Pioneers of the palate
From cultivating biodiversity to pioneering farm-to-table philosophy, this remarkable group of multigenerational women chefs and entrepreneurs are reshaping how we think about food, writes Virginie Boone
What does it take to not only be exceptional at what you do, but to inspire generations beyond you, to lead the way in new and wondrous ways of thinking about food? Few succeed in forging new paths, pushing past the myriad of challenges strewn in the way of even moderate success, let alone in achieving global influence.
This group of multigenerational women from around the world may not have originally set out to redefine how we eat, but through the course of their creativity and perseverance, they have. Through the restaurants and culinary businesses they have established, run and reconsidered, they challenge convention and push the boundaries of what’s possible, rewarding us with their delicious, artistic and mindful creations along the way.
Pioneering chefs past, present and future, (main picture) Pía León, (above from left) Mashama Bailey, Alice Waters and Daniela Soto-Innes
VITAL INGREDIENTS
ALICE WALTERS
Growing up in New Jersey in the 1950s, chef, restaurateur and author Alice Waters would not seem a likely candidate to lead America’s modern farm-to-table movement – an ethos she embraced as founder of restaurant Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California. But an innate sense of food and cooking led her to such heights.
“People want to know how I came to open a restaurant at 27 years old,” she wrote in her 2017 memoir, Coming to My Senses: The Making of a Counterculture Cook. “I never went to culinary school, I never cooked professionally. Why a restaurant? Why this kind of restaurant? Why this kind of cooking? How did I have the courage to open it? And the truth is, I’d never really thought about it deeply until now.”
From the victory gardens her parents grew to her travels in France, she came to prioritize the purity of ingredients over culinary technique, describing her cooking as, “a lot about aliveness, a lot about color, the smell of things, the look... I’m listening to what the farmer has to say about what’s going on in the fields. I think we forget sometimes that food is alive and that we have to follow that intuition and treat food as a living thing.”
As global ambassador of the farm-to-table philosophy, organic and regenerative farming, and the preservation of heirloom varieties of fruits, vegetables and animals, Waters founded the Edible Schoolyard Project in 1995 to teach young children about the values of healthy eating, and penned the 2021 title, We Are What We Eat: A Slow Food Manifesto, a “declaration of action against fast food values.”
EMOTION OVER TECHNIQUE
HÉLÈNE DARROZE
A Chevalier of the French Legion of Honour and Top Chef star, French-born Hélène Darroze has earned a total of six Michelin stars across three restaurants: two for Marsan par Hélène Darroze in Paris, one for Hélène Darroze à Villa La Coste in Provence, and three for The Connaught in London, where she takes inspiration from regional farmers, makers and growers to source seasonal produce for her dishes.
A fourth-generation chef whose family’s culinary roots reach back to 1895, Darroze grew up in Les Landes in southwestern France in her family’s restaurant (her mother told her she understood how to taste food before she could walk) and graduated from university with a business degree before working for famed chef Alain Ducasse.
Darroze was the inspiration for the character Colette Tatou in Ratatouille (“the toughest cook in the kitchen”). Influenced by her emotions, she wants guests to “always feel as though they are in my home,” and while Darroze does not claim to have revolutionized French gastronomy, “as I am one of the first women in this age of the industry to lead a kitchen, I feel I brought a more sensitive cuisine to the global stage, led by emotion rather than technique,” she says.
STORY AND SOUL
MASHAMA BAILEY
Her cooking is a masterclass in storytelling, a dialogue between past and present that reimagines Southern cuisine with depth and precision. As executive chef and co-owner of The Grey, she has transformed a former Greyhound bus station into one of Savannah, Georgia’s most compelling dining destinations. Her accolades speak volumes – James Beard’s “Best Chef: Southeast” in 2019, followed by the groundbreaking honor of “Outstanding Chef” in 2022, the first Black woman to receive the award. Yet, it’s her approach to “Port City Southern” cuisine – deeply rooted in place, memory, and seasonality – that continues to push the conversation forward, shaping the future of American food.
A Wagyu beef dish with XO sauce at the Michelin-starred Hélène Darroze at The Connaught in London and the chef
GENEROUS CLASSICS
NADIA SANTINI
Cooking near the birthplace of Slow Food (the movement originated in Rome in 1986), Nadia Santini is the three Michelin-star chef of Dal Pescatore in Lombardy, considered one of Europe’ finest restaurants. Her husband Antonio Santini’s parents owned Dal Pescatore when they married, but it was on their honeymoon in France that she discovered haute cuisine.
Santini learned to cook from her husband’s mother and grandmother. She combines classic dishes with friendly, generous Italian-style cooking, finding further inspiration in the seasons. With four generations of the family working together, the restaurant’s esteemed wine collection is managed by Nadia’s son Alberto, Dal Pescatore’s head sommelier.
Given a third Michelin star in 1996, Santini is the first female chef in Italy to ever be awarded three Michelin stars. She was named “World’s Best Female Chef” by The World’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2013.
She told Italy Magazine the following year that she believed the key to her success was, “persistence, equilibrium and honesty in what I do”. She also noted her belief in what the earth provides. “I grew up in the country and have spent many years living here,” she said. “This gives you the chance to know, understand and watch how the animals are bred and the crops cultivated. This is really the knowledge at the core of a chef’s work. It’s important to have a wide knowledge of the entire food chain – from the farm to the fork.”
FUTURE PIONEERS
JANELLE MAIOCCO, PÍA LEÓN, DANIELA SOTO-INNES
A trained chef and instructor, Janelle Maiocco launched her second startup, Barn2Door, after her sons were out of high school, driven by the desire to help small farms survive and thrive, connecting chefs and farmers across the US at the back end of the restaurant supply chain. Maiocco is particularly keen on helping farmers devoted to biodiversity and building healthy ecosystems through heirloom breeds and seeds.
Meanwhile in Peru, a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu Peru, award-winning chef Pía León founded Kjolle in Lima to highlight Peru’s diverse flavors and ingredients, inspired by the food memories of her childhood. Crowned “World’s Best Female Chef” in 2021, she is regarded as one of South America’s most influential and important chefs, celebrated for her work with local farmers and sustainable farming practices, noting, “Peru is a very rich and diverse country and taking advantage of resources requires taking into account ecological, biological, geographical and social factors.”
Then in North America, the Mexico City-native, Daniela Soto-Innes, learned to cook from the women in her family – her grandmother managed a bakery, where she spent much of her childhood watching and learning. Moving to Houston in high school, by 18 Soto-Innes was studying at Le Cordon Bleu in Austin, earning her first sous-chef job at 20.
While working in Mexico City, Pujol chef Enrique Olvera tapped Soto-Innes to open Cosme – and later Atla – in New York. Never forgetting what her father told her, “Talent should not be measured by gender,” at age 25 she won the James Beard Award for “Emerging Chef,” becoming the youngest “World’s Best Female Chef” soon after. In 2020 The New York Times called her “One of the most exciting chefs working today,” noting: “She reimagined both Mexican cuisine and how professional kitchens are run.” In 2023, Soto-Innes left it all to open Rubra in Nayarit, her debut restaurant in her home country.
Global ambassador of the farm-to-table philosophy, chef Alice Waters, at her restaurant, Chez Panisse, in Berkeley, California
“I think we forget sometimes that food is alive and that we have to follow that intuition and treat food as a living thing”
Chef Alice Waters
From top, clockwise, A dish of duck from Sladesdown Farm in Devon, UK, with cime di rapa, Cerignola olives and cedrat; the wood-paneled dining room; and a chocolate desert of Vibrato, from Guatemala and Madagascar, Manni olive oil and Kalamata olive all at Hélène Darroze at The Connaught. At Kjolle in Lima, chef Pía León serves duck with nuez de Madre de Dios, a unique nut from the Madre de Dios region of the Amazon rainforest.
Photography. Verona ©Spinach Branding. All others ©Kitzcorner, Andrei Antipov, Tint Media, Johnathan Ball, Anansing, Popova Tetiana, PintoArt for Shutterstock.
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