Women in the Kitchen:
Dominique Crenn
Dominique Crenn
Dominique Crenn, a French chef of Moroccan origin and the first woman in the United States to earn three Michelin stars (more precisely, her San Francisco restaurant, Atelier Crenn 3*), came to Madrid to receive the CHEF OF THE YEAR 2021 award from the prestigious gastronomic magazine TAPAS. The winner of the ICON Awards 2021, another special honor from The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, Crenn states: “Food is a tool of communication between people; it is the soul of the world. It is the truest form of connection and unity for humanity.”
Dominique was born in 1965 in Brittany, France, to Moroccan immigrant parents. Her parents were passionate about gastronomy and frequently took her to Michelin-starred restaurants during their holidays. She completed a degree in economics and later excelled as the top graduate of an MBA in International Relations. But her passion for cooking ultimately won, and she moved to California’s West Coast, to San Francisco. Without formal culinary education, she impressed the owner of the restaurant STARS with her confidence and persistence and convinced him to give her a chance. Later, she gained experience at Campton Place and Yoyo Bistro at the Miyako Hotel.
In 1997, she won the position of executive chef at the Intercontinental Hotel in Jakarta, becoming the first woman chef in Indonesia. A few years later, she returned to the U.S., continuing her career and professional growth at the Manhattan Country Club in Manhattan Beach, Los Angeles; at Adobe Restaurant & Lounge in Santa Monica; and at Luce at the Intercontinental Hotel in San Francisco.
In 2011, Dominique took a major step forward and opened her own restaurant — Atelier Crenn, where she reinterprets French cuisine with a special focus on vegetables and seafood. The restaurant earned its first Michelin star in 2012, its second in 2014, and its third in 2018, making her the first female chef in the U.S. to hold three Michelin stars.
Between the second and third stars, Crenn launched two more projects:
— PETIT CRENN (late 2015), awarded the title of Most Popular Restaurant of 2016;
— BAR CRENN (2018).
All of them are located in San Francisco.
In 2016, as part of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants voting, Dominique was named Best Female Chef. After receiving the award, she thanked the voters but also emphasized that she does not support gender-based categories in the chef profession: “Judge us only by the results of our work!”
Dominique Crenn received the Chef of the Year 2021 award from TAPAS magazine.
Previously, the award had only been given to male chefs:
2020 — Martín Berasategui
2019 — José Andrés
2018 — Daniel Humm
2017 — Paco Morales
“I am deeply grateful to everyone here for this honorable award. I feel this moment in my life as a special blessing. As a citizen of the world, it is an extraordinary honor to be recognized by fellow professionals. Spanish chefs have always been an inspiration and motivation for me in my professional growth.
I truly hope that my achievements and your recognition will inspire the new generation of cooks — especially women, who are choosing this beautiful profession more and more often.”
In her autobiography “Rebel Chef”, Dominique Crenn devotes special attention to her fight for equality in the professional kitchen. She cites her favorite writer, Albert Camus: “First I protest, I rebel, and only then I exist.”
She also emphasizes that she refuses to use industrially produced meat due to cruelty in the industry, and she works exclusively with local wines.
Dominique was born in 1965 in Brittany, France, to Moroccan immigrant parents. Her parents were passionate about gastronomy and frequently took her to Michelin-starred restaurants during their holidays. She completed a degree in economics and later excelled as the top graduate of an MBA in International Relations. But her passion for cooking ultimately won, and she moved to California’s West Coast, to San Francisco. Without formal culinary education, she impressed the owner of the restaurant STARS with her confidence and persistence and convinced him to give her a chance. Later, she gained experience at Campton Place and Yoyo Bistro at the Miyako Hotel.
In 1997, she won the position of executive chef at the Intercontinental Hotel in Jakarta, becoming the first woman chef in Indonesia. A few years later, she returned to the U.S., continuing her career and professional growth at the Manhattan Country Club in Manhattan Beach, Los Angeles; at Adobe Restaurant & Lounge in Santa Monica; and at Luce at the Intercontinental Hotel in San Francisco.
In 2011, Dominique took a major step forward and opened her own restaurant — Atelier Crenn, where she reinterprets French cuisine with a special focus on vegetables and seafood. The restaurant earned its first Michelin star in 2012, its second in 2014, and its third in 2018, making her the first female chef in the U.S. to hold three Michelin stars.
Between the second and third stars, Crenn launched two more projects:
— PETIT CRENN (late 2015), awarded the title of Most Popular Restaurant of 2016;
— BAR CRENN (2018).
All of them are located in San Francisco.
In 2016, as part of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants voting, Dominique was named Best Female Chef. After receiving the award, she thanked the voters but also emphasized that she does not support gender-based categories in the chef profession: “Judge us only by the results of our work!”
Dominique Crenn received the Chef of the Year 2021 award from TAPAS magazine.
Previously, the award had only been given to male chefs:
2020 — Martín Berasategui
2019 — José Andrés
2018 — Daniel Humm
2017 — Paco Morales
“I am deeply grateful to everyone here for this honorable award. I feel this moment in my life as a special blessing. As a citizen of the world, it is an extraordinary honor to be recognized by fellow professionals. Spanish chefs have always been an inspiration and motivation for me in my professional growth.
I truly hope that my achievements and your recognition will inspire the new generation of cooks — especially women, who are choosing this beautiful profession more and more often.”
In her autobiography “Rebel Chef”, Dominique Crenn devotes special attention to her fight for equality in the professional kitchen. She cites her favorite writer, Albert Camus: “First I protest, I rebel, and only then I exist.”
She also emphasizes that she refuses to use industrially produced meat due to cruelty in the industry, and she works exclusively with local wines.