Elizabeth "Liz" Haigh (née Allen, born May 1988) is a

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

an-born chef who competed on '' MasterChef'' in 2011, and went on to win a

Michelin star The Michelin Guides ( ) are a series of guide books that have been published by the French tyre company Michelin since 1900. The Guide awards up to three Michelin stars for excellence to a select few establishments. The acquisition or loss of a ...

at the Hackney-based restaurant Pidgin. Haigh currently operates the kopitiam Mei Mei at Borough Market.

Career

Born to a Singaporean mother and an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

father in

and raised in

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, she trained as an

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at Central Saint Martins in London. While there, she realised that she preferred to cook, and was dared to apply to appear on the

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television series '' MasterChef.'' The 2011 series was her first experience of cooking outside of her home or for her friends. She was eliminated early on in the series. Haigh decided to pursue a career in cooking, and started to work at a

gastropub A gastropub or gastro pub is a pub that serves gourmet comfort food. The term was coined in the 1990s, though similar brewpubs existed during the 1980s. Etymology The term ''gastropub'' (derived from gastronomy) was coined in 1991, when David E ...

called The Green Oak in Windsor She then moved to the Royal Oak, Paley Street, where she came under the influence of head chef Dominic Chapman. While she was working there, she attended culinary classes at Westminster Kingsway College. Haigh also worked at Neil Rankin's Smokehouse restaurant. In 2015, she co-founded Pidgin with James Ramsden and Sam Herlihy, following on from their supper club, the Secret Larder. Shortly after Pidgin was awarded a star in the 2017 ''

Michelin Guide The Michelin Guides ( ) are a series of guide books that have been published by the French tyre company Michelin since 1900. The Guide awards up to three Michelin star (classification), stars for excellence to a select few establishments. The ac ...

'', she left. She set up a company called Kaizen House, under which she originally planned to launch her own restaurant Shibui in 2018. The restaurant was planned to feature wood fired cooking with elements from different cuisines. Having delayed opening the restaurant due to concerns about the economic climate, she opened Mei Mei, a kopitiam in Borough Market at the end of 2019.

Plagiarism allegations

Haigh published her recipe book ''Makan'' in May 2021. The book was withdrawn by the publisher Bloomsbury "due to rights issues" in October 2021 after Haigh was accused of plagiarising recipes and anecdotes from Singaporean author Sharon Wee's 2012 Nonya cuisine recipe book ''Growing up in a Nonya Kitchen''. The book was also found to have plagiarized from other sources including the food blog ''Rasa Malaysia'' and a Singaporean cookbook published in 1981. Singaporean company Anthony The Spice Maker also found directions on how to use two of the spice blends listed in Mei Mei's online catalogue being 80% similar to their own while conducting a market research. Recipes are generally not protected by US or UK copyright laws as list of ingredients and basic instructions to reproduce the dishes are considered factual. However, directions and other content may have copyright protection as they are considered "substantial literary expression."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Haigh, Elizabeth Living people People from Singapore Singaporean chefs Singaporean people of English descent Singaporean expatriates in the United Kingdom Women chefs Head chefs of Michelin starred restaurants 1988 births Copyright infringement