Angela Hartnett - Wonderful Woman No. 65

Angela Hartnett - Born 1968
British Chef, Culinary Writer, Television Personality and Restaurant Owner

Added to the album by a wonderful man called Howie

In the United Kingdom, only 20% of chefs working in professional kitchens are women. As we have learned from previous women in the album, making it in a male dominated world is not easy and those that do are quite remarkable. I could not imagine a more testosterone-filled, macho atmosphere than the kitchen of Gordon Ramsey but that is exactly where Angela Hartnett learnt her craft and made her name.

The hardest thing for us was the number of people who came and left. Less than one in 10 actually stayed. But Angela Hartnett is a grafter, she just battened down the hatches and got on with it. She's a true-grit chef.
Marcus Wareing, Chef and fellow former junior to Gordon Ramsey

Under Ramsey, Angela worked six days a week, often sixteen to seventeen hours per day. She worked closely with him as a soux chef and then helped launch a restaurant in Dubai.

(Angela is) warm and natural with everybody she meets ...she has no airs and graces.
Gordon Ramsey

After mastering the kitchen and learning to become business savvy from Ramsey, Angela went on to open her own restaurants and has published the book Cucina: Three Generations of Italian Family Cooking. She also regularly appears on British television, a rarity for female chefs.

Angela has been acknowledged with several awards, including a Michelin Star for her first restaurant.

She is clearly a wonderful chef, a great business woman and has taken on a male dominated industry and come out fighting, making her an excellent addition to the album.

I think that sometimes women make food with a bit more feeling.
Angela Hartnett