Angela Hartnett OBE is Chef-Patron at Murano, Café Murano and Hartnett Holder & Co.
As one of the UK’s most loved chefs and restaurateurs, Angela is known for her sophisticated yet simple, Italy-inspired cooking. Born in Britain, her passion for good, honest food and the best ingredients was instilled in her by her Italian grandmother and mother.
Angela came to her chef’s career after first studying a degree in history at Cambridge Polytechnic. She then worked in a number of small family-run restaurants in the kitchen and in fish and chip shops before joining Midsummer House in Cambridge as a waiter. Here she ‘blagged’ a role in the kitchen, where she learned on her craft on the job. Angela then did a stint abroad working as a Chef at the Tamarind Cove restaurant in Barbados.
In 1994, she returned to the UK, and did ten stages in restaurants across London, including a trial at Gordon Ramsay's new Aubergine restaurant. The male brigade bet that Hartnett would not last the first week, but she loved the food, loved working with Gordon in the best restaurant in London – it was thrilling.
This heralded the start of 17 years working for Gordon Ramsay. She later joined Marcus Wareing as his sous-chef at Petrus, rising to head chef after seven months, when it won a Michelin star. After launching Amaryllis in Scotland with David Dempsey in 2001, Angela helped with the launch of Gordon Ramsay's Verre in Dubai. From 2002 to 2007, Angela was chef-patron of Angela Hartnett's Menu at The Connaught, where she netted her first Michelin star in 2004.
In 2007, Angela was awarded an MBE for services to the hospitality industry, and the following year she opened her own restaurant, Murano in Mayfair, where she is Chef Proprietor. It was awarded Michelin star two months after opening, which it has retained since, and also holds four AA rosettes.
In 2012, Angela opened Hartnett Holder & Co in partnership with Robin Hutson and Chef Luke Holder. In September 2013 Angela launched the critically acclaimed Merchants Tavern in Shoreditch, in collaboration with Head Chef Neil Borthwick, and Canteen founders, Dominic Lake and Patrick Clayton-Malone. In November of that year she opened the similarly championed Café Murano, a brassier little sister to Murano, where she creates the menu with Sam Williams as Head Chef. In June 2015, she opened a second Cafe Murano on Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, and in 2019 she opened a third site in Bermondsey.
Angela has two cookbooks to her name, Cucina (2007) and Angela’s Kitchen (2011) and is a regular on our TV screens, as a judge on Great British Menu and Best Home Cook.
Angela first joined the Roux Scholarship judging panel in 2013 for its 30th anniversary year, for which it was filmed as a TV series by Watch TV. She re-joined the panel in 2017. Murano runs an apprenticeship scheme and works closely with South Downs College hosting dinners and training their 3rd year students.
She was awarded an OBE in the New Year's Honours 2021 for her services to the hospitality industry and to the NHS during the Covid-19 pandemic. During the 2020 lockdown, she set up the charity Cook-19 which created and delivered meals to NHS workers. Angela also contributed to the Chefs at Home cookbook, which raised money for Hospitality Action.