Top 100: Clare Smyth, Core by Clare Smyth

Overall ranking: 73 (new entry)
Chef ranking: 17 (new entry)

Snapshot
Born in Northern Ireland, Clare Smyth grew up on a farm in County Antrim and moved to England at 16 to learn the skills that would eventually make her a world-class, three-Michelin-starred chef. Her quiet but meteoric rise to chef-patron at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, and now chef-patron of her own restaurant, Core by Clare Smyth, is one of the most impressive career stories of our time. Her dedication to her craft and scrupulous work ethic goes some way to explain why she has become such a culinary sensation.

What we think
Irish-born Smyth was inspired to become a chef during a summer job she held at a local restaurant. She moved to England aged 16 to study catering at Highbury College in Portsmouth, Hampshire.

Speaking to The Caterer recently, she said: "As a kid from Northern Ireland, the story of Anton Mosimann, a chef at the Dorchester, seemed so glamorous. That inspired me to move to England, to go to college and become a chef. I read all of the basics in Cuisine à la Carte, all the mother sauces, then tried to replicate them."

During her time at college, Smyth took on an apprenticeship at Grayshott Hall (now Grayshott Health Spa) in Surrey. On completing her studies, her thirst for knowledge drove her to work and stage under many influential chefs in the UK and around the world, including Bibendum in London, the three-Michelin-starred Waterside Inn in Bray, Berkshire, the two-Michelin-starred Gidleigh Park in Chagford, and at the St Enodoc hotel in Rock, Cornwall, where she worked her way up to the position of head chef.

In 2005, she went to work in the kitchen of Alain Ducasse’s Louis XV in Monte Carlo and, despite being offered a role at the Dorchester outpost, in 2007 she returned to Restaurant Gordon Ramsay as head chef. In 2012 she became chef-patron. In the role Smyth maintained three Michelin stars (becoming the first female chef in the UK to do so), a score of 10 out of 10 in The Good Food Guide and five AA rosettes.

Smyth was named The Good Food Guide‘s Chef of the Year in 2013 and in the same year was awarded an MBE. She was rewarded for her contributions to the industry at the 2016 Cateys with the Chef Award, and in 2017 at the Michelin Awards she picked up the inaugural Michelin Female Chef trophy (although anyone who knows Smyth would know that, like Angela Hartnett, she dislikes being judged differently to her fellow chefs for being a woman).

She announced her departure from Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in October 2015 and in July 2017 she opened the doors to her first solo venture, Core in Notting Hill.

At Core, Smyth has modernised fine dining by getting rid of tablecloths, cloches and the like. Her dishes have an emphasis on natural and sustainable food, which she sources from UK-based farmers to feature in dishes such as her Charlotte potato served with dulse beurre blanc, herring and trout roe.

She told The Caterer: “We don’t want it to feel like a temple to gastronomy, but what we do in terms of food and service is at a very top level. But everyone should feel comfortable. I know how I feel as a guest and I want that to come through to our guests. It’s about taking all the stuff away from fine dining that makes people feel uncomfortable: not knowing how to pronounce things on the menu or when the environment is a bit quiet and stiff.”

Smyth is also a patron of HemiHelp and a keen supporter of charities, including Action Against Hunger and the Gordon Ramsay Foundation.

Further information History in the making: How Clare Smyth is giving her brigade a lesson in the classics at Core >>

Clare Smyth to open Core by Clare Smyth this summer >>

Chef masterclass: Isle of Gigha halibut by Clare Smyth >>