Ramsay Names New Head Chef for Flagship London Restaurant

GORDON Ramsay has named Clare Smyth as the new head chef at his three-Michelin-star London restaurant on Royal Hospital Road.

Smyth, who started working for Ramsay five years ago,takes over next year from Simone Zanoni, who is moving Versailles to open Ramsay`s first establishment in France.

Smyth, 29, will work under executive chef Mark Askew. She joined Ramsay in 2002, then spent three months in France as a private chef before working for 18 months at Alain Ducasse`s Louis XV in Monaco.

A spokeswoman for Gordon Ramsay said: "Clare has been cooking since she was 16.

"Gordon is very, very proud of her and delighted to give her recognition."

She is the second senior woman chef in the Ramsay group, after Angela Hartnett - who won a Michelin star for her eatery at the ultimately ill-fated Connaught hotel.

Smyth was born in Northern Ireland and has spent short stages at a number of kitchens, including two days at Heston Blumenthal`s Fat Duck in Bray.

Ramsay said in a BBC Radio interview last month that he`s hired a woman called Clare but refused to identify her on the grounds that she was so good that "someone will poach her".