Anna Haugh: Age, Net Worth, Career and Bio

Anna Haugh is an Irish chef, restaurateur, television personality, and cookbook author, born on November 6, 1980, in Tallaght, Dublin. Now 45, she is the founder and co-owner of Myrtle, a modern Irish fine dining restaurant in Chelsea, London, which she opened in May 2019 with partner Richard Elwell. She is one of the new judges on BBC’s MasterChef, appointed alongside Grace Dent following the removal of Gregg Wallace and John Torode, and has been a regular presence on British television across Saturday Kitchen, Morning Live, Ready Steady Cook, and Royal Recipes. Her debut cookbook, Cooking with Anna: Modern Home Cooking with Irish Heart, was published by Bloomsbury in May 2024.

Quick Bio

Who is Anna Haugh?

Anna Haugh is an Irish chef and restaurateur who built her career across Michelin-starred kitchens in Dublin, Paris, and London before opening Myrtle in Chelsea in 2019, and has since become one of the most recognisable Irish culinary figures on British television.

Born and raised in Tallaght, Dublin, she trained professionally at TU Dublin before working with Derry Clarke at L’Ecrivain, then moved to Paris aged 21 to work under Gualtiero Marchesi, one of the founders of Italian nouvelle cuisine, where she became head pastry chef at his Michelin-starred Place Vendôme restaurant. Moving to London, she worked at Pied à Terre under Shane Osborne and at The Square under Philip Howard before joining the Gordon Ramsay Group, where she became the first head chef of London House in Battersea. She also served as executive head chef at Bob Bob Ricard. In 2019 she opened Myrtle, named in honour of Irish culinary pioneer Myrtle Allen, co-founder of Ballymaloe House. The restaurant earned 3 AA Rosettes in 2021.

Her television career began with a 2004 BBC appearance and expanded steadily through Royal Recipes, Ready Steady Cook, Saturday Kitchen, guest judging roles on MasterChef: The Professionals, and her own 15-part BBC series Anna Haugh’s Big Irish Food Tour in 2025. Her appointment as a full judge on BBC’s MasterChef alongside Grace Dent from 2025 is the most high-profile media role of her career. Haugh’s profile is part of the broader coverage of culinary figures who bridge Irish heritage and British restaurant culture, documented across the latest xxbrits biographies.

Early Life and Background

Childhood and Family

Anna Haugh grew up in Tallaght, a working-class suburb of south Dublin, the youngest of four children, with two sisters and a brother, in a household where cooking was central to daily life from her earliest years.

Her mother taught her how to tell when fruits were ripe, how to make chicken stock, and how to mince meat from the time she was approximately four or five years old. By the age of 12, she was capable of cooking a full family roast for six people from scratch on her own. This early culinary competence was shaped not by professional ambition but by genuine love for feeding the people around her. She has spoken publicly about family holidays where her father drove the family across various European countries, providing early exposure to unfamiliar food cultures that widened her understanding of ingredients and flavour. In a 2026 Irish Times interview marking her MasterChef appointment, she said: “I’m really proud I come from Tallaght,” reflecting a connection to her working-class Dublin origins that has consistently informed her public identity and her mission to make Irish food ambitious without becoming inaccessible.

Education

Anna Haugh attended Presentation Secondary School in Terenure, Dublin, before training on a professional cookery course at the TU Dublin School of Culinary Arts and Food Technology.

Her path to culinary training was not obvious from her school experience. She has recalled that when she raised the possibility of becoming a chef with a teacher at Presentation College Terenure, the teacher laughed until tears streamed down her face. A Home Economics teacher she asked about culinary colleges provided no useful guidance. The encouragement that changed her direction came from a family friend, Liz Dunne, the mother of a school friend, who told her: “Anna, I think you should be a chef; you come alive in the kitchen.” She later dedicated her 2024 cookbook to Dunne, describing her as “the woman who saw the chef in me before I was one.” Her TU Dublin training provided the professional foundation she then built on across some of Europe’s most demanding kitchens.

Career Journey

Before Fame: Dublin, Paris, and the Michelin World

Anna Haugh began her professional career in Dublin with Derry Clarke at L’Ecrivain, one of Ireland’s most respected fine dining restaurants, before making the move to Paris at age 21 with nothing, as she has described it, but a knife roll, chef whites, and her dancing shoes.

