Frenchwoman who inspired film ‘Ratatouille’ named world’s best chef

[Surya Gayatri]

© Patrick Kovarik / AFP - Hélène Darroze at her Paris restaurant

A French chef who inspired a tough kitchen character in the hit animated film "Ratatouille" was named the world's best female chef by a British magazine on Wednesday.

Hélène Darroze, 48, has an eponymous restaurant in Paris and another in the Connaught hotel in London, which has two Michelin stars.

Darroze was named the world's best female chef by Britain's Restaurant magazine, and is to collect her prize at "The World's 50 Best Restaurants" awards in London in June.

Well known in the restaurant world, Darroze built her career as a single mother with two adopted daughters and inspired the character Colette in Disney Pixar's 2007 "Ratatouille", a tale of a rat who can cook and begins helping at a prestigious French restaurant.

"Haute cuisine is an antiquated hierarchy built upon rules written by stupid old men, rules designed to make it impossible for women to enter this world," Colette says in the film.

More here:
http://www.france24.com/en/20150424-frenchwoman-who-inspired-ratatouille-named-world-best-chef/

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Let's raise a glass to Madame Darroze for cracking a really tough glass ceiling - the world of 'haute cuisine'.