The AYALA SquareMeal Female Chef of the Year Series 2025: Ruth Hansom

Not many children ask for a polytunnel for Christmas, but then not all children go on to become the first ever female Young National Chef of the Year, help The Ritz win its first ever Michelin star, and successfully open and run their own restaurant, completely solo.

This was the gift Ruth Hansom asked for at just 12 years old, after digging up the end of her parents' garden to plant her own vegetable patch. It was a precocious act that displayed early signs of the chef-to-be's commitment to a cause - to starting something and seeing it through to fruition. Even then, Ruth had to prove it wasn't just a childish idea she'd forget about in a week. 

Champagne AYALA: Celebrating over 160 years of history, Champagne AYALA was one of the original twenty-six Grandes Marques Champagne Houses. The House received a Royal Warrant in 1908 and became a part of the Bollinger family in 2005. With its longstanding commitment to the restaurant industry, Champagne AYALA is known for its chardonnay driven, low-dosage wines, crafted with precision and delicacy on a boutique scale. These wines are the ultimate epicurean pairing, it’s no wonder they have been served in the UK for over 100 years in many of London’s most prestigious establishments.

‘I did get given an ultimatum’, she laughs. ‘My mum said, if you want that, you've got to get rid of the trampoline. At 12, I was like, oh, which one do I do? But I did choose the polytunnel.’

That little patch of land kickstarted a fascination with food. Growing up in North Yorkshire, she was surrounded by some of the best produce in the UK, while tending to her own vegetable garden allowed her to develop a deep respect for the ingredients that she'd end up cooking for her parents at home. ‘I used to always be in the kitchen helping my mum and my stepdad out. They worked a lot, so quite often in the evenings, I took it upon myself to make dinner for the family.’

Fast forward to today, and Ruth Hansom is one of the most exciting, trailblazing chefs of her time, one that has blossomed from a ‘chef to watch’ into a confident culinary creative. The food world has watched her leapfrog from ground-breaking awards to prestigious head chef roles, impressing the industry with her fearlessness and grace. 

'I was supposed to come home after college but finally came home 13 years later’

Ruth's journey began, not with a step, but a leap. At the age of just 16, the Darlington born chef moved to London on her own to carve out a career in food. Ruth had competed in the FutureChef competition run by Springboard a year prior, whizzing through to the final in London where she recalls people handing her business cards and offering her jobs. It was a discombobulating experience, but one that resonated with her instantly. Almost overnight, Ruth went from wanting to be a doctor to having her sights set on becoming a professional chef. ‘I just kind of fell in love with it,’ she says.

Things moved pretty quickly after that. With her eye set firmly on a career in professional kitchens, she applied for a place at Westminster College, found a flat on Gumtree and boarded a National Express down to the big city. She was just 16 years old at the time, had barely left the school gates, but she had a vision, bought a coach ticket, and didn't look back. ‘I didn't even want to fork out for a train’, she laughs. ‘That was kind of it. I was supposed to come home after college but finally came home 13 years later.’

After college, Ruth landed her first job at The Ritz where she worked under the esteemed John Williams MBE. For a young chef starting out, you couldn't ask for a better mentor, and Ruth sites Williams as being one of the most influential people on her career. ‘What he doesn’t know about French food is few and far between,’ she explains. So she stayed at The Ritz for five educational years, soaking up as much knowledge as she could and learning how to be part of a big kitchen brigade.

A rising star

At this point, the chef was still competing in the background, putting herself in the culinary ring and picking up various awards along the way. Just before she left The Ritz, and after the restaurant earned its first Michelin star, she won Young National Chef of the Year in 2017, the first female ever to do so. ‘It took me three years [to win],’ she says. ‘I'm very competitive. Second is almost worse. To know that you're so close but didn't quite make it.’

Ruth owes a lot to competing. Competitions are what got her into the industry in the first place. Especially during those early years, when she was learning the ropes in other people’s kitchen, they gave her space to fine tune her own culinary identity.

‘When you're cooking in restaurants, you're always cooking other people's food. It's nice to test out your own skills and know that you can create dishes yourself. That's the reason why we're all chefs, right?'.

‘I'm very competitive. Second is almost worse.'

What followed was a series of head chef roles at a spectrum of highly-regarded restaurants, from the revered Wernher restaurant at the Luton Hoo hotel, to the more relaxed Pomona’s in Notting Hill, and then Shoreditch gastropub The Princess of Shoreditch, a position that cemented her reputation as one of the industry’s dazzling young talents. Under her leadership, the pub attained 3 AA Rosettes, won the 50 Best Gastropubs ‘Newcomer of the Year award and secured its place in the Michelin Guide.

