Clare decided to become a chef aged 15 after a summer job working in the kitchen of a local restaurant near her home in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. At just 16 years old she moved to England to study catering.
After graduation she worked at Terence Conran’s Bibendum before joining a catering company in Australia for six months during the build-up to the Sydney Olympics. On her return to England, she worked as sous chef at the St Enodoc Hotel in Cornwall and was later promoted to head chef. In 2002 she was offered the position as chef de partie at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay and in two years she had risen through the ranks to senior sous chef.
Still hungry to acquire experience, she left Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in 2004 and did stints at Per Se in New York and The French Laundry in California among others. By 2005 she had secured a position in the kitchen of Alain Ducasse at the Louis XV in Monaco and Clare still credits Ducasse as one of her greatest mentors.
In 2007, Gordon Ramsay offered Clare the position of head chef back at his three-Michelin-starred Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, where she has been since. After a major refurbishment of the restaurant in March 2013, she was announced as chef patron. She is known for her rigorous, uncompromising standards, her drive and strong work ethic and remains the only female chef to have retained three Michelin stars in the UK.
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