Monica Galetti’s career in Britain began with a step down the kitchen hierarchy. After training and working in New Zealand, she moved to London in 1999 to take a first-commis position at Le Gavroche, although she had been a chef de partie in Wellington. She progressed through the restaurant’s sections to become its senior sous-chef, one of the most senior positions there and the first woman to hold it. Her work in the kitchen led to a long-running public role on MasterChef: The Professionals, while her own London restaurant, Mere, brought another chapter to a career shaped by both French training and her Samoan and New Zealand background.

From Samoa to the professional kitchen

Galetti was born Monica Faʻafiti on 26 August 1975 in Pago Pago, American Samoa. Her mother had moved to Auckland for work, and Galetti was initially raised on Upolu by two aunts. At eight, she moved to Wellington, New Zealand, where she lived with her parents and five siblings. She attended Naenae College and, in the early 1990s, studied for a diploma in hospitality at the Central Institute of Technology in Upper Hutt.

After graduating, she worked at Timothy’s, a restaurant in Lower Hutt. Its owner sent her to cooking competitions in Australia, the United States and Europe. Those competitions formed part of a career that was already advancing in New Zealand: by the time she considered London, she held the position of chef de partie in Wellington. Rather than seeking a comparable post, she sent her CV to leading restaurateurs and accepted the first offer she received, from Michel Roux Jr.

The job was as a first commis at Le Gavroche, Roux’s two-Michelin-starred restaurant in London. Galetti moved to the city in 1999. Starting below her previous rank meant learning the restaurant’s kitchen section by section; she moved quickly through the hierarchy and became senior sous-chef. She held the post until 2015 and was the first woman to reach that senior position at Le Gavroche. While working for Roux, she also launched and served as head chef of Le Gavroche des Tropiques in Mauritius.

From kitchen leadership to television

In 2009, Galetti became a judge on the BBC’s MasterChef: The Professionals, a competition programme centred on professional cooks. The role placed her experience in a different setting: instead of leading a restaurant kitchen, she assessed chefs competing under pressure. She remained a judge until 2021, when she left, saying that she needed to prioritise her family and her restaurant team. In March 2023 she announced that she would return to the programme.

Television work has not been confined to the cooking competition. Since 2017, Galetti has presented Amazing Hotels: Life Beyond the Lobby with Giles Coren and Rob Rinder. The series gave her a presenting role alongside her restaurant and judging work, extending her television career beyond the kitchen-based contest for which she is widely recognised.

Her public appearances have also included radio. In January 2021, she appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs. In 2022 she was announced as a judge for the Platinum Pudding Competition, launched to find a pudding dedicated to Queen Elizabeth II for the Platinum Jubilee celebrations. These roles connect her professional food knowledge with programmes reaching audiences well beyond restaurant kitchens.

Mere and the work of a restaurateur

In 2017, Galetti and her husband, French-born sommelier David Galetti, opened Mere in Fitzrovia, London. The project had backing from Alastair Storey, chairman of Westbury Street Holdings. Galetti became the restaurant’s chef proprietor, carrying responsibility for a business distinct from her work as a judge and presenter. The restaurant’s name honoured her mother, Mere.

Mere brought together strands of Galetti’s career: the French techniques developed during her years at Le Gavroche, her experience as a chef and the family connection signalled by its name. Its story also has an ending. The restaurant closed in 2024, so it is best understood as a significant period in her career rather than a continuing London destination. Galetti’s wider work in television and food publishing has continued to sit alongside that chapter.

Cookbooks and sharing expertise

Galetti has published books for readers interested in cooking at home. Monica’s Kitchen, published in 2012, was followed by The Skills: How to Become an Expert Chef in Your Own Kitchen in 2016 and At Home: My Favourite Recipes for Family & Friends in 2021. The titles mark different approaches to food: a personal kitchen, practical skills and cooking for family and friends. Together, they extend her professional identity beyond the restaurant and screen, making recipes and techniques part of her public work.

Her career has therefore moved between several settings without abandoning its culinary foundation. She progressed from a New Zealand restaurant to a leading London kitchen, took on senior responsibility at Le Gavroche, and later ran a restaurant of her own. On television, she has judged professional competitors and presented programmes about hotels; in print, she has addressed home cooks. The sequence is not simply a move from cooking into celebrity: each role draws on a different form of food expertise, from kitchen practice and assessment to explaining and sharing skills.

Why Monica Galetti deserves a place in British Legacy

Galetti’s place in British Legacy rests on a clearly evidenced British career, not on a claim that her birthplace or upbringing was British. She arrived in London in 1999 and established herself at Le Gavroche, where she rose from first commis to senior sous-chef. Being the first woman to hold that senior position at the restaurant gives her career a specific significance within the history of a prominent British kitchen. Her progression also shows the work behind professional recognition: she accepted a junior role despite having held a more senior post in Wellington, then advanced through the restaurant’s sections.

Her contribution has extended beyond that kitchen. From 2009, MasterChef: The Professionals brought her experience to a national television audience, and her return to the programme in 2023 followed a period away to focus on family and her restaurant team. Presenting Amazing Hotels, judging the Platinum Pudding Competition and publishing books have each placed her knowledge in another public setting. Mere, the London restaurant she opened with David Galetti in 2017, added the experience of running her own establishment, even though it closed in 2024. Taken together, these achievements make her British legacy one of sustained professional work across restaurant kitchens, television and food publishing, while her Samoan and New Zealand roots remain central to the story of how that career began.

Sources

Monica Galetti (revision 1345534370) · Monica Galetti

Adapted in part from Monica Galetti by Wikipedia contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Text has been edited and combined with