Champagne AYALA and SquareMeal are proud to announce that Angela Hartnett is the winner of the first AYALA SquareMeal Female Chef of the Year.
This major new industry award was launched in August to celebrate the huge contribution female chefs are making to the UK restaurant industry. The new AYALA SquareMeal Female Chef of the Year award shines a spotlight on the women whose achievements are an inspiration to everyone involved in this vibrant sector, from school-leavers beginning their career as a chef to diners choosing where to eat.
Commenting on Hartnett’s win, SquareMeal editor Ben McCormack said: “Angela Hartnett has proved that you can be a female chef in the male-dominated world of restaurant kitchens without having to become one of the boys. By offering more sociable hours and flexible working conditions for her teams, she has helped to change the perception of how kitchens are run. For sound business sense, sheer consistency and for being an icon and inspiration across her 24-year career, I’m very proud that Angela Hartnett is our Ayala SquareMeal Female Chef of the Year.”
2018 marks the 10th anniversary of Hartnett’s Mayfair restaurant Murano, which she launched with Gordon Ramsay. She bought Ramsay out of Murano in 2010, launched two Café Muranos, in St James’s and Covent Garden, as well as Hartnett, Holder & Co at the Lime Wood hotel in Hampshire and Merchants Tavern in Shoreditch. With five restaurants across her portfolio offering both Michelin-starred and more casual dining, Hartnett has firmly established herself as the UK’s foremost female chef and restaurateur.
Hartnett was the clear frontrunner in an online poll on SquareMeal.co.uk which saw users cast almost 1,500 votes for their favourite female chefs. Hartnett has been the UK’s most famous female chef since she rose to fame as Ramsay’s voice of reason on Hell’s Kitchen and topping SquareMeal’s poll proves that, 14 years later, she remains the country’s most popular female chef.
What’s more, Hartnett has gone from being the only woman in Gordon Ramsay’s Aubergine brigade to nurturing some of the country’s foremost female chef talent, including Murano head chef Sam Williams and Pip Lacey of the soon-to-open Hicce – to say nothing of supporting chefs such as Sticky Walnut’s Gary Usher, who was a sous chef when Hartnett ran Ramsay’s York & Albany.
Commenting on her win, Hartnett said:
“It’s so good that there are so many female chefs now. The restaurant trade is changing for the better. If this encourages young girls coming into our industry, then it’s a great thing to do.”
Hartnett was presented with her award at a lunch at Daphne’s in Chelsea for the shortlisted chefs, which coincided with the launch of Champagne AYALA’s chef de cave Caroline Latrive’s first vintage blanc de blancs, the AYALA Le Blanc de Blancs 2012. The full shortlist can be seen below:
• Nieves Barragan Mohacho, Sabor
• Ravinder Bhogal, Jikoni
• Erchen Chang, Bao and Xu
• Sam Clark, Moro and Morito
• Helene Darroze, Helene Darroze at The Connaught
• Shauna Froydenlund, Marcus
• Monica Galetti, Mere
• Lisa Goodwin-Allen, Northcote
• Skye Gyngell, Spring
• Anna Hansen, The Modern Pantry
• Angela Hartnett, Café Murano, Hartnett, Holder & Co, Merchants Tavern and Murano
• Margot Henderson, Rochelle Canteen
• Rachel Humphrey, Le Gavroche
• Asma Khan, Darjeeling Express
• Selin Kiazim, Oklava
• Judy Joo, Jinjuu
• Thomasina Miers, Wahaca
• Chantelle Nicholson, Tredwells
• Sarit Packer, Honey & Co, Honey & Smoke
• Anne-Sophie Pic, La Dame de Pic
• Helena Puolakka, Skylon
• Clare Smyth, Core by Clare Smyth
• Ruth Rogers, The River Café
