The toque fits this lady just fine

Anne Sophie Pic [Photo provided to China Daily]

French media hailed it as revenge served by a princess in the kitchen when, in 2007, Anne Sophie Pic won back the Michelin star lost at her century-old family restaurant after her father, also the chef of the restaurant, passed away in 1994.

But as the only three-Michelin-star female chef in France - and the fourth in history since the influential "little red book" of global gastronomy was introduced in 1990 - the 42-year-old hoped the honor would earn more respect for female chefs in the perpetually "mustached" world of French cuisine.

"I think women should give this job more serenity and sensibility," says the petite and soft-spoken Pic on her first visit to China for the Masters of Food and Wine event held by the Park Hyatt Shanghai hotel.

A chef already festooned with abundant awards and acknowledgements, Pic admits "still being a little bit nervous" for her debut "open kitchen performance" for the Chinese diners, although tickets to her 5,620-yuan per-head five-course dinner have been sold out weeks ahead. 

She made a last-minute change to her month long prepared menu for the "Shanghai dinner", replacing the original sea bass with the local sea urchins after tasting them the night before at the hotel's restaurant.

"I am a very anxious person, but I want to try to make my kitchen a nice place to work in," says Pic, who remembers hearing nice men like her father shouting in the kitchen downstairs during her childhood, while she stayed at home above.