Dominique Crenn

It would be a mistake to call Dominque Crenn simply “the first woman in the United States to deserve 3 Michelin stars”, even though this is her loudest achievement, arriving in 2018. Born in Versailles, in France, in 1965, she was adopted when she was 18 months old by a family that lived in the Breton countryside. Her father being politician, her mother having an adventurous palate, young Dominique immediately experimented Chinese, Indian, Japanese and Vietnamese food in Parisian restaurants.

In the late Eighties, after graduating in Economics and a Master’s Degree in International Business, Crenn moved to California, a state that will be decisive for her future. She learnt the job in San Francisco, with Jeremiah Tower, and then at Yoyo Bistrot inside the Miyako Hotel. She then moved to Jakarta, Indonesia, at the Intercontinetal hotel, where she had her first role as head chef.

Back to the US, she travelled between the two coasts and earned the first Michelin star at restaurant Luce in San Francisco (2009). In 2011 she started the Atelier Crenn adventure. On top of the highest acknowledgement from the Red Guide, she received the Best Female Chef award from the World’s Fifty Best in 2016 and was featured on Netflix, in a thrilling and very popular episode of Chef’s Table.

The restaurant is a tribute to her father, Allain, with his paintings on the walls. Every guest is welcomed with a poem: every line represents a part of the menu. This is focused on fish and vegetables, «sifting», she says, «the memories of my mother’s garden in Bretagne through the lenses of Californian products». The synergy with pastry-chef Juan Contreras is clear in the joint effort to use food as a way to share a story and make guests reconcile with nature. The inspiration is often the consequence of a very personal thought, rooted in a constant evolution.