The world's best female chefs

The World’s Best Female Chef 2016, Dominique Crenn, well-known for serving dishes inspired by her childhood memories, owns two restaurants: Atelier Crenn and Petit Crenn. We briefly chart her journey so far and look at other culinary queens of the past.  

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Crenn’s love for cooking started at an early age, when she used to frequent Michelin-starred restaurants in Versailles and Paris with her father, Alain Crenn, a French politician and artist.

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Although her love for fine cuisine was kindled at an early age, cooking was not part of her formal education. She graduated with a degree in international business from the Academy of International Commerce of Paris.

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She then went to the U.S. in 1988 and trained under renowned American celebrity chefs Jeremiah Tower and Mark Franz in San Francisco. 

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After working in some of San Francisco’s top restaurants, Crenn headed for Indonesia in 1997, going on to become the first ever female executive chef at the InterContinental Hotel in Jakarta.

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Crenn opened her first restaurant, Atelier Crenn, in San Francisco in 2011. It is modeled after her father’s painting studio and the tasting menu is written as a poem. The restaurant prides itself on sustainable and seasonal cuisine, which is made from locally-sourced ingredients.

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Crenn opened Petit Crenn, in San Francisco, in 2015. It is a homely space which pays homage to her mother's and grandmother's home cooking tradition. Crenn earned her first Michelin star in 2009 and her second in 2012, making her the first 

ever female chef to earn two Michelin stars in the U.S..

Hélène Darroze was named the Veuve Clicquot World’s Best Female Chef in 2015. Born in 1967, into a family of hotel and restaurant owners, she started showing her culinary talent at a very young age. 

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Her family has run the acclaimed Chez Darroze for three generations. 

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After graduating in 1990, Darroze trained for three years under the legendary Alain Ducasse in the kitchen of Le Louis XV restaurant in Monaco. However, she credits her grandfather (pictured below) as her biggest culinary influence.

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The 49-year-old took over Chez Darroze in 1995 and after spending four years at the family restaurant, she started her own eponymous restaurant in Paris. She has earned three Michelin stars and many celebrity admirers including former French president Jacques Chirac and actress Salma Hayek. She opened her eponymous restaurant at the landmark Connaught hotel in London, U.K, in 2008. 

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Darroze divides her time between the two restaurants, and keeps a tight control over the development of their menus. Creating new dishes and writing the menus remain two things she would never delegate.

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Her signature dishes at her Paris restaurant include Northern Irish lobster and foie gras from her home region of Landes, served with cocoa, calamansi fruit and gingerbread, while at her London restaurant, one of her famous delicacies happens to be poached lobster in seaweed butter served with white asparagus and bottarga breadcrumb. 

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The character of Colette Tatou in the Oscar-winning animated film "Ratatouille" (2007) was inspired by her.

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Darroze was admitted into the French Legion of Honour as a Chevalier (Knight) in 2012 by then French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

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Helena Rizzo was named the Veuve Clicquot Best Female Chef in 2014. The Brazilian runs the famous Maní restaurant in São Paulo, Brazil.

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Helena Rizzo was born to an artist mother and an engineer father in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, in 1978. She went on to pursue a course in architecture and worked as a model before taking up cooking as a professional.

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She moved to São Paulo, aged 18. Rizzo worked as a waitress for caterer Neka Menna-Barreto before working under renowned chef Emmanuel Bassoleil at Roanne.

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Rizzo later had a stint at Gero. At 21, seeking new gastronomic adventures, the Brazilian packed her bags for Italy, where she worked at La Torre in Tuscany and Sadler in Milan. 

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She later moved to El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, Spain. During her time at Celler, Rizzo met her future husband — Spanish chef Daniel Redondo.

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Rizzo started Maní restaurant in São Paulo, Brazil in 2006. Maní, run by Rizzo and Redondo, has earned renown for serving classic Brazilian cuisine with a hint of Spanish gastronomic flair. 

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