Published By: Nirtika Pandita

List of female chefs with Michelin stars

They are as well-deserving as any other chef

The Michelin Guide first published in 1900 in France in order to promote driving in the country soon became one of the highest regarded travel guides. It is their food reviews and the star grading that has made the phenomenon that is the Michelin Star. Over the years there have emerged women who deserve this for their work in the industry. The first women chefs to hold three Michelin stars were Eugénie Brazier and Marie Bourgeois, in 1933. So here is a list of Michelin star awarded female chefs who are making a great wave of difference.

Dominique Crenn Crenn is the first female chef from the United States of America, to have obtained three Michelin stars for her Atelier Crenn restaurant in San Francisco. The menu is written in the form of a poem with each line influenced by her father's teachings of art, at the same time expresses Dominique's childhood on a farm. The 12-course tasting menu focuses heavily on fish. Crenn refers to her dishes as poetic culinaria.

Elena Arzak Chef Elena Arzak from Spain and her father, Juan-Mari have been at the forefront of running their family Restaurant Arzak specializing in New Basque cuisine, which was first awarded three Michelin stars in 1989. And in 2012 the chef Arzak was awarded the World’s Best Restaurants Female Chef of the Year. Arzak serves modernized Basque cuisine and from the inside is an old multiple-storied brick building, with the restaurant on the main floor. Above the restaurant is a wine cellar and a test kitchen wherein the Arzaks come up with new recipes and methods. They use 1500 ingredients and come up with 40 new dishes a year.

Clare Smyth Smyth confidently held the post of head chef at the three-star Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in 2007 at just 29 years old. But as she progressed in her culinary geniuses, she went on to open her own restaurant, Core by Clare Smyth in London in 2017. For her restaurant, she earned two Michelin stars on its first review and three in the 2021 Michelin Guide to Great Britain and Ireland.

Garima Arora Arora is the first Indian woman chef to win a Michelin star for her restaurant Gaa in Bangkok, Thailand. After having worked with several renowned chefs including Gordon Ramsay, René Redzepi, and GagganAnand, Arora came up with her creation of giving different colours to Indian food. Gaa offers a multitude of dishes that are heavily inspired by her Indian upbringing and international perspective. There are different course meals made using ingredients like unripe jackfruits, pumpkins, crayfish, and guavas.