SquareMeal and Champagne AYALA are proud to announce the winner of this year’s Female Chef of the Year Award: Maria Bradford, founder and head chef of Sierra Leonean restaurant Shwen Shwen in Sevenoaks.
Bradford has earned national acclaim for her modern, heartfelt take on Sierra Leonean cooking – not least Michelin’s 2026 Opening of the Year Award. At Shwen Shwen, she marries traditional West African foundations with quality British produce, treating the food of her homeland with real sensitivity and presenting it to a UK audience entirely on her own terms.
Bradford didn't start out in professional kitchens. She spent the first part of her career as a qualified accountant before retraining at Leiths School of Food and Wine. Her cookbook Sweet Salone came next, followed by Shwen Shwen.
She was chosen from an ultra-strong shortlist that also included Nieves Barragán Mohacho (Sabor and Legado), Queen of Cups chef-patron Ayesha Kalaji, Kim Ratcharoen of Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, and Nikita Pathakji of MAAI in Clapham – a line-up that shows the sheer breadth and abundance of female talent across the UK today.
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SquareMeal's Female Chef of the Year 2026 shortlist, from left to right: Ayesha Kalaji, Maria Bradford, Nikita Pathakji, Kim Ratcharoen, Nieves Barragán Mohacho (not pictured). Photography: Laurie Fletcher
Speaking about her win, Bradford said: ‘Winning this means so much more than the award itself. Writing my book, Sweet Salone, I met women across Sierra Leone who've fed their families their whole lives and never been recognised for it. Domestically, women do this work in most cultures – it's only when cooking becomes a profession worth prestige that it somehow becomes a man's world.
‘I hope that's not where African cooking goes too. I want women to dare to dream bigger and never let anyone dim their light.’
Recognising exceptional hospitality talent
Bradford is the eighth chef to take the title since the awards first launched in 2018, following Amber Francis of Christ’s College Finchley, Adejoké Bakare of Chishuru, Roberta Hall-McCarron of The Little Chartroom, Eleanore and Ardfern, Lisa Goodwin-Allen of Rosi and Northcote, Sally Abé of Teal, Skye Gyngell of Spring, and Angela Hartnett of Murano.
In response to a 2017 Office for National Statistics report that only 17% of chef positions in the UK were held by women, the awards aim to spotlight the trailblazing women who serve as role models for the next generation of chefs. The imbalance hasn’t gone away: more recent research by PwC found that while women make up almost half of applicants to student and entry-level hospitality programmes, that figure falls to around 20% at senior and executive levels.
Following a public nomination process earlier this year, the winner was chosen by a panel that includes former winners Sally Abé and Roberta Hall-McCarron, alongside representatives from SquareMeal and Champagne AYALA.
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Maria Bradford with the SquareMeal and Ayala judges, including Sally Abé and Roberta Hall-McCarron (not pictured)
As well as Bradford’s exceptional skill, the judges highlight her courage in championing an underrepresented cuisine in her own voice, and her commitment to broadening diversity across the industry – qualities that mark her out as one of the most inspiring and influential chefs working today.
SquareMeal Head of Content Ellie Donnell said: ‘It's a pleasure to announce Maria as our Female Chef of the Year 2026, in a year when the standard of nominations was exceptionally high. Not only has she opened the food world's eyes to Sierra Leonean cooking, boldly reinventing this underrepresented cuisine for a UK audience, but her commitment to championing diversity, inclusion and excellence within the industry encapsulates everything this award stands for. Maria is a chef bursting with soul, ingenuity and vision, and we are thrilled to recognise her contribution to the industry by crowning her our winner.’
Laurence Alamanos from Champagne AYALA added: ‘Champagne AYALA is proud to support the Female Chef of the Year Awards and celebrate the outstanding contribution women make to hospitality. We are delighted to be involved in recognising the talent, dedication and leadership that continue to inspire positive change across the industry.’
Read more about the AYALA Female Chef of the Year awards, and previous interviews with Abby Lee of Mambow, Ruth Hansom of Hansom, and Kyu Jeong Jeon, co-founder of Bokman and Dongnae. And check out Sally Abé’s map of women-owned hospitality businesses to support near you.