Clare Smyth

Smyth grew up on a farm in County Antrim. She is the youngest of three children, of her father William, a farmer, and mother Doreen, who worked as a waitress at a local restaurant. [9]

At the age of fifteen, Smyth held a job over a holiday period at a local restaurant, inspiring her to become a chef. She left school at sixteen to study catering at Highbury College in Portsmouth, Hampshire.[9][10]

While at culinary college,[9] Smyth served an apprenticeship at Grayshott Hall, Surrey.[11] She left that post to work full-time at Terence Conran's restaurant at Michelin House, London. She followed this with a six-month period in Australia to work for a catering company,[9] and on her return to the UK she staged at a variety of restaurants including The Waterside Inn and Gidleigh Park.[10] She worked at the restaurant of the St Enodoc Hotel in Rock, Cornwall, first as sous chef and then as head chef.[9] While there, she won the title of Young Cornish Fish Chef of the Year.[12]

In 2002 Gordon Ramsay offered Smyth a post at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay.[10] In 2007, she was announced as the new head chef of Restaurant Gordon Ramsay,[13] becoming the first female chef in the United Kingdom to run a restaurant with three Michelin stars.[12] Of the 121 British Michelin-starred restaurants at the time of her appointment, only seven had female head chefs.[11] She had left Ramsay's restaurant to work for a year and a half in Alain Ducasse's Le Louis XV restaurant in Monaco, before returning once more to the UK to run the Chelsea-based restaurant.[12] She took over from Zanoni, who was heading to Versailles to open a new Gordon Ramsay restaurant.[12]

In 2013, Smyth was named the Good Food Guide's 'National Chef of the Year'.[1]

Smyth was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to the hospitality industry.[14][15]

Smyth was awarded a perfect ten score by the Good Food Guide of the UK's 2015.[2]

She won the Chef Award at the 2016 The Catey Awards,[16] previously won by her mentor Gordon Ramsay in 2000.[17]

Smyth left Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in 2016 to open her first own restaurant Core.[18] Her first solo venture, Core, opened in London's Notting Hill neighbourhood in July 2017.[19]

In April 2018, Core was named Best Restaurant at the GQ Food and Drink Awards.[20]

Clare Smyth was named the World's Best Female Chef 2018 by the World's 50 Best Restaurants.[21]

In 2018, Smyth appeared as a judge in the "UK" episode of The Final Table, season 1.

On 1 October 2018, Core was awarded two Michelin stars in the 2019 Michelin Guide.[22]

Smyth’s restaurant Core was awarded three Michelin stars in the 2021 Michelin Guide,[23][24] which made her the first British woman to have a restaurant awarded three Michelin stars.[25][26]

• Clare Smyth at IMDb