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In the culinary world, female chefs have made remarkable contributions, showcasing their creativity, innovation, and excellence.
Over the past several decades, women have carved out a significant presence in the industry, building on the legacy of pioneers like Julia Child. Today, they are celebrated for their Michelin stars, James Beard awards, and unique culinary approaches that connect with audiences worldwide.
These chefs are not just recognized for their accolades but also for their distinctive creativity, their deep connections with fans, and their accomplishments in renowned cooking competitions like Iron Chef. In no particular order, let’s explore the journeys of ten of the world’s most famous female chefs and discover what sets them apart in the culinary arts.
Julia Child, United States
No discussion of female chefs would be complete without mentioning Julia Child. A pioneer and ambassador for women’s abilities in the culinary world, she blazed a pathway for every female chef who came after her.
Julia discovered her interest in cooking while living abroad in France with her husband, who was a US State Department employee. She was inspired by her experience of French cuisine and studied at the Cordon Bleu culinary school before it was common for women to attend. After completing culinary school, she studied privately with master chef Max Bugnard.
After finishing her training, she famously collaborated with Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle to write the two-volume Mastering the Art of French Cooking. These cookbooks introduced French cooking to the American public and brought gourmet methods and quintessentially French dishes, such as beef bourguignon and coq au vin, into ordinary kitchens.
Julia Childs went on to teach French cooking on multiple syndicated television shows and was known for her gregarious, humorous, and conversational style.
She was the first female chef to be inducted into the Culinary Institute Hall of Fame in 1993 and was awarded the prestigious Legion d’Honneur in 2000.
Anne-Sophie Pic, France
Anne-Sophie Pic is the third well-known French chef in the Pic family, following in the footsteps of both her father, Jacques Pic, and grandfather, André Pic. Both men were some of the best-known French chefs of their eras.
Anne-Sophie wasn’t initially interested in cooking. She first pursued a business degree, but returned to France to help her father at their family’s Maison Pic in Valence, France after she found studying business wasn’t for her. She began training with her father, but he died shortly after her return.
Self-taught from that point on as a chef, Pic has developed an emotional, sensory-based approach to her cuisine, rooted in her family’s tradition. For Anne-Sophie, creatively blending flavors is an ongoing, lifelong practice that leads her to generate unusual combinations to tantalize the palate and feed the eyes.
When it comes to designing her menus, Pic is influenced by a personal study of citrus, infusions of herbs and flowers, and creating alchemy with spirits and wine pairings. No detail is overlooked. Dishes are elegant and infused with the influence of André and Jacques, including seafood like wild sea bass with caviar and hand-dived Orkney scallops.
Michelin-starred restaurants are awarded for the quality of their cuisine, restaurant ambience, and service.
Maison Pic (now called Restaurant Pic) carried three Michelin stars under her grandfather André Pic, and again under her father Jacques Pic, but lost the third star several years after his death. Anne-Sophie was determined to do right by her father and regained the third Michelin star in 2007, making Ann-Sophie Pic the only French female chef to have three Michelin stars.
Pic also holds several Michelin stars at her other restaurants, including the Anne-Sophie Pic Restaurant in Lausanne, Switzerland, and la Dame de Pic in London, UK.
DeAille Tam, China
If you’re someone who became interested in culinary arts after starting down a completely different career path, then you may see yourself in DeAille Tam.
Tam grew up in Canada and was studying to become an engineer. But she had a passion for food and dropped out of university to pursue culinary training. She’s now been recognized as the best female chef in Asia (2021, as voted by industry experts from across the region) and is also the first female chef in Asia to head a Michelin-starred restaurant (Bo Shanghai).
Tam’s gastronomic focus is blending the traditional flavors and cooking techniques of the many regional Chinese cuisines while adding a modern twist. She and her husband and business partner Simon Wong first came to China as chefs for Bo Shanghai, a boutique restaurant in China’s most populous city.
In 2019, they spent a year traveling throughout China to study and learn everything they could about unique ingredients and preparations. Then, they brought all that experience back to Shanghai, where they opened Obscura in 2020. Their signature restaurant offers a prix-fixe tasting menu that highlights local, farm-to-table ingredients and is heavily influenced by the seasons.
Alice Waters, United States
Alice Waters is first and foremost known for championing farm-to-table ethics long before it was popular. After studying French culture at UC Berkeley and traveling abroad, she founded her now legendary restaurant Chez Panisse.
