First Australian female chef to win a Michelin star dies, aged 62
Skye Gyngell, the first Australian female chef to earn a Michelin star, has died at the age of 62.
Gyngell rose to fame in the UK after his café in the garden center in south-west London was awarded one of the highest honors for chefs. He went on to manage the Spring restaurant at Somerset House and Marle and Hearth at Heckfield Place in Hampshire.
Gyngell’s family said he died in London on Saturday, describing him as “a culinary visionary who led generations of chefs and growers around the world to think about food and its connection to the land.”
Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver paid tribute to Gyngell, who was diagnosed with skin cancer last year, and thanked him for “everything you do to inspire young chefs.”
In the 1980s, Gyngell pioneered the “slow food movement” before becoming a private chef for clients such as Nigella Lawson, Madonna and Guy Ritchie.
Lawson mourned her death, writing on Instagram: “No matter how sick you know someone, their death is always a shock. It’s too bad Skye is no longer in the world.”
Born in Sydney, Gyngell was the daughter of Bruce Gyngell, who became the first person to appear on Australian television in 1956, and interior designer Ann Barr.
He studied law at the University of Sydney before deciding the culinary world was for him and moving to Paris when he was 19; here he trained and worked under acclaimed chefs, including the two-Michelin-starred restaurant Dodin-Bouffant.
He later moved to London and studied with Fergus and Margot Henderson at the French House in Soho.
In 2004 Gyngell became head chef at Petersham Nurseries cafe in Richmond, where he transformed the dilapidated space into a thriving cafe, which was awarded a Michelin star in 2011.
But the praise was a double-edged sword for Gyngell, who left the cafe a year after the award and said customers expecting a traditional Michelin experience in his rustic cafe were disappointed.
His later ventures included Spring at Somerset House, London’s first single-use plastic-free restaurant.
Gyngell, who overcame drug and alcohol addiction in his youth, was also known for his award-winning cookbooks and wrote columns as the food editor of Vogue.
Last year, a lump was discovered on his neck and he was diagnosed with Merkel cell carcinoma, a rare and aggressive skin cancer.
He had an operation that included the removal of his salivary glands, which caused him to temporarily lose his sense of smell and taste.
