Dominique Crenn is a French chef, now based in San Francisco, known for her innovative French cuisine and ‘poetic’ approach to food. Crenn was the first woman in the US to be awarded three Michelin stars, having previously been the first woman in the US with two stars. She is also a committed advocate of equality in the kitchen, as well as sustainability and environmental issues.
Crenn was born in Brittany, France, in 1965, and adopted as an infant. Her mother, a cook, taught her daughter to explore a range of different cuisines, with visits to Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese restaurants in Paris, while her father, a politician and painter, inspired her with the sense of poetry that would go on to be an integral part of her culinary philosophy. He also took the young Crenn to dine at Michelin-star restaurants with his food critic friend. Summers spent on the family farm as a child also influenced Crenn’s approach to food, which takes its inspiration from seasonality and the importance of the land.
Disillusioned with the male-dominated French culinary scene, Crenn left France to pursue her culinary ambitions abroad in the late eighties, working in several US restaurants, and briefly moving to Jakarta, Indonesia, where she became that country’s first female head chef, before returning to the US in 1998.
She was awarded her first Michelin star while working as chef de cuisine of Luce restaurant in the San Francisco Intercontinental Hotel in 2009. Just two years later, Crenn set up on her own, opening her first restaurant, Atelier Crenn in the Cow Hollow neighbourhood of San Francisco. The venue was a huge success, earning Crenn two Michelin stars in 2013 - the first woman in the US ever to achieve the honour. In the 2018, Atelier Crenn’s rating was increased to three stars, making her the first female chef in the US with three Michelin stars.
Crenn has also written two books. Atelier Crenn: Metamorphosis of Taste, published in 2015, is part autobiography, part recipe book. It contains beautifully-shot photographs of Crenn’s creations and discusses her philosophy on sustainability and the poetry of food.
Her second book, Rebel Chef, published in 2020, charts her journey from a determined young woman forging her own path in an unforgiving industry to one of the world’s most celebrated chefs. In this book Crenn speaks out on toxic restaurant culture, sexism, immigration, and the responsibility of restaurateurs to care for the environment.
Crenn’s activism also plays a big part in her approach to food. She is outspoken in her advocacy for a more inclusive, less aggressive kitchen environment, and is known to treat her own staff well. Her restaurants are all committed to the cause of sustainability, with ingredients sourced from her own farm, Bleu Belle Farm, and kitchen waste returning to the farm to be used as compost. As of 2019, she also made the decision to remove land-based meat from all of her menus, due to its environmental impact.
Dominique Crenn's Restaurants
Crenn is chef patron of three restaurants, Atelier Crenn, Petit Crenn and Bar Crenn, all of which are located in San Francisco. As part of Crenn’s ongoing commitment to environmental issues, all of her restaurants became pescatarian as of 2019. "Meat is insanely complicated," says Crenn "Both within the food system and the environment as a whole - and, honestly, it felt easier to just remove it from the menus all together."
