London star Clare Smyth named world’s best female chef

A London culinary star famed as the only woman in Britain ever to hold three Michelin stars has been named the best female chef in the world.

Clare Smyth, 39, who made her reputation in charge of the kitchen at Gordon Ramsay’s eponymous flagship in Chelsea, said she hoped the honour would encourage more women to follow her to the top of a notoriously male-­dominated profession.

She topped a poll of more than 1,000 experts to win the elit Vodka World’s Best Female Chef Award.

Smyth left home in County Antrim to attend catering college in Portsmouth aged just 16. She joined Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in 2002, and apart from spells at top foreign restaurants such as Alain Ducasse’s Le Louis XV in Monaco she worked for her mentor until 2016, running the kitchen after 2007.

Last summer she opened her solo venture Core by Clare Smyth, in Notting Hill, which is renowned for its “Made in Britain” ethos that extends to cutlery, silverware and art as well as the food.

​Smyth told the Evening Standard that the title would help to highlight the extraordinary depth of talent in London, as well as the quality of ingredients now available in Britain.

She said: “British produce is better than it has ever been with chefs ­working closely with producers, which is driving the quality higher and higher.

“London has a great wealth of iconic restaurants, with a network of people who work together to support each other. It is one of the few great cities that can support such a diverse dining scene with an insatiable appetite both with domestic and international ­clientele.”