Anne-Sophie Pic

Anne-Sophie Pic is a French chef, has won three Michelin stars and in 2011 was named best female chef by the 50 best restaurants in the world.

France’s only 3 Michelin star, and, alongside Carme Ruscadella, the most highly accoladed female cheffe in the world with seven Michelin stars over four restaurants in Valence, Paris, London and Swiss, Anne Sophie-Pic did not originally plan to be a chef although she grew up with an intuitive love of food . Fate and her family’s reputation, deeply steeped in restaurants, intervened. Her chef grandfather, Andre and in turn her father Jacques Pic had already made Maison Pic Valence, one of France’s most revered 3 Michelin restaurants.

After initially embarking on a career in management, in 1992 Anne-Sophie decided she must realise her dream and started to train at Maison Pic. She was wholly unaware that just three months later she would become head chef when her father sadly passed away. in 2005 much to her disappointment the restaurant lost its third star. Within two years, however, a hard-working Anne-Sophie restabslihed what she felt symbolised her “father’s star” when the restaurant regained its three Michelin star status in 2007. In 2011, Anne-Sophie was awarded best female chef in the world by World’s 50 Best Restaurants.

Anne-Sophie characterises her cuisine as having a femininity and aromatic approach to the harmony of complex flavours. “It is my medium for expressing my emotions.” says Chef Pic who often compares her creative process to that of a perfumier. The finesse, lightness and clarity of her cooking with much original use of more unusual spices and Japanese ingredients, especially tea infusions, is extraordinary.  In Spring 2019, Chef Pic opens La Dame du Pic in the newly restored Raffles Hotel.

SIGNATURE DISHES

• Berlingots : pasta parcels with lightly smoked Brillat Savarin cheese, seasonal wild mushrooms, wild garlic and Voatsiperifery pepper. Other variations, include on the vegetarian menu berlingots with St Cera cheese, fresh peas, bergamot mint infused dashi
• Kohlrabi and clementine infused jelly with tagette and shiso
• Scottish scallop with smoked beetroot and grapefruit, batak pepper and hibiscus emulsion Scottish langoustine seared in shellfish butter with celeriac, apple and green anise emulsion
•  The White Millefeuille, Tahitian vanilla cream, jasmine jelly, Voatsiperifery pepper foam