Renowned Australian chef Skye Gyngell was one of the industries leading trailblazers when it comes to sustainable cooking. Her career included numerous awards, including a Michelin star in 2011, and the SquareMeal AYALA Female Chef of the Year in 2019. Skye sadly passed away in November 2025 after a battle with cancer.
Skye was born in Sydney, Australia but like many chefs before her, she actually learned her trade in France. Gyngell trained at Parisian restaurant La Varenne, under the guidance of chef Anne Willan. She later worked at another French restaurant called Dodin-Bouffant, before packing up her things and moving to London, to take up a position at The French House in Soho.
After a period of time working as a private chef for the likes of Madonna and Nigella Lawson, Gyngell was part of the opening team for Petersham Nurseries Cafe and acted as its head chef. Here, she was praised for creating a restaurant which differed in style to many of its West End stablemates, and the restaurant was awarded a Michelin star in 2011.
Arguably one of the most notable and controversial moments of Gyngell’s career followed, when she quit the restaurant a year later. At the time, she described the Michelin accolade in an interview as like a 'curse', explaining that she didn’t enjoy the expectations that come with having a Michelin-starred restaurant. In the years that followed, Gyngell would go on to say that she regretted her initial comments about receiving a Michelin star.
In 2014, Gyngell opened Spring, her restaurant at Somerset House which has garnered critical acclaim, particularly for its efforts concerning combating food waste in restaurant kitchens. She was famously outspoken about the need to make kitchens sustainable, going to great lengths to eradicate single-use plastics from the Spring kitchen; she spent thousands of pounds supplying storage containers with lids to remove the need for clingfilm, and refused to work with suppliers who wouldn't use ship with reusable packaging.
Gyngell has written articles for well-known publications such as The Independent on Sunday and Vogue, while she has also published a handful of cookbooks over the years, including My Favourite Ingredients and How I Cook.
In 2024, Skye was diagnosed with a rare form of skin cancer. She sadly passed away in London in November 2025.
Read SquareMeal's interview with Skye Gyngell, and her obituary here.