Dominique Crenn Finally Becomes America’s First Female Chef To Earn 3 Michelin Stars
For groundbreaking chef Dominique Crenn, this award was long past overdue.
Photo: City Foodsters // Flickr, CC 2.0
In the newly updated 2019 San Francisco Michelin Guide, Crenn and her signature restaurant Atelier Crenn were awarded their third Michelin Star. It’s the first time Crenn has ever been given the honor, and it also makes her the first female chef in U.S. history to ever earn the coveted third star.
Atelier Crenn was awarded its second star back in 2012, putting Crenn and her team on the map and elevated her platform to be a strong activist voice in the food industry. Because of her stance on gender equality in the kitchen, there were some who believed that judges on the Michelin circuit may have slighted her on purpose in the years following, prolonging her progress to a third star. Andrew Zimmern has even compared the Michelin guide to an “old white boys’ club” for their reputation of having low numbers of female-run restaurants on the list and giving little attention to POC or other global cuisine outside of expensive tasting menus..
View this post on Instagram
Nonetheless, Chef Crenn has finally been given the spot in restaurant history she’s been chasing for the past six years, and even began a new quest for a three-star restaurant at the same time. Her new San Francisco concept, Bar Crenn, was given its own first Michelin Star in the 2019 Guide.
“I’m humbled,” Crenn told the New York Times in an interview following the news breaking. “We worked so hard for so many years and this is a dream. Today we’re celebrating, but tomorrow we go back to work.”
As for her new role in history, she had this to say: “It’s a platform I now have; I must inspire others and make a difference.”
