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<\/p>\nFrom the moment she stepped into the spotlight, the Duchess of Sussex has shown herself to be full of surprises, but the thing that most impressed Clare Smyth, a British chef, was her knife skills. \u201cShe\u2019s pretty good at filleting a fish,\u201d says Smyth, who runs Core, a three-Michelin-starred restaurant in Notting Hill, west London. <\/p>\n
Smyth is a guest in the new series of the duchess\u2019s Netflix show, With Love, Meghan. The second instalment, where the duchess is joined by \u201cbeloved friends for hands-on adventures filled with laughter\u201d airs on Tuesday. \u201cMeghan is actually really good at cooking and she\u2019s creative, with a good palate,\u201d says Smyth, who teaches her how to make a \u201cvery healthy poached halibut with seasonal vegetables and bone broth\u201d in a forthcoming episode. <\/p>\n
Smyth, 46, is softly spoken, extremely polite and wary of saying the wrong thing. When we meet at Core \u2014 a stylish dining room with warmly lit bookcases and large floral arrangements \u2014 it\u2019s just over an hour before dinner service and Smyth is dressed in crisp fitted chef whites, with immaculate make-up and a neat ponytail. She keeps one eye on me as we speak and the other on her team as they prepare for the evening\u2019s guests.<\/p>\n
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VICKI COUCHMAN FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES<\/p>\n
Smyth\u2019s relationship with Meghan goes back several years. The duchess and duke were regulars at Core before Megxit and they hired her to cook for 200 guests at their private wedding reception at Frogmore House in Windsor. Does she consider Meghan and Harry to be friends? \u201cYeah, I would do \u2026 I\u2019ve known them for a long time,\u201d she says, after some careful thought and another long pause. \u201cWe stay in contact.\u201d Meghan \u201cpersonally reached out\u201d to ask her to be on the Netflix show \u201cright from the beginning, but we couldn\u2019t get the timings to work\u201d. Eventually, she flew to California late last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea was to teach Meghan how to do fine dining and what goes into that, rather than just something you can make at home,\u201d she says. They went to the fish market to buy fresh halibut and picked loads of herbs and vegetables from the Sussexes\u2019 garden in Montecito. \u201cIt was about showing her that level of detail and giving her tips on presentation and skills \u2026 she was really interested in that,\u201d Smyth says. Meghan also wanted to recreate Smyth\u2019s speciality sourdough recipe served at Core that the duchess \u201cloves\u201d \u2014 but Smyth had to explain that it used a 20-year-old starter. \u201cI told her the process would be too long for the show,\u201d Smyth says, so they made Parker House bread rolls, another Core speciality, instead. <\/p>\n
If fine dining finesse is what the duchess is after, there\u2019s no one better to learn from than Smyth. She left her family\u2019s potato farm in Co Antrim aged 16 and moved to Surrey to take up an apprenticeship at Grayshott Hall and later became a prot\u00e9g\u00e9e of Gordon Ramsay. She now lives in Wandsworth, southwest London, with her husband and West Highland terrier \u2014 \u201cliterally just around the corner from Gordon\u201d.<\/p>\n
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Gordon Ramsay called Smyth \u201cone of the greatest chefs to have graced my kitchen\u201d<\/p>\n
Her former boss (now a \u201cvery good friend\u201d), initially told her she \u201cwouldn\u2019t last a week\u201d when he hired her as a chef de partie at his restaurant in Chelsea in 2002. But by 2007 \u2014 aged 29 \u2014 Smyth was head chef, and Ramsay went on to describe her as \u201cone of the greatest chefs to have graced my kitchen\u201d. <\/p>\n
He famously called her the \u201cMargaret Thatcher of cooking\u201d. Not because she had an Iron Lady persona but \u201cbecause I was quite reserved\u201d, she says. \u201cGordon said Margaret Thatcher was a shy young woman once but she was taught how to run a country. He said he would teach me how to be a leader and he did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Within a year of opening, Core received two Michelin stars and was awarded another in 2021, making Smyth the first British woman to hold three of the fine dining accolades. She is grateful for the recognition, but stresses that her \u201cguests, the people we look after\u201d are who really matter. Those guests include Adele, Ed Sheeran and the Beckhams, who are such huge fans (\u201cthey love our signature dishes\u201d) that David held his star-studded 50th birthday dinner there in May. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey just love food, especially David. He is very appreciative of nice food and nice wine and always comes to try our tasting menus,\u201d Smyth says. <\/p>\n
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The Beckhams lived it up at Core in May<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s her relationship with the Sussexes that has thrust her into the limelight. At the time of their wedding, it was widely reported that Smyth cooked wagyu beef burgers for them. It is a rumour that clearly irks her. \u201cIt wouldn\u2019t take a lot to figure out that we probably didn\u2019t cook burgers,\u201d she says, rolling her eyes and gesturing around the 54-seat dining room.<\/p>\n
It is a fair point. Core is not a burger and chips sort of place, in cuisine or price \u2014 the seasonal tasting menu is \u00a3265 per person (or \u00a3255 for the classic), plus an extra \u00a3175 each for the wine pairing. At the wedding, she actually served some of Core\u2019s signature dishes including \u201cpotato and roe\u201d, a jacket potato that takes 25 hours to prepare (24 of it for marinating), and roast chicken with a twist \u2014 a nod to Harry\u2019s proposal, which apparently took place while he and Meghan were roasting a chicken on a cosy night in. <\/p>\n