Anna Haugh’s career brings together Irish culinary roots, professional kitchens in London and a restaurant of her own. At Myrtle, which she opened in Chelsea in 2019, she draws on Irish and British food traditions in a contemporary setting. Her work also reaches viewers through appearances on BBC’s Saturday Kitchen and as a judge on MasterChef: The Professionals.
Training and professional kitchens
Haugh is from Dublin and trained at L’École Hôtelière de la Celle Saint-Cloud in Paris. Her career took her into the London restaurant kitchens of Pied à Terre, where she worked under chef Gualtiero Marchesi, and to a role with the Gordon Ramsay Group. These experiences preceded the opening of Myrtle and gave her a background in professional cooking across more than one restaurant setting.
Opening Myrtle in Chelsea in 2019 marked a new stage: Haugh was no longer working only within other kitchens, but shaping a restaurant under her own name. The restaurant is named for Myrtle Allen, an Irish chef associated in the source account with the development of Irish cuisine. That choice places an Irish culinary reference at the heart of a restaurant based in London.
A menu shaped by Irish and British influences
The dishes associated with Myrtle show some of the ways its menu draws on ingredients and traditions linked to Ireland and Britain. Slow-braised Irish beef cheek is one example; Carlingford oysters served with apple and cucumber granita are another. The oyster dish pairs a named Irish ingredient with fruit and vegetables, while the beef cheek makes its Irish provenance explicit. A butternut squash and hazelnut tart provides a vegetarian option.
These dishes offer a more concrete picture of Haugh’s cooking than broad claims about culinary heritage alone. They show a menu with meat, seafood and a vegetarian choice, and put familiar ingredients into combinations described as contemporary. Myrtle’s London location matters to that story: the restaurant presents Irish references within the British capital’s dining scene, rather than treating Irish and British cooking as separate subjects.
Cooking beyond the restaurant
Haugh has appeared on BBC’s Saturday Kitchen and served as a judge on MasterChef: The Professionals. The programmes give her a public role beyond the daily work of a restaurant kitchen. In a restaurant, food is encountered through a menu and a meal; on television, a chef’s knowledge and judgements can be seen by viewers who may never dine at that restaurant.
Her television appearances therefore extend the reach of her professional experience. The source account also describes her as willing to mentor aspiring chefs and as approachable on screen. Those personal assessments are best understood as part of the account’s description rather than as measurable achievements. The more clearly documented shape of her public work is the combination of restaurant cooking and appearances on established food programmes.
Why Anna Haugh deserves a place in British Legacy
Haugh’s British connection is specific: she has built a restaurant career in London, opened Myrtle in Chelsea and appeared on British television. Myrtle brings Irish culinary references into that setting. Its name recognises Irish chef Myrtle Allen, while dishes such as Irish beef cheek and Carlingford oysters make the restaurant’s Irish dimension visible on the menu. The vegetarian tart also shows that the menu includes a choice beyond meat and seafood. Together, these details make Haugh’s work relevant to the story of contemporary food in Britain without reducing it to a general claim about national identity.
Her contribution also extends beyond the restaurant dining room. Appearances on Saturday Kitchen and MasterChef: The Professionals bring her professional perspective to television audiences. The combination matters: Myrtle gives Haugh a place to develop a restaurant’s menu and identity, while television offers another setting in which viewers encounter a working chef. Her career links Irish food traditions with London restaurant life and public food broadcasting. That tangible connection between cooking, place and audience is the reason to remember her in British Legacy.