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Chef Dominique Crenn has always been ahead of the curve. The chef-owner of Atelier Crenn and Bar Crenn has a knack for reinventing herself while staying rooted to the causes that she holds dear.
In 2018, the year she got her third Michelin star for Atelier Crenn (currently the only woman chef in the US to have this ranking), she decided to remove meat from all her tasting menus to take a stand against factory farming.
Her soulful interpretation of French cuisine has won her a James Beard award, the Icon Award from The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, and fans all over the world. The words most often used to describe her cooking, ‘emotional’ and ‘poetic’, are rooted in the creation story described in her book, Rebel Chef, which reveals how she was adopted at 18 months. Recently, Crenn has used her platform (340k followers on Instagram) to advocate for causes that she cares about — vegetarianism, sustainability, inclusiveness, equality and community.
During the height of the pandemic, she repurposed her second restaurant, Petit Crenn, to feed the hungry in her neighbourhood. When the celebrity-driven digital learning platform Masterclass.com approached her, she opted to teach a class on vegetarian cooking. She is the first Michelin-starred chef to consider serving lab-grown, cell-based chicken meat created by a partnership with Upside Foods.