Opening a restaurant in London seemed like the next natural step. After all, she'd been working in the capital for over a decade. But a short stint viewing potential sites quickly revealed the costs just didn't add up. This was in 2022, while the city was still recovering from the pandemic, and prices were at an all time high. Moving back up north was ‘the most viable option’, she says.

Hansom

In February 2023, Ruth opened her first solo restaurant in the small village of Bedale, just 15 minutes from where she grew up. We’re sitting in Hansom today, a bespoke ‘H’ shaped mural hanging on the wall above her. Although she runs the business with her husband, this is clearly a very personal venture for the chef.

In fact, she runs the kitchen entirely on her own. No team, just Ruth cooking a seven-course tasting menu every evening, plus a vegetarian equivalent, for a 28-cover dining room. We half expect steam to start coming out of her ears at any moment, but she’s as cool as ever, rationally explaining why running the ship solo is, at least for now, the least stressful option.

‘A lot of frustration came [in other kitchens] from making sure that everyone was doing what they needed to be doing, and not having the time necessarily to train them correctly,' Ruth explains. 

‘We do 28 covers - a small amount of covers - and if I ever decide that maybe I need to expand, then we'll only do that when I get a team and they're trained and ready, rather than starting with loads of covers and the team not being trained properly.’

'You want everybody to love what you do. But it's not going to happen. We're not for everybody.’

Many chefs who open their own restaurant might try to run before they can walk, but Ruth clearly possesses wisdom and experience beyond her years, partly because she's aware that she doesn't have all the answers yet.

‘I'm not saying what I do is always correct but at least I know it's how I want it. And if there's ever anything wrong then it's my own fault. I'd hate to be in a position where I was shouting at other people because I was in that stressed environment. I'd rather nurture somebody and grow when we're ready.’

Hansom has been open for two years now, although like anyone who's opened their first restaurant can testify, that first year was a steep learning curve. ‘There's so many things you really don't think about, like the Wi-Fi stopping the tills working!’, Ruth laughs.

Moving into a small rural village also came with its own challenges. Not everyone ‘got’ the concept straight away, and it took reinventing the menu a few times to realise she was trying to fit an impossible mould. What she really wanted to be doing was a tasting menu - drawing on the fine dining skills she fell in love with at The Ritz - so the small plates got scrapped, and Hansom as it is now started to take shape. 

‘Last year was really about accepting that we're not going to please everybody, which can be quite hard at first. You want everybody to love what you do. But it's not going to happen. We're not for everybody.’

The restaurant now serves a seasonal tasting menu only from Thursday to Saturday, and a traditional roast menu on Sundays, which allows Ruth to practice both the fine dining cooking she loves, along with the more relaxed, hearty cooking she honed at The Princess. The irony is that streamlining the business has attracted more people than ever. They’ve gone from bookings being unpredictable at best, to being fully booked every day this year.

The community have embraced Hansom with open arms, too. ‘People bring produce and leave it on the doorstep,’ says Ruth. ‘Every week, there might be a big pile of rhubarb or blackcurrants.’

Of course, with the industry being as it is, every chef knows that they can’t get complacent, and Ruth has never been one to rest on her laurels. The chef and her husband have bought a grade II-listed building a few doors down which they plan to turn into bedrooms, allowing them to extend the experience for guests. There are also plans to open a food truck out front offering British street food like filled Yorkshire puddings, charcuterie and artisan cheeses from local suppliers.

Ruth's husband even runs a taxi service for guests within a 10 mile radius, picking them up and dropping them off at the end of the night to get bums on seats. Not only does it make the experience more personal for guests, but it's ended up paying them dividends in return. 

'The spend per head has gone up which is really helping the business,' says Ruth. 'People will stay for that extra after-dinner drink, or they’ll have the wine pairing.'

It's great to hear business is booming, but we can see that Hansom is about far more than just turning a profit for Ruth. It's about connection - with the land, with the community and, of course, the guests. In her own words: 'The most important thing for us is that every guest comes and leaves happy.'

Ruth's perfect match for AYALA's Le Blanc de Blancs A/18

The dish: Heritage Isle of white tomato and roasted fennel ice cream, with potato croutons, smoked cheddar custard and wild garlic emulsion

The Champagne: AYALA Le Blanc de Blancs A/18

Ruth explains: ‘The idea behind pairing it with the Le Blanc de Blancs is that it works really well with the acidity coming from the tomatoes. Plus, you've also got that smoked buttery-ness from the cheese custard to bring out the richer flavours.’

Explore more of our chef interviews in partnership with AYALA, including Abby Lee, April Lily Partridge, and 2024's SquareMeal AYALA Female Chef of the Year, Adejoké Bakare.