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Best restaurants with female chefs
By Stephanie Hirschmiller, London Lite 27.08.08
Mexican magic: Thomasina Miers opened Wahaca restaurant in Covent Garden last year
Going solo: Murano's Angela Hartnett
Fab fusion: The Modern Pantry's Anna Hansen
Talent: Hélène Darroze has two Michelin stars
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Once upon a time, the male chauvinist brigade insisted a woman's place was in the kitchen. But chefs, well, they were blokes. Now, however, female chefs are taking over restaurants across London - even Le Gavroche, the capital's most famous French establishment, has a female head chef.
MURANO
Gordon Ramsay protégé Angela Hartnett opened her first solo project last week in Mayfair. Signature dishes include Cromer crab tortellini with spring onion, chilli and Amalfi lemon, or roasted pigeon with pickled beetroot, Lyonnaise onions and semolina gnocchi (£55 for three courses, £60 for four). "Life is a man's world, full stop," says Angela. "I don't think it's just catering." But she has never experienced bigotry herself. It's hardly surprising - anyone who can hold their own with Ramsay must be tough.
20-22 Queen Street, W1 (020 7592 1222)
WAHACA
You may know Thomasina Miers from her Channel 4 show, Wild Gourmets. She opened Wahaca last year with partner Mark Selby. Set in a Covent Garden basement, the restaurant specialises in fresh food inspired by Mexico - from freshly made guacamole with lime juice to churros (Mexico's answer to doughnuts). Share street food such as tacos nopalitos - tacos filled with grilled cactus and melted cheese - for £4.50. Miers says women cook more instinctively and from the soul, but men are more analytical. However, she says a good kitchen needs both.
66 Chandos Place, WC2 (020 7240 1883)
THE MODERN PANTRY
Canadian-born Anna Hansen started out as a kitchen porter in Soho's French House. Less than 10 years later, she was part of the team behind Marylebone's award-winning Providores restaurant. The Modern Pantry is her first solo venture, an airy affair in a Grade II-listed Georgian building that used to be a steel foundry. Try her fusion-style dishes of sugar- cured prawn omelette with chilli sambal (£7.50), or grilled miso marinated onglet steak with cherry tomatoes (£15.50).
47-48 St John's Square, EC1 (020 7250 0833)
RESTAURANT GORDON RAMASY
Last spring Clare Smyth was made head chef at Gordon Ramsay's three Michelin-starred Royal Hospital Road restaurant. The 29-year-old from Northern Ireland is a stickler for detail. Dishes such as line-caught turbot studded with Perigord truffle are never served if they are less than perfect. "I could never say I'm tired, or I'm sick, or I've cut my finger," she says, "as the response would be, 'It's because you're a girl.'"
68 Royal Hospital Road, SW3 (020 7352 4441)
LE GAVROCHE
Le Gavroche has been a bastion of the restaurant establishment since 1967. In April, Rachel Humphrey became its first female head chef. She did her apprenticeship there in 1996, aged 18, and is a dab hand at complex creations such as guinea fowl stuffed with black pudding, confit potatoes, leeks and wild mushrooms (£26.40). "Sometimes, people are initially less confident in your abilities as a female in such a male-dominated industry," says Rachel. "But I know I am as good as my male counterparts and any suggestion-otherwise has simply given me the drive to succeed."
43 Upper Brook Street, W1 (020 7408 0881)
THE CONNAUGHT
It's hardly surprising that Hélène Darroze has two Michelin stars - she has four generations of top chefs in the family. She began her career working for Alain Ducasse in Monte Carlo, before opening her own restaurant in Paris in 1990. "I cook with my emotions," she says. "Men think about technique first and then emotion." Her restaurant opened in July at Mayfair's Connaught hotel, where the menu combines ingredients from south-west France and the UK. Signature dishes include chicken breast simmered with yellow wine and girolle mushrooms (£75 for three courses).
Carlos Place, W1 (020 3147 7200)
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Reader views (2)
If you're going to do a best female chef's article, and its questionable whether you should it would appropriate to try and do just that.
As interesting as their restaurants might be, it diminishes the quality of your research when people such as Miers & hanson are included. Both have worthy places, but clearly do not belong in such a list not when people like Sally Clarke & Helena Puolakka for example, are omitted. that's just being silly now, or perhaps even lazy.
- Scott, London
Erm, is this something you can draw attention to in this politically correct day and age? You wouldn't have an article entitled 'Best restaurants with disabled chefs' or 'Best restaurants with Tall Chefs' would you? I for one don't care who's cooking the nosebag as long as it tastes good and they wash their hands. It seems the female of the species is the last bastion of comparative journalism - ooh look a woman running a garage - which perpetuates sexual inequality and outmoded role issues.
- Squiz, Islington
