cohen points to the attention the media gives to male chefs over female chefs, while food writer Alan Richman thinks the list is "accurate and, for that matter, obvious," because men in the industry hold women back. It's not the women's fault, he seems to be saying, that they just aren't up to snuff in the kitchen.

Boston Magazine immediately reached out to Lynch, a woman many thought should have been on the list, to get her take on Time's snub. Lynch said she thinks Time's editor, Howard Chua-Eoan, was clearly looking to get attention with his choices for the feature. "Not that the men in the article aren't talented," she says. "But come on, they have major PR support, and because I've chosen not to be a flash in the pan, I've worked that much harder to be on the national playing field."

In an interview with Eater about the story, Chua-Eoan addressed the omission of Lynch. He basically said that though Lynch has just as many restaurants as Chang, Chang's are spread over the globe, while Lynch's are in Boston only. Therefore he has more cultural influence. "­David is a very good entrepreneur," Chua-Eaon said, "which is something beyond just being a cook."

In a nutshell, here's the reasoning Chua-Eaon gave Eater for not including any female chefs among the "Gods":

"None of them have a restaurant that we believe matches the breadth and size and basically empire of some of these men that we picked. They have the reputation and all that and it's an unfortunate thing. The female chef is a relatively recent phenomenon, except for Alice, who has been around for a long time. None of them have the recent breadth that these guys have."

We aren't sure we completely accept Chua-Eaon's excuse for the lack of — shall we say — goddesses on the list. We reached out to some local chefs to find out how they feel about the issue.

"I guess the interesting thing is that unless we yell and scream about it, they're not going to do it any differently," says Monica Pope, chef and owner of Sparrow Bar + Cookshop. "But if we do, we're bitches."

Pope is a well-known and outspoken local food personality, and has made it clear that she's offended not only by Time's lack of acknowledgement of the great female chefs out there, but also the lack of respect she feels as a female chef here in Houston.

"People think, 'Oh, Monica is bitter and angry and resentful,'" Pope says. "But I'm past all that. Years ago, a local writer here did a cover story about 100 foodies in Houston. It could have been anyone — chefs, real estate agents, whatever. Ninety-nine percent of the descriptions of the foodies were positive, but mine was, 'The most failed chef in Houston.' I asked, 'What does that mean?' I was two years into t'afia. Why am I the most failed chef? You know what the response was? 'Oh, we were just being snarky.'"

Pope seems to have landed on an issue that comes up again and again in discussions about women in positions of power or authority, particularly in the kitchen: a lack of respect, even from other women. In responding to Time's article, legendary restaurateur (and chef, though many won't call her that) Waters told a Time reporter, "When you see women in the kitchen, you think it's a domestic thing, and when you see men you think it's a creative thing. That's what we need to change."