Million Air Winter 2022

Opposite page The opulent Le Louis XV dining room at the Hôtel de Paris Far right Clare Smyth Right The deceptively simple 'potato and roe' takes 25 hours to make Below The celeriac dish

Of course, Smyth was a roaring success and, after over a decade working under Ramsay, she decided to strike out on her own. With her former boss's backing,

she set up Core in London’s Notting Hill. Smyth loved stamping Core with her own

personality. For a start, her kitchen is much calmer than Ramsay’s. “Often, Gordon would come in and be unnerved by how quiet it was,” she laughs. As for the restaurant itself, Smyth ensured everything was exactly as she wanted it, right down to the background music, furnishings and tableware. Among her most famous plates of food is her deceptively simple ‘potato and roe’ dish which, in reality, takes around 25 hours to make. The nostalgic dish is inspired by the potatoes she grew up eating on the North Antrim coast, where the soil is rich with minerality from the ocean. To mimic this salty fl avor, Smyth tops a single Charlotte potato with smoked trout and a generous mound of herring roe and fi nishes the plate with tiny discs of salt and vinegar crisps, together with tan g y sorrel leaves and edible fl owers to add freshness and cut through the starchy, buttery elements. As anyone that has tried to get a table at Core will know, it’s almost impossible to secure a spot without booking months in advance. So it came as little surprise when, within three short years, Smyth’s restaurant scooped three Michelin stars for her fi rst solo venture — becoming the fi rst British female chef to do so. “It was really special,” she says, her eyes lighting up as if she still can’t quite believe it really happened. “For 15 years of my life I’d been working in three Michelin-star restaurants under other chefs, so to be able to prove to myself that I could create my own vision and [win the stars] made me feel like

everything I had done was worth it.” Naturally, the press coverage reached a crescendo once again. Does it frustrate her, having so much made of her gender when she is, in fact, one of only four British chefs (of any gender) in history ever to receive the coveted three-star accolade? “It used to,” she says, and pauses for a moment as she weighs the question. “Sometimes I feel it can inspire people, but I’m not a fan of automatic labels for anybody. Why should the label of your gender go before being a chef?” “It’s not about being male or female. I feel like we need to put more focus on making sure people from all backgrounds and cultures work in hospitality, because having people coming at things from di ff erent points of view makes us so much more tolerant and understanding of society, and of our guests.” The last fi ve years have been something of a whirlwind for Smyth. Just a year after setting up Core, she was invited to cater Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding reception at Windsor Castle. For this star-studded event, she worked alongside none other than Anton Mosimann — the legendary chef in the tall

white hat and bow tie whose cookbook she bought as a teenager. It was, she says, a “pinch-yourself kind of moment, getting to work with the person that inspired me and gave me so much.” Smyth’s ener g y is boundless and her optimism refreshing. Last week she returned from Sydney, where she recently opened her second eatery — Oncore — to much acclaim. She is also in the process of scouring London to fi nd the perfect site for a sister restaurant to Core. As this evening’s dinner approaches, our interview draws to a close. Smyth’s day has been fi lled with photoshoots and interviews, but now she will get back to what she loves: cooking. Later that night, after creating the immaculate four-hands dinner with Ducasse, she comes over to ask how it was. Standing in her chef ’s whites in the opulent Le Louis XV dining room, she looks calm and exuberant, and it’s clear that, for Smyth, this is exactly where she is meant to be.

claresmyth.com; montecarlosbm.com

Photos Jodi Hinds