{"id":104739,"date":"2025-05-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lovehappensmag.com\/blog\/?p=104739"},"modified":"2025-05-01T15:31:49","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T15:31:49","slug":"female-chefs-at-the-top-of-the-michelin-star-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lovehappensmag.com\/blog\/2025\/05\/02\/female-chefs-at-the-top-of-the-michelin-star-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"The Women at the Top of the Michelin Star Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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With the Michelin restaurant guide dating back to the beginning of the 20th century, getting a star is arguably, to this day, the most respected and sought-after recognition that a restaurant can achieve. Reaching three stars, however, is reserved for the absolute highest level of cuisine, and\u00a0only 145 restaurants<\/a>\u00a0around the world hold that distinction.<\/span> An even smaller club is the one made up of female head chefs on that list of restaurants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can count the current members with your hands: Ana Ro\u0161 (Hi\u0161a Franko, Slovenia), Clare Smyth (Core, London), Dominique Crenn (Atelier Crenn, San Francisco), Anne-Sophie Pic (PIC, France), Elena Arzak (Arzak, Spain), and Nadia Santini (Dal Pescatore, Italy). Each of them has followed a very different path to the top of the culinary world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whereas Clare Smyth had a more conventional career, first training for years under great names, such as Alain Ducasse and Gordon Ramsay, Ana Ro\u0161 had no formal training and learned on the job, as she and her husband took the reins of his family restaurant. Some of them, as evidenced by their last name, carried on the family legacy by earning that last star or maintaining the restaurant\u2019s place at the top. And then there\u2019s French-born Dominique Crenn, who immigrated to America to become the first female chef in the United States to get three Michelin stars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Others have come before them, but very few and far between\u2014just over half a dozen came before the women on this list. Eug\u00e9nie Brazier<\/a> was the first female chef to receive three stars, and also the first chef in general to hold a total of six Michelin stars across her two restaurants in and around Lyon, France. She belonged to a different generation of female chefs\u2014affectionately known as \u201cm\u00e8res lyonnaises\u201d (Mothers of Lyon)\u2014who put Lyon on the map as the gastronomic capital of France, with simpler, homestyle dishes executed to perfection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is a list of 3-Star Michelin restaurants currently helmed by female chefs. They are located in Italy (Runate), Spain (San Sebasti\u00e1n), France (Valence), the United States (San Francisco), England (London), and Slovakia (Kobarid).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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6 Female Chefs Currently Leading 3-Star Michelin Restaurants<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Ana Ro\u0161, Hi\u0161a Franko, Slovenia, 2023<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Ana Ro\u0161<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\"Hi\u0161a
Hi\u0161a Franko<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Inside Hi\u0161a Franko | Photo by Suzan Gabrijan<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At the foot of the So\u010da Valley in Slavenia, sits Hi\u0161a Franko (translating to house of Franko), which received its three Michelin stars in 2023, making its charismatic chef, Ana Ro\u0161, the last woman to have reached the food guide\u2019s highest distinction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVery few cuisines reflect the personality of the chef like that of Ana Ro\u0161 Stojan. Her strong, determined, extrovert and contagiously friendly character is perfectly mirrored on a long tasting menu,\u201d the Michelin guide wrote<\/a> of Franko, highlighting her \u201cinimitable style.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A self-taught chef and six-language speaker, Ro\u0161 at one time pursued a career in diplomacy, even getting a degree in international studies. Instead, she decided to join forces with her husband, Valter Kramer (the restaurant\u2019s sommelier), and the pair took over his family\u2019s restaurant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cWhen I told my parents that I fell in love with someone who has a restaurant, my mother almost had a heart attack,\u201d she said in a video interview<\/a> for the Michelin Guide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Ro\u0161, the Hi\u0161a Franko family now extends to over 100 members, she described in another video<\/a> interview. It includes local farmers, shepherds and cheese makers, people foraging for ingredients in the surrounding Kobarid area, and fishermen on the other side of the mountain. The restaurant has also earned a Green Star from the Michelin Guide, highlighting its commitment to sustainability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ana\u2019s Kitchen in Kobarid has also spun off Pekarna Ana, a specialty bakery with sourdough and pastries, and JAZ by Ana Ro\u0161, a more casual eatery \u2014 both located in Slovenia\u2019s capital, Ljubljana.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Clare Smyth, Core, London, 2021<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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A post shared by Core (@corebyclaresmyth)<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n