Harry and Meghan's wedding chef hits out at sexism after winning 'best female chef' award

Harry and Meghan's wedding chef has hit out at sexism in the restaurant industry, as she was presented with an award for being the world's best female chef. 

After collecting the prestigious accolade on Monday, Clare Smyth, a Northern Irish chef who catered for the recent Royal wedding evening reception, said separating male and female chefs for food awards was "strange". 

She added that she hoped the award could soon be scrapped as a result of more female chefs being recognized among the world's best. 

The star chef, who is head chef at Core in Notting Hill, was presented with the award at the World’s 50 Best Restaurants gala in Bilbao, Spain, which is considered to be the Oscars of the food world, on Monday. 

Ms Smyth said: “We still have a real lack of women recognised at the top of the industry,” Smyth, whose own restaurant was overlooked for the top 50, told attendees.

“We have to do something about that, we’re not going to change it by ignoring it … to separate [male and female chefs] for me is strange, but we don’t see enough women coming through at the top.

“I would love to see very soon that we don’t need gender-specific awards because women will have recognition and there will be a balance in the industry."

“Hopefully we’ll see plenty of women on the 50 Best list and there won’t be a need for that award,” she added.

Of the top 50 restaurants on the list this year, only four have female head chefs. The Best Female Chef award was invented to recognize women because of their absence from the list. There is no male equivalent award.  

Earlier this year the award faced criticism by female chefs who questioned the need to segregate women into a separate award category. 

Pip Lacey, former head chef at Michelin-starred Mayfair restaurant Murano, described the women-only award as "odd", adding that unlike in sport there is no reason female chefs can't compete on an equal playing field with the opposite sex.

Ms Lacey, who is opening her own restaurant in central London this summer, told The Telegraph: "I don't get why we have to segregate the award - it's a bit odd.

"I don't see why you can't compete with men, why there's not just one category.  "It's not like how in sport you are competing at a different physical level, I don't think cooking is like that."

At the time chefs from across the world agreed with Ms Lacey's appraisal of the prize. 

Ms Smyth was chef patron at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay from 2012 to 2016. She became the first female British chef to hold and retain three Michelin stars.

The Italian chef Massimo Bottura won best restaurant for his Modena-based Osteria Francescana. British restaurants were absent from the top 30 for the first time this year, but London’s The Clove Club came in at 33, Lyle’s at 38 and The Ledbury at 42.