Allegra McEvedy

Allegra McEvedy
Born	Allegra Sarah Bazzett McEvedy November 1970 (age 46) Hammersmith, London, England
Education	St Paul's Girls' School
Occupation	Chef, broadcaster, writer
Known for	Co-founder, Leon Restaurants
Spouse(s)	Susi Smither (2006-12)
Parent(s)	Colin McEvedy

Allegra Sarah Bazzett McEvedy MBE (born November 1970) is an English chef, broadcaster and writer.

McEvedy was born and raised in Hammersmith. Her father Colin McEvedy was a consultant psychiatrist, historian and writer; her mother was a writer. She was privately educated at St Paul's Girls' School, attending the school at the same time as Daisy Garnett, later food columnist of The Observer. McEvedy's mother died when she was aged 17. As a consequence of this, and the stress arising from coming out as gay, she found adjusting to adult life difficult and was expelled from school—though she nevertheless took and passed her A-levels.

McEvedy completed her classical French training in 1991 at the Cordon Bleu in London. She also obtained the Higher Certificate from the Wine & Spirit Education Trust.

She later worked at the Tabernacle in Notting Hill, Green's, The Belvedere in Holland Park, Alfred's, the Groucho Club and The River Café. She got her first Head Chef position at Tom Conran's restaurant The Cow, in Notting Hill, at the age of 24.

During a spell in the U.S., facilitated by being awarded a special visa as 'an alien with extraordinary ability in the culinary arts', McEvedy worked at Rubicon and Jardinière in San Francisco, and ran the kitchen at Robert De Niro's New York restaurant Tribeca Grill, regularly doing 500 covers a night. Whilst in New York she catered for an exclusive Democratic Party fundraiser, personally cooking for President Clinton.

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