Hélène Darroze at the Connaught (Mayfair) and Clare Smyth at Core (Notting Hill) were both awarded the coveted accolade last week.
Darroze – who runs two further restaurants in Paris and Moscow – started her career in 1990 as a pupil of the legendary chef Alain Ducasse. She spent three years at the Louis XV à l’Hôtel de Paris restaurant in Monaco before beginning her meteoric rise to the top of the culinary tree.
Madame Darroze’s signature dish is her “tandoori scallops”. Cooked evenly in tandoori spices and paired with a carrot puree and a confit of kumquat, the dish harmonises perfectly on the palate.
Smyth hails from Northern Ireland and has cooked with both Alain Ducasse and Gordon Ramsay. She opened Core in 2017 and it has taken just four years to become one of the finest restaurants in the world.
Smyth’s signature dish is a humble potato! First, she takes a Charlotte potato, slow cooks it in a melange of seaweed and butter … then marinates it for a full day. It is served with Scottish herring and trout roe and yet more butter. Miniature salt & vinegar crisps top off the superb “Potato & Roe” dish.
There are now five 3-star restaurants in London – the others being Lecture Room & Library – Sketch (Chef – Pierre Gagnaire), Restaurant Gordon Ramsay (Chefs – Gordon Ramsay and Matt Abé) and Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester (Chef – Jean-Philippe Blondet).