In Paris she worked for Gualtiero Marchesi at his Michelin-starred restaurant on the Place Vendôme. Marchesi was one of the founding figures of Italian nouvelle cuisine and his Paris kitchen was among the most technically exacting in Europe. At 21, Haugh became his head pastry chef. She has spoken candidly about the gender dynamics of the kitchen world at that time: it was common for women to be directed into the pastry section while men handled the main kitchen. She did not want to be a pastry chef, but she used the role as her entry point and learning environment before moving into broader kitchen roles. Her Paris experience gave her classical training, European culinary vocabulary, and the confidence to enter London’s competitive restaurant scene.

London: Pied à Terre, The Square, and Gordon Ramsay

After Paris, Anna Haugh moved to London where she worked at Pied à Terre under Shane Osborne, at The Square under Philip Howard, and then joined the Gordon Ramsay Group, where she became the first-ever head chef of London House in Battersea.

Pied à Terre in Fitzrovia held two Michelin stars under Shane Osborne, and Haugh’s first television appearance came during her time there: a 2004 BBC programme called The Stress Test. The Square in Mayfair under Philip Howard was a similarly prestigious environment, maintaining two Michelin stars. Her role at Gordon Ramsay’s London House represented her first head chef position and her most commercially high-profile appointment: London House was a significant Battersea restaurant attached to Gordon Ramsay’s group, and being its first head chef placed her at a level of operational responsibility and media adjacency that few female chefs of her generation had reached. She subsequently served as executive head chef at Bob Bob Ricard, the celebrated Soho brasserie, before moving into restaurant consultancy and then her own venture.

Myrtle Restaurant: Opening and Recognition

In May 2019, Anna Haugh opened Myrtle in Chelsea, London, co-founding it with partner Richard Elwell and naming it after Myrtle Allen, the Irish food pioneer who co-founded Ballymaloe House and became the first female chef to earn a Michelin star in Ireland.

Myrtle, located in Chelsea, is described as a modern Irish fine dining restaurant whose menu places Irish produce at its heart, reimagining traditional dishes including soda bread and colcannon with contemporary technique. The restaurant earned 3 AA Rosettes in 2021, a significant quality recognition. Haugh has described her ambition for Myrtle as introducing London to a sophisticated, ingredient-driven vision of Irish food, distinct from the stereotypes that dominated British perceptions of Irish cuisine before her generation of chefs began reshaping it. She also opened a wine bar called The Little Sister below Myrtle, serving Irish-themed snacks alongside a curated wine list, in 2024. Her partnership with Elwell, both professional and personal, has been the foundation of the restaurant’s operational structure. Related profiles of prominent restaurant figures in the London food scene are covered in the xxbrits voices archive.

Breakthrough Moment: MasterChef Judge

In 2025, Anna Haugh was appointed as a full judge on BBC’s MasterChef alongside food critic Grace Dent, in what the BBC described as a major shake-up following the removal of long-time hosts Gregg Wallace and John Torode.

Torode and Wallace’s departures followed an independent review commissioned by the BBC that upheld 45 out of 83 allegations of misconduct against Wallace and substantiated the use of racial language by Torode. The appointment of Haugh and Dent created the programme’s first all-female judging duo for the main amateur series. Haugh had already been building her profile on the show through multiple guest appearances: she set dish challenges for Celebrity MasterChef Series 17 in September 2022, substituted for Monica Galetti as a guest judge on MasterChef: The Professionals in 2022, and appeared as a guest judge on the main series with Torode and Wallace. Her full appointment was widely welcomed by the British food media and broadcasting community, with Irish TV presenter Angela Scanlon calling it “epic scenes.”

Career Today

As of 2026, Anna Haugh is serving as a full MasterChef judge, running Myrtle and The Little Sister in Chelsea, and continuing her appearances on Saturday Kitchen and Morning Live while her 2024 cookbook remains in active promotion.

Her 15-part BBC series Anna Haugh’s Big Irish Food Tour, filmed in 2024, aired on BBC One Northern Ireland in early 2025, taking her across Ireland to meet food producers, farmers, and culinary figures. The series represented her first lead presenter role on a major BBC programme. Her debut cookbook Cooking with Anna: Modern Home Cooking with Irish Heart, published by Bloomsbury in May 2024 with 85 recipes, has been reviewed positively across British food media for its accessible, ingredient-forward approach that translates her restaurant training into home cooking without sacrificing flavour or technique.

