A cook with attitude! | LifePress Magazine

Claire Smith is the first woman in Great Britain to head a restaurant with three Michelin stars.

Born in 1978 in Northern Ireland, as the youngest of three children, she grew up on a farm surrounded by greenery and animals.

At the age of 15, she started working in a local restaurant, in the summer and that’s where her interest in cooking began, until then she wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer.

At the age of 16, she left regular schooling to devote herself to cooking and entered Highbury College in Portsmouth, majoring in catering.

During her “internship” she worked with the famous Heston Blumenthal. After that, she gets a job in London, at a restaurant called Michelin House, and after that, her journey takes her to distant Australia, where she works for a catering company.

The Hard Way of Gordon Ramsay’s Apprentice

After returning to Great Britain, she worked in several restaurants before, in 2002, as a young twenty-four-year-old chef with already extensive experience, she was employed by Gordon Ramsay.

For her as well as for Angela Hartnett, they predicted that she would not last even seven days in a kitchen full of testosterone. Although she used to go home from work in tears as a “man”, she endured all the burns and cuts and did not show any feminine weaknesses. She resigned when a less experienced chef was promoted before her.

[one_half]Kler successfully fought for her place among her colleagues in Remzi’s restaurant[/one_half]

Ramsay then sends her to a restaurant in California to gain experience. In 2007, she got the position of head chef, thus becoming the first female chef in Great Britain to head a restaurant with three Michelin stars.

She took a year off from Ramsey by working as a private chef in Monaco, and later took over the leadership of the restaurant from the same chef Simon Zanoni, who did not want to give her a promotion.