Core by Clare Smyth – the potato that became three stars in Notting Hill

Clare Smyth grew up on a farm in Northern Ireland and became the first female chef in the UK to hold three stars. In 2017 she opened Core in Notting Hill – and by 2021 it had three stars.

One of the first dishes served at Core by Clare Smyth was a potato. A Charlotte potato, topped with herring and trout roe, herbs and edible flowers, as Spear's described it when the restaurant was a month old in autumn 2017. It was a way of showing what the restaurant would be about: simple British ingredients, treated with the same seriousness as caviar and truffle.

Core is located on Kensington Park Road in Notting Hill, a few minutes' walk from Notting Hill Gate. The restaurant has three stars in the Guide Michelin Great Britain & Ireland 2026.

01Clare Smyth – from Northern Ireland to Chelsea

Clare Smyth was born on 6 September 1978 in Belfast and grew up on a farm in Northern Ireland. She studied at Highbury College in Portsmouth, trained at Grayshott Hall in Surrey and then worked at Terence Conran's restaurant in Michelin House in London, at Gidleigh Park, at St Enodoc Hotel in Cornwall and under Alain Ducasse at Le Louis XV in Monaco.

In 2007, she became head chef at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in Chelsea and later chef patron. She thus became the first female chef in the United Kingdom to run a three-star restaurant. In 2013, she was appointed MBE for her contributions to the hospitality industry.

02A kitchen of her own – and three stars in four years

In July 2017, Smyth opened Core, her first restaurant of her own. It received two stars in the 2019 guide, which was presented on 1 October 2018, and three stars in the 2021 guide. In 2018, she was named the world's best female chef by The World's 50 Best Restaurants.

In November 2021, she also opened Oncore on the 26th floor of Crown Sydney in Australia. She was unable to attend the opening herself due to the closed borders during the pandemic.

03British cooking in earnest

The potato isn't the only dish in which an everyday ingredient takes centre stage. Spear's also described a carrot braised in lamb stock and served with sheep's milk yoghurt, accompanied by a small brioche filled with lamb. These are dishes that draw on Smyth's upbringing in the countryside and her years in the classical kitchens of Ramsay and Ducasse.

It's a kitchen that takes a carrot or a potato just as seriously as a lobster. The menus change with the seasons, and they're built on ingredients from the British Isles.

04The bar and the kitchen behind glass

Core is a bright and relaxed room. In the entrance there is a bar serving cocktails, among them one called Knottyng Hull, and the kitchen has a glass wall facing the dining room so that guests can watch the chefs at work.

It's a different kind of three-star restaurant from the old hotel dining rooms in Mayfair – elegant but relaxed.

05Notting Hill and Portobello

Kensington Park Road runs parallel to Portobello Road through Notting Hill, in the borough of Kensington and Chelsea. A lunch at Core can happily be combined with a stroll through Notting Hill's gardens, mews and Portobello Road. The whole of London can be found in VERA PI's London guide, and London's other three-star tables are in our guide to London's Michelin restaurants 2026.

06Planning your visit to Core

Arrive a while before your table and start at the bar. Ask if the potato dish is on the menu, and book well in advance. Check opening days directly with the restaurant.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.