Gordon Ramsay Alum Clare Smyth Set to Open First Solo Restaurant This Spring

UK chef Clare Smyth, who rose to fame under shouty chef and dank meme star Gordon Ramsay, is preparing to strike out on her own: Her first solo restaurant is slated to hit London’s Notting Hill neighborhood “in late spring or early summer,” according to The Caterer.

The as-yet-unnamed restaurant will occupy a Victorian building that’s housed restaurants since 1969. It’s currently undergoing extensive renovations and will have just 60 seats.

Smyth announced her departure from Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in the fall of 2015; her solo project was originally scheduled to open Fall 2016 but ran into delays, as new restaurants so often do.

The chef, who hails from Northern Ireland, began working for Gordon Ramsay in 2002. She ran the kitchen at London’s Restaurant Gordon Ramsay from 2007 until her departure last year. It was there she became the first female chef in the UK to earn three Michelin stars, maintaining the coveted rating the entire time she was there.

Speaking to the Evening Standard last year, Ramsay declared Smyth “undoubtedly one of the greatest chefs to have graced my kitchen” and “the most prominent female chef of our generation.” Smyth helped Ramsay revamp his flagship restaurant in 2013, at which point she was also made a partner in the venture.

• Clare Smyth to Open Her Own Restaurant in Notting Hill Later This Year [The Caterer]
• Chef Clare Smyth Is Leaving Restaurant Gordon Ramsay to Open Her Own Place [E]
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