Reporting Style and Beat

Anna Haugh’s culinary identity centres on reimagining Irish food through the lens of classical technique: her cooking uses the finest Irish produce, treats traditional recipes as foundations rather than constraints, and consistently prioritises flavour over fashion.

Her approach across Myrtle’s menu, her cookbook recipes, and her television appearances reflects the same philosophy: that Irish food has a genuine fine dining identity, not just a rustic heritage, and that making this case requires technical precision alongside cultural pride. She has spoken consistently about the importance of women in kitchen leadership, the toxic dynamics of some high-pressure kitchens, and the need for culinary environments that are demanding without being destructive. Her quote in the 2026 Irish Times interview on her height and presence: “I never felt a chip on my shoulder about my height, or that I’m a poor helpless girl. The truth is I think I freaked chefs out when I worked with them. They would always say, ‘you have to get out of Anna’s way’.” Her cookbook dedication to Liz Dunne, “the woman who saw the chef in me before I was one,” anchors her public narrative in the specific, personal story of a working-class Dublin girl who was told cooking wasn’t a career.

Personal Life

Relationships

Anna Haugh is in a relationship with Richard Elwell, with whom she co-owns and operates Myrtle restaurant in Chelsea.

The personal and professional partnership between Haugh and Elwell has been the structural foundation of Myrtle since its 2019 opening. No further personal details about their relationship have been publicly disclosed. Haugh maintains a professional social media presence under the handle @haughser on Instagram, which she uses to share culinary content, restaurant updates, and personal food photography.

Family

Anna Haugh grew up in Tallaght as the youngest of four children, with two sisters and a brother, in a household where her mother’s cooking and produce from the back garden shaped her earliest food memories.

Her mother’s approach to cooking, characterised by good ingredients but a strong aversion to salt, fat, and sugar, gave Haugh a disciplined palate from a young age. She has described it as an influence she is grateful for in retrospect, even if she did not always appreciate it at the time. Her father’s European family road trips expanded her food horizons during childhood. No further details about her siblings or extended family have been publicly disclosed.

Achievements and Milestones

• Became head pastry chef at Gualtiero Marchesi’s Michelin-starred Paris restaurant at age 21, one of the youngest people to hold such a role in that environment.
• Became the first head chef of Gordon Ramsay’s London House restaurant in Battersea.
• Founded Myrtle restaurant in Chelsea with Richard Elwell in May 2019, named after Myrtle Allen, the first female Michelin-starred chef in Ireland.
• Myrtle earned 3 AA Rosettes in 2021, one of the significant quality accreditations in British fine dining.
• Won an episode of Channel 4’s Snackmasters in 2020, defeating Michelin-starred chef Aktar Islam.
• Published debut cookbook Cooking with Anna: Modern Home Cooking with Irish Heart with Bloomsbury in May 2024, featuring 85 recipes.
• Presented 15-part BBC series Anna Haugh’s Big Irish Food Tour on BBC One Northern Ireland, aired early 2025.
• Appointed full judge on BBC MasterChef alongside Grace Dent in 2025, forming the programme’s first all-female judging duo on the main amateur series.

Interesting Facts About Anna Haugh

• She could cook a full family roast for six people from scratch by age 12, a culinary capability well beyond her years that her mother’s daily kitchen teaching had quietly installed.
• She arrived in Paris at 21 for the Marchesi role with, as she has described it, a knife roll, chef whites, and her dancing shoes: a description that captures both her professional seriousness and her love of life outside the kitchen.
• A school teacher at Presentation College Terenure laughed until she slapped her thigh when teenage Anna mentioned wanting to be a chef, and told her she would be “sick of cooking when she got married.” The specific cruelty of that dismissal has become a recurring anchor in how Haugh tells her own story.
• Her restaurant Myrtle is named after Myrtle Allen, the late Irish food pioneer who built Ballymaloe House into one of the world’s most influential culinary institutions. Haugh never trained at Ballymaloe but has described the Allen family’s championing of Irish produce as one of the most significant inspirations in her culinary philosophy.
• She beat Michelin-starred chef Aktar Islam on Channel 4’s Snackmasters in 2020, a competitive cooking format that pits chefs against each other in recreating specific food products.
• Despite her status as a prominent figure in London’s restaurant world, she has consistently described her Tallaght origin with pride rather than distance, making her public identity unusual in a culinary establishment that tends to minimise working-class roots.