Annie Féolde is a French chef, best known for holding three

Michelin stars 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 restaurants in certain geographic ...

at her restaurant

Enoteca Pinchiorri Enoteca Pinchiorri is an Italian restaurant in Florence, Italy. The owners are Giorgio Pinchiorri and French-born Annie Féolde. The chefs are Annie Féolde, Italo Bassi and Riccardo Monco. In 2008, the restaurant was voted 32nd best in the worl ...

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

, Italy. She was the first female chef in Italy to win that level of accolade, and only the fourth ever.

Career

Born near

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

, Féolde left home and moved to

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

, where she worked for La Poste, and was then transferred to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. She began to travel further to improve her language skills, first to London where she lived with a family to look after their

Labrador Retriever The Labrador Retriever or simply Labrador or Lab is a British list of dog breeds, breed of water dog retriever gun dog. It was developed in the United Kingdom from St. John's water dogs imported from the Newfoundland Colony, colony of Newfoun ...

. She hoped to repeat the same situation in

, Italy, as she had in London, but the family there had agreed to house two women and the other one got there first, leaving Féolde without anywhere to live upon arrival. She started working at a local restaurant instead in order to cover her living costs. This meant that she couldn't afford to go to an

Italian language Italian (, , or , ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family. It evolved from the colloquial Latin of the Roman Empire. Italian is the least divergent language from Latin, together with Sardinian language, Sardinian. It is ...

school as planned, but instead learnt the language from interacting with customers. She met

sommelier A ''sommelier'' ( , , ), ''chef de vin'' or wine steward, is a trained and knowledgeable wine professional, normally working in fine restaurants, who specializes in all aspects of wine service as well as wine and food pairing. The role of the ''s ...

and wine collector

Giorgio Pinchiorri Giorgio Pinchiorri (born 6 October 1946) is an Italian sommelier. He is the cofounder with Annie Féolde of the Enoteca Pinchiorri restaurant in Florence. Biography Pinchiorri was first drawn to the world of wine during the 1958 FIFA World Cup ...

a year later in 1970. Together they opened

, with Féolde as

head chef A chef de cuisine (, French for ''head of kitchen'') or head chef is a chef that leads a kitchen and its cooks. A chef patron (feminine form ''chef patronne'') (French for ''boss chef'') or executive chef is a chef that manages multiple kitche ...

. They grew the restaurant from a wine bar serving snacks to a full restaurant serving hot food by 1974. She appeared on Italian television for the first time at the request of food critic

Edoardo Raspelli Edoardo is the Italian form of the English male given name Edward. Notable people named Edoardo include: * Edoardo Agnelli (industrialist) (1892–1935), Italian industrialist * Edoardo Alfieri (1913–1998), Italian sculptor * Edoardo Amaldi (190 ...

, who inspired her to develop a modern take on

Tuscan cuisine Tuscan cuisine refers to the culinary traditions of the Tuscan region in Italy celebrated for its simplicity and focus on fresh, high-quality ingredients like olive oil, legumes, and meats. Rooted in , it emphasizes seasonal ingredients and s ...

. She won her first

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 restaurants in certain geographic ...

in 1981 at Enoteca Pinchiorri; the duo only found out when Pinchiorri bought a copy of that year's ''Michelin Guide'' from a newsagent. The second star came the following year, and the third in 1992. This made Féolde the first female chef in Italy to win three Michelin stars, and only the fourth woman ever. The same year, arsonists set fire to the

wine cellar A wine cellar is a storage room for wine in bottles or barrels, or more rarely in carboys, amphorae, or plastic containers. In an ''active'' wine cellar, important factors such as temperature and humidity are maintained by a climate control s ...

at the restaurant. Following an assessment of the damage, Féolde convinced Pinchiorri to keep the restaurant open and not shut down permanently. To celebrate 40 years running Enoteca Pinchiorri, an

autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life, providing a personal narrative that reflects on the author's experiences, memories, and insights. This genre allows individuals to share thei ...

of both Féolde and Giorgio Pinchiorri was published in 2013 entitled ''Pinchiorri a Due Voci'' (Eng: "''The Pinchiorri Duet''"), written by Leonardo Castelucci. In 2017, she appeared as one of the judges on the television series '' Top Chef Italia''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Féolde, Annie Living people French chefs People from Nice French emigrants to Italy Year of birth missing (living people)