Background
Smyth grew up on a farm in County Antrim. She was the youngest of three children to her father William, a farmer, and mother Doreen, who worked as a waitress at a local restaurant.
Smyth grew up on a farm in County Antrim. She was the youngest of three children to her father William, a farmer, and mother Doreen, who worked as a waitress at a local restaurant.
She became the first female British chef to hold and retain three Michelin stars. Before returning to London in 2007 as Head Chef for Restaurant Gordon Ramsay Clare worked at Le Louis XV by Alain Ducasse in Monaco. She regularly appears on television shows such as Masterchef and Saturday Kitchen.
At the age of fifteen, Smyth held a job over a holiday period at a local restaurant, inspiring her to become a chef.
Clare left school at sixteen to study catering at Highbury College in Portsmouth, Hampshire. While at culinary college, she served an apprenticeship at Grayshott Hall, Surrey.
She left that post to work full-time at Terrance Conran"s restaurant at Michelin House, London. She followed this with a six-month period in Australia to work for a catering company, and on her return to the United Kingdom she staged at a variety of restaurants including The Waterside Inn and Gidleigh Park.
She worked at the restaurant of the Street Enodoc Hotel in Rock, Cornwall, first as sous chef and then afterwards as head chef.
In 2002 Gordon Ramsay offered her a post at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay. She went to do a stage at The French Laundry in California and Per Se in New York to gain experience in 2004. In 2007 she was announced as the new head chef of the restaurant, becoming the first female chef in the United Kingdom to run a restaurant with three Michelin stars.
Of 121 Michelin starred restaurants worldwide, 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 United Kingdom to run the Chelsea-based restaurant. She took over from Zanoni, who was heading to Versailles to open a new Gordon Ramsay restaurant.
In 2013, Smyth was named the Good Food Guide’s ‘National Chef of the Year’. Most recently, Clare was awarded a perfect ten score by the Good Food Guide of the United Kingdom’s 2015.
Since taking over as Head Chef at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay Clare has worked with the following charities: Annual dinner at the Royal Hospital to raise funds for HemiHelp – a charity set up to help children living with Hemiplegia.
Action Against Hunger
Scottish Spina Bifida
Bobbi Bear Foundation South Africa (Johannesburg)
Who’s Cooking Dinner?.
Smyth was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (Administration Member of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to the hospitality industry.
