A rebellious instinct and resilient spirit have made the chef the country’s first (and only) female to win three Michelin stars. What’s in her secret sauce?
Photography by FRANÇOIS DISCHINGER
Styling by LAUREN GOODMAN
Words by DAVID NASH
October marks Dominique Crenn’s five-year anniversary of being cancer-free. “Yes, hallelujah! There’s no stopping for me. I’m not paying attention to — or internalizing — negative energy. I have two children, and I want to make sure I bring joy and happiness within myself,” she says over an afternoon coffee at Bar Crenn in the Cow Hollow neighborhood of San Francisco. After eight months of chemotherapy and a reconstructive surgery, in 2020 she received a clean bill of health and started working with José Andrés’s World Central Kitchen, the American Cancer Society (in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month), and La Cocina (to support immigrant women).
“You have only one life to live, and it’s all about love, kindness, giving to others, being curious, and taking risks,” she says. “That’s life.”
Let’s not forget Crenn is the only female chef in the U.S. to head a restaurant with three Michelin stars. Even in the face of more recent personal challenges — including the end of her yearlong marriage to actress Maria Bello, who filed for divorce in May — she remains upbeat and ready for her next challenge. And the next.
Since moving to California from France in 1988 — and securing her first kitchen job at chef Jeremiah Tower’s San Francisco restaurant Stars — Crenn has since found herself completely at home. “I’m French — yes, I was born in France, but I’m a Californian. I actually started to dream in English in 1998, and I was shocked.”
“I’m not here for you to like me. I’m here to express myself.”
DOMINIQUE CRENN
In 2011, she opened Atelier Crenn, which earned its first Michelin star that year, a second star two years later and a third in 2018 (making an Orion’s Belt in the culinary universe). Since then, the French expat has devoted her métier to imparting purpose and meaning. In fact, wearing a loose gray blazer, a white tank top, jeans, and a tilted straw panama covering her signature coiffure, she appears more café philosopher than restaurateur. “I got that first Michelin [star], and the rest is history,” she says. “But for me it’s just a platform to continue my journey, have a dialogue with others, and make sure the next generation — especially the young women out there — have somebody they can look up to.”
So when the fabled House of Dior was looking for a chef to head its new Rodeo Drive rooftop restaurant and café designed by Peter Marino, it knew exactly whom to call for that delicate balance of French savoir faire and American exuberance.
“I’m a fan of Christian Dior, and I like his story — where he came from and how far he got in his [fashion] career, which was a pretty short 10 years,” she says, recalling the hours she spent combing through nearly 80 years of treasures in the archive, just off Avenue Montaigne in Paris. “I tried to imagine myself walking with M. Dior, having a conversation and picking his brain to see if we could create something magical together,” she says. This was more than a fanciful tête-à-tête between the internationally acclaimed 60-year-old Crenn and one of the 20th century’s most revered couturiers. It was an exercise in “imagineering” — first for Café Dior by Dominique Crenn at the brand’s Highland Park Village boutique in Dallas (which opened earlier this year), and now for the highly anticipated Monsieur Dior by Dominique Crenn atop its new three-story Beverly Hills flagship. “I spent a lot of time picturing the dresses [in the archives] and the mood and stories behind them, so I could try to tell the same stories on the plate,” she says.
Channeling the vision of the designer — and of those who’ve been stewards of Dior’s legacy (from John Galliano to Raf Simons) over the past seven decades — she’s found the phantom thread that connects haute cuisine to haute couture. “It’s kind of a fusion between the two,” she says about the menu, which will feature tuna tartare with purple yam chips and crème fraîche, a nod to a gown worn by Emilia Clarke at Cannes in 2018. Other highlights include a black truffle agnolotti with mushroom consommé, guinea hen with maitake mushrooms, a rib-eye cap with cauliflower purée and black truffle and desserts of coconut cream with raspberries and pistachio, and devil’s food cake with chocolate mousse and cherry. “Yes, it’s a gastronomic restaurant, but with an attention to detail, purpose, and meaning in every dish that connects with different creations from Dior’s studio.”
Crenn has long been an advocate for sustainability (removing meat from her tasting menu at Atelier Crenn in October 2019), supporting natural disaster relief with the Root Project after Hurricane Matthew in 2016, traveling to Haiti to plant trees for coffee farmers, devoting time to Bay Area organizations like Meals on Wheels and the San Francisco–Marin Food Bank. She’s telegenic too, competing on The Next Iron Chef in 2009 and Iron Chef America in 2010 and participating in Season 2 of the Emmy-nominated Chef’s Table in 2016.
“You have only one life to live. It’s all about love, kindness, and taking risks.”
DOMINIQUE CRENN
But there’s one behind-the-camera experience she particularly enjoyed: designing the menu for the 2022 horror-comedy film The Menu and helping Ralph Fiennes develop his character. “It was one of the best things I’ve ever done in my life,” Crenn says. “I have such respect for [Fiennes]. The first question he asked me was, ‘How should I portray a chef? Should he throw things and yell?’ And I said, ‘No, it’s all about attitude. You have to walk into the kitchen like a director in front of an orchestra, pose yourself, focus, and connect with everyone [through your gaze]. Silence is more powerful than yelling.’ And that’s what he did — you can see it in the movie.”
