Clare Smyth

Smyth grew up in Belfast. She is the youngest of three children of her father William, a farmer, and mother Doreen, who worked as a waitress at a local restaurant. At the age of fifteen, Smyth held a job over a holiday period at a local restaurant, inspiring her to become a chef. She left school at sixteen to study catering at Highbury College in Portsmouth, Hampshire. ==Culinary career==

While at culinary college, becoming the first female chef in the United Kingdom to run a restaurant with three Michelin stars. Of the 121 British Michelin-starred restaurants at the time of her appointment, only seven had female head chefs. She had left Ramsay's restaurant to work for a year and a half in Alain Ducasse's Le Louis XV restaurant in Monaco, before returning once more to the UK to run the Chelsea-based restaurant. Smyth was awarded a perfect ten score by the Good Food Guide of the UK's 2015. previously won by her mentor Gordon Ramsay in 2000. 2016–2021: Core and Oncore Smyth left Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in 2016 to open her first solo restaurant, Core. Core opened in London's Notting Hill neighbourhood in July 2017. In April 2018, Core was named Best Restaurant at the GQ Food and Drink Awards. Smyth was named the World's Best Female Chef 2018 by the World's 50 Best Restaurants. Core was awarded three Michelin stars in the 2021 Michelin Guide, Oncore, on the 26th floor of the Crown Sydney in Barangaroo opened in November 2021 with head chef Alan Stuart. A review in Bloomberg described Oncore as "Sydney's best restaurant". Due to ongoing border restrictions to prevent the transmission of COVID-19, Smyth was not able to be at the opening. 2022–present In May 2025, she collaborated with the champagne brand Dom Pérignon for a campaign named "Creation is an Eternal Journey". In September 2025, Smyth opened her luxury bistro, Corenucopia, in Chelsea, offering her interpretation on British cuisine. In 2026, the same restaurant was awarded its first Michelin Star after being open only for two months. == Personal life ==

Smyth lives in Wandsworth with her husband, Grant, who works in finance. == Controversies ==

Smyth admitted to abusing fellow chefs in a 2008 interview with the Telegraph, “grabbing hold of a guy and screaming in his face if he gets it wrong". In March 2026, in conjunction with much more extensive allegations against Danish celebrity chef Réne Redzepi, anonymous allegations emerged that Smyth "had punched a chef in the face and locked another in a walk-in fridge" in 2018. ==References==