The concept was simple: provide elegant meals with ingredients sourced from local farms.
Chez Panisse opened in 1971, but it didn’t begin to gain recognition until well into the 1990s. In 1992, Waters and Chez Panisse was awarded James Beard recognition for outstanding restaurant and outstanding chef. She also received a James Beard Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004.
Though she doesn’t boast Michelin stars, her commitment to farm-fresh, simple food and her many cookbooks have made her a household name and female chef of note. In addition, she has started multiple philanthropic projects to connect people, such as prison inmates and schoolchildren, to the natural world and their local food systems.
What stands out about Chez Panisse’s menu is how it’s the definition of California cuisine. Italian and French preparations are inspired by the bounty of the Golden State: local seafood, poultry, and meat coupled with a variety of seasonal vegetables. It’s what you’d expect to find in small bistros or farm-to-table cafes in the countryside of southern France or Tuscany. And it’s what every aspiring medium-to-high end restaurant up and down the West Coast tries to emulate on their menu.
Chef Alice Waters has always been an advocate for farm fresh, local ingredients like these, and showcases them at her Chez Panisse restaurant.
Clare Smyth, United Kingdom
British chef Clare Smyth grew up in Northern Ireland’s farm country. She is known for her exquisite attention to detail and her farm-to-table delights.
As a younger chef, Clare trained and worked under industry giants Alain Ducasse and Gordon Ramsay, running Ramsay’s three-Michelin-starred restaurant before opening her own.
Clare was inducted into the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for her outstanding work in hospitality. She was named the best female chef in 2018 by the World’s 50 Best Restaurants. She’s also the first and only female British chef to attain three Michelin stars for her restaurant Core.
But what all those awards and accolades don’t tell you about is the sheer beauty and color of the dishes she creates at her signature restaurants, Core in London, United Kingdom, and Oncore in Sydney, Australia. Every menu item showcases the main player with incredible collages of edible decoration.
Using bright, vibrant colors, geometric shapes, and elements of nature, including flowers, leaves, and grasses, Clare calls to all your senses with dishes that both inspire the eyes and satisfy the tongue.
Vicky Lau, Hong Kong
Vicky Lau also didn’t set out in life to become a chef. In her first career, she was a graphic designer. But food called to her, and she trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Bangkok, and studied under Chef Sebastien-Lepirnoy of the one-Michelin-starred restaurant Cépage in Hong Kong.
In 2012, she opened her own restaurant, Tate Dining Room and Bar in Hong Kong. One year after opening, she earned her first Michelin star and was named the Best Female Chef by the World’s 50 Best in 2015. Tate went on to gain a second Michelin star in 2021, which made Lau the first female chef-proprietor in Asia to achieve this recognition.
What makes Lau’s cuisine stand out is her blending of Chinese and French traditions. She works diligently to bring out the best of both in her menus, which are often “Odes” to specific ingredients, like century eggs, scallops, or mushrooms, for example. Most ingredients are locally sourced. Lau’s design background comes forward in the dining room decor as well as in the detail-oriented presentation of her dishes.
It’s clear that Vicky Lau is just getting started, and will continue to influence Chinese cuisine going forward.
Female Chefs are on the Rise
Female chefs are increasingly being counted among the world’s best:
- Between 2014 and 2021, the number of female chefs helming three-Michelin-starred restaurants nearly doubled.
- In 2019, Pascaline Lepeltier became the first woman to earn the honor of Best Sommelier in France
- As of 2023, approximately 6% of Michelin-starred restaurants are headed by a female chef.
Catherine Ann Cora, United States
Catherine Ann Cora is an entrepreneur chef who rose to fame as the first woman to appear on Iron Chef as a contestant in 2005.
“Cat” has opened more than 18 restaurants around the US, with a focus on healthy eating and sustainability. These include three Cat Cora’s Kitchen locations in San Francisco, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta, and Salt Lake City International Airports, Cat Cora’s Taproom at the Detroit Metro Airport, Wicked Eats in collaboration with Aramark, and the chain of over 500 Olilo cafes.
She has cooked at two different three-Michelin-star restaurants in France, has hosted several cooking-related TV shows, and authored cookbooks with a focus on fast, easy, and delicious family fare.
