Sally Clarke

Sally Clarke is one of Britain's most acclaimed chefs and restaurateurs. Trained in Paris and London, she moved to California in 1979, where she worked in the kitchens and dining rooms of Michael's and West Beach Café. It was while in California that she met her mentor Alice Waters, chef and proprietor of Chez Panisse, and that her love of disarmingly simple cooking based on the freshest local ingredients was born. She returned to London in 1983 and a year later in December 1984 Clarke's, the now legendary restaurant on Kensington Church Street in Notting Hill Gate, opened its doors. With its no-choice menu of superb seasonal dishes the restaurant was an instant success. In its first year it was awarded the Good Food Guide's Restaurant of the Year and attracted a strong following of discerning customers, including Elizabeth David, who championed Sally Clarke as a pioneer. [Wikipedia]