The chef and restaurateur Joyce Molyneux, who has died aged 91, enjoyed the near universal esteem of her professional colleagues and the wider world of home cooks and diners-out. In great part this was due to an unassuming yet friendly nature and her inveterate lack of pretence, joined to a style of cookery that tasted like heaven and was yet accessible to all. Although her career can be reduced to her having worked in just three provincial restaurant kitchens – learning the ropes at the Mulberry Tree in Stratford-upon-Avon in the 1950s, at the Hole in the Wall in Bath in the 60s, and then 25 years at the Carved Angel in Dartmouth – the resonance of her activities echoed through a much broader church.
She was one of the first female chefs to be awarded a Michelin star, in 1978. Her kitchens were open to view from all parts of the restaurant, and were never sullied by the bouts of bad behaviour that were almost expected in the rumbustious 80s. She made an early stand in favour of creative local sourcing of ingredients: a photograph from 1984 portrays Joyce and her small staff in front of three dozen purveyors, all drawn from a five-mile radius.