Catherine was awarded The President’s Volunteer Service Award and the President’s Lifetime Achievement award by President Barack Obama. She also serves on the advisory board for a Montessori-inspired cooking school for kids called Little Kitchen Academy.
Nadia Santini, Italy
Nadia Santini is an Italian chef who stumbled into a culinary career when she married her husband Antonio in 1974. Antonio’s grandparents had opened a small family inn and restaurant called Del Pescatore in 1926.
When they were first married, Nadia and Antonio honeymooned in France and took in the delights of French cuisine. They were inspired by the quality and flavor they experienced, and they started brainstorming ways to bring a more refined approach to Del Pescatore.
When they returned to Italy, Antonio’s mother taught Nadia to cook. Over several years, Nadia became increasingly involved in the design of the dishes and the experience of the restaurant. The focus of Nadia’s cuisine is a collection of traditional rustic Italian recipes from Antonio’s family, prepared with the sensibilities of French cooking, and blended with a commitment to using local ingredients.
Rustic by no means translates to sloppy. Their tasting menu features dishes you would expect, like risotto and tortellini but with luxury accompaniments, like citrus cream, fresh burrata, and caviar. It also includes elements like “a fantasy of vegetables from our garden,” and foie gras with passionfruit sauce. In fact, the restaurant has held three Michelin stars since 1996 (a record for Italian restaurants) and also has a green star for its use of local, sustainable ingredients.
Michelin star chefs take extra care to plate their food with creative presentation techniques, like using bright, fresh flower petals.
Dominique Crenn, United States & France
Dominique Crenn grew up in Brittany, in the north of France. Both of her parents came from farm families. She experienced fine food while growing up, as her father’s friend was a food critic. She also cooked with her mother while young.
Today, Dominique is the owner of Atelier Crenn in San Francisco, as well as Petit Crenn, Bar Crenn, Golden Poppy, and Bleu Belle Farm in Sonoma County, CA. Bleu Belle Farm uses regenerative farming practices to produce flavorful and in-season produce for Crenn’s restaurants.
Atelier Crenn is known for unusual and earthy flavors. Crenn works to evoke her memory of her childhood cuisine in Brittany through a rich tasting menu. Focused on seafood and vegetables (Dominique stopped serving meat at the restaurant in 2019 to draw attention to the environmental impacts of factory farming) and fanciful theatrics, such as dry ice fog and tableside mortar and pestle grinding that enhance the bespoke feeling of the meals, diners get to experience a unique and riveting meal. The visuals are only half the fun. Reviewers also report that the dishes contain delectable and craveable flavors.
Dominique Crenn was the first female chef in the US to attain two Michelin stars and then went on to become the first female chef in the US to attain three Michelin stars.
Ana Roš, Slovenia
Ana Roš is a self-taught Slovenian chef who made a name for herself with creative and hard-won combinations of farm-fresh, locally-grown ingredients.
Her flagship restaurant Hiša Franko is located in the Soca Valley in the mountains of Slovenia, on the border with Austria and Italy.
The Slovene culture values rustic, home-grown flavors in their local produce, cheeses, and meats, fish, and fowl. Roš set out to highlight the uniqueness of these flavors, and to create a destination where people could experience the flavors of the mountains.
A majority of the ingredients on her three-Michelin-star (2023) menu come from within a 30-mile radius. Hiša Franko was also awarded a Green Star from Michelin, denoting a commitment to sustainability and environmental practices.
Ana was honored as the best female chef of 2017 from the World’s 50 Best Restaurants. She has also been featured in a Netflix documentary titled Chef’s Kitchen, and Travel + Leisure magazine noted Hiša Franko as one of the top 30 restaurants in the world.
Find Your Culinary Inspiration at Auguste Escoffier School of the Culinary Arts
Get your culinary career started with training at Escoffier.
Every famous female chef started somewhere in her career. Though some of them married into a restaurant family or grew up with a parent who was an expert cook, most of them started with some kind of formal culinary training.
One way to gain the skills to be an executive chef and have a culinary career is to pursue a diploma or degree in culinary or pastry arts. Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts has several programs designed to support you along every step of the culinary journey, including campuses in Boulder, Colorado, Austin, Texas, and an online program. If you’ve dreamed of founding a gourmet, Michelin-star restaurant, or even starting your own bakery or catering business, reach out to our admissions department today to learn how you could find your path to culinary success. You never know where you might end up.
