'Michelin Star' Wars

Glistening in the culinary skies from London to Tokyo, French chef Joël Robuchon, has no fewer than 28 Michelin stars across his dozen restaurants - the most of any chef ever. Moreover, the fine-dining savant who runs his kitchen like the SAS regiment has scooped nine Michelin stars in a single year. His closest rivals, Monegasque chef Alain Ducasse and Britan's Gordon Ramsey are also into double figures with 19 and 13 Michelin stars respectively.

In Lesley Chesterman's @lesleychestrman engaging article - 'Is America Ready for Chef Anne-Sophie Pic and Her Impeccable Palate?' she comments:

"The upper echelon of the chef stratosphere is filled with men — powerful men, blessed in equal parts with charisma, talent, and unwavering confidence. They oversee strings of restaurants, glad-hand at food and wine festivals, manage huge brigades, and churn out mountains of cookbooks, all while dreaming up new ways to quash the competition. It's a tightly knit boys' club driven by confidence and arrogance".

"A woman on the star-chef scene is a rara avis"

Renowned Spanish - Catalan chef Carme Ruscalleda is the only woman to be awarded a total of seven Michelin stars. Out of more than 250,000 professional chefs in the UK today only 18.5 per cent of them are women and Northern Ireland's Clare Smyth MBE, is the first female British chef to hold and retain three Michelin stars. Alongside her father, Elena Arzak is joint head chef of the 3 Michelin starred 116-year-old family restaurant Arzak, the revered San Sebastian establishment is the holy grail of avant-garde cuisine.