Away from charitable missions, events, and the stovetops of Atelier Crenn, you’ll rarely find her hobnobbing with the gentry. “I prefer to hang out with a lot of artists,” Crenn says. “I love musicians, DJs, painters, writers — the kind of people who are funky and have a story.” That proclivity also extends into the world of food: She counts just a handful of chefs among her closest friends, including Basque chefs Elena Arzak and Andoni Luis Aduriz, Spanish restaurateur Quique Dacosta, and Mexican American chef Daniela Soto-Innes. “I love the Spanish — those people really inspire me.” And there’s only a couple of things Crenn truly misses about daily life in France. “There are a lot of things you can replicate here, but a few you can’t,” she says. “I think the thing I miss most is sitting at a café by myself and striking up a conversation with [a stranger], someone you might see only at that moment in time, and there’s a story shared between you. It’s very, very French. You’ll find that in Italy or Spain, but I think Americans are afraid of [that kind of] intimacy, period. Here, intimacy scares people because it allows others to really see them, like a mirror.”
Although her children are American by birth, Crenn is trying to instill some Gallic values in her 11-year-old fraternal twin daughters, Charlotte Alexandre Bleu and Olivia Belle Parker. “I spend every weekend with my kids,” she says, noting the necessary back-and-forth to Los Angeles in preparation for Monsieur Dior’s unveiling. “And right now, it’s all about polo, swimming, dance, rock climbing, singing, and just spending time together.” Of course, that includes cooking at home, which is a recipe for bonding that Crenn shared with her mother (a financial adviser with a passion for food) and grandmother while growing up outside Paris and at the family’s farm in Brittany. “[My kids] love to make pasta and things like tacos, fried rice, and desserts. We made a cake together just the other day,” she says. Both girls enjoy being in the kitchen, but Charlotte is more comfortable in the mix. “She was here [at Bar Crenn] the other day, serving people at the comptoir [counter] and asking a lot of questions,” she says. “It was very interesting to see.”
“I hang out with artists, musicians, DJs, writers. People who are funky and have a story.”
DOMINIQUE CRENN
Farming is another tradition that feeds not only Crenn’s soul but also her passionate diners. Bleu Belle Farm (named after her daughters) is 45 miles north of San Francisco in the Sonoma Valley. It spans four acres and focuses on biodynamic and regenerative practices, ensuring the freshest ingredients for her seasonal tasting menus, including dishes described only by main ingredients, like tomato, sunchoke, and uni as part of the fall lineup. “[When] tomatoes are in season, we probably have 10 rows of different types of tomatoes — and a lot of herbs and flowers,” she says. Sungold, Early Girl, and heirloom tomatoes are regular features, while colorful pansy petals, nasturtium leaves, and magenta pea flowers are plucked to accent a variety of dishes. And then there’s her clutch of chickens — “my ladies,” she calls them. “They’re almost nine years old, but we’re actually getting some new chicks — the girls love to collect the eggs.” Although she makes the 50-minute trip to the country a few times each month — and with her team about once a month — Crenn leaves the day-to-day agricultural activities to a pair of young and very capable farmers, Johnny Diskin and Emily Nicholson. “They’re not just farmers — they love the heart, the soul, and the nature of the ecosystem,” she says. “It’s very thoughtful and conscious how we do things.” The trio is already planning for winter: “We’ll plant a lot of root vegetables and greens — sunchokes are already on the menu. Usually, winter is really tricky. But we have a greenhouse, so we can plant anything we want.”
Apart from her restaurant and the adjacent Bar Crenn (Michelin-starred Petit Crenn closed in 2024), the farm, and the two culinary collaborations with Dior, Crenn has had several partnerships that have expanded her empire. Her name (and recipes) can be found on Air France’s La Première and business class in-flight menus, and she’s an ambassador for Veuve Cliquot and Swiss watchmaker Audemars Piguet. Last year, she became a member of HexClad Cookware’s Culinary Council, but don’t think she’ll attach her name to anything. “When Danny [Winer] from HexClad came to me a couple of years ago, I just loved the reason he [created the brand] — as a line of cookware that can be passed down to the next generation,” she says.
Authenticity was instilled in Crenn from an early age, and it remains a hallmark of her life. “You have to be who you are. Take social media, for example,” she says. “A lot of people [make negative comments] about me, but what you see is what you get — I’m not going to kiss your ass or whatever. I’m not here for you to like me. I’m here to express myself.”
No doubt her genuine, discerning nature is part of the reason she was named one of Time’s 100 most influential people in 2024. “I was flattered and grateful [to be included], but of course I have some humility within me,” she says. “So I started to think about what I’m doing, and that obviously people are listening. So maybe [the recognition] is also another platform for me to help others, which is kind of cool.”
Through her cooking, charitable endeavors, brand partnerships, and family, Crenn’s unabashed self-expression is what motivates her to continue making a positive difference in the world. “I never sleep — life is too short. I’m always going 24-7,” she says. “But I’m the happiest in my life, right now, that I’ve ever been.”
Feature image: DIOR shirt, $2,300, pants, $2,800, and jacket, price upon request.
This story originally appeared in the 20th Anniversary 2025 issue of C Magazine.
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