Clare Smyth, chef

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 28 August 2022

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Clare Smyth is a highly acclaimed chef and is the first British woman to win the coveted three Michelin stars for her work. She opened her London restaurant, Core, in 2017, and before that she ran Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, which also held three Michelin stars. Clare was born in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, and grew up on a farm, where her love of simple ingredients was nurtured. The youngest of three children, she discovered a passion for cooking and decided to make it her career from an early age. She left home at 16, moving to England to take a catering course at a college in Portsmouth. Her ambition was to work with the finest chefs, and after completing her course and apprenticeship, she went on to cook in some of the most acclaimed kitchens in the world, including Le Louis XV under Alain Ducasse in Monaco. She returned to London to work in Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, at the invitation of the proprietor, and became the first British woman to run a three Michelin-starred kitchen. Her many awards include the title of the World's Best Female Chef in 2018, and she received an MBE for services to the hospitality industry in 2013. She also found herself in the spotlight in 2018 as the caterer for the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. She lives in London with her husband. DISC ONE: Sweet Child O’ Mine by Guns N’ Roses DISC TWO: Zombie by The Cranberries DISC THREE: Don’t Look Back in Anger by Oasis DISC FOUR: Common People by Pulp DISC FIVE: Set Fire to the Rain by Adele DISC SIX: Maria by Blondie DISC SEVEN: Brass in Pocket by Pretenders DISC EIGHT: Circle of Life by Carmen Twillie and Lebo M. BOOK CHOICE: The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien LUXURY ITEM: A chef’s knife CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Circle of Life by Carmen Twillie and Lebo M. Presenter Lauren Laverne Producer Sarah Taylor

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts
0:04.9	Hello, I'm Lauren LeVern and this is the Deser Island Disks Podcast.
0:08.6	Every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take with them
0:13.9	if they were cast away to a desert island.
0:16.5	And for right reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast.
0:21.2	I hope you enjoy listening.
0:44.4	My cast away this week is the chef and restaurateur Claire Smith.
0:48.4	She's cooked her way around the world in some of the most famous and most famously demanding
0:53.7	kitchens on the plight, earning her place at the cutting edge of British gastronomy.
0:58.7	Only four British-born chefs currently hold three Michelin stars and she's the first and only
1:04.8	British woman to win this accolade. She left home at 16 to learn the trade she's turned into an
1:10.5	art form, working everywhere from London to Monte Carlo. She cated a royal wedding reception
1:15.9	along the way, although the quizzing that kindled her passion for food in the first place
1:20.5	is altogether earthier. She grew up on the family farm in County Antrim and still enjoys the
1:26.4	honest fare she learned to love in childhood. She says, I love humble ingredients. I love the
1:31.9	challenge of someone saying, well, that's just an onion and then making something spectacular
1:36.8	from that onion, extracting the maximum amount of flavour. You don't have to work hard to get
1:41.7	a lobster to taste amazing. Claire Smith, welcome to Desert Island Disks. Thank you. Good to be here.
1:47.2	So Claire, as we've heard, you are famous among foodies for transforming humble ingredients
1:52.9	into something truly extraordinary, elevating, simple fare as we heard. At potatoes, carrots,
1:59.2	they almost become these works of art in your hands. One of your signature dishes is potato
2:04.5	and raw. Where did the inspiration for that particular recipe come from? I grew up on a farm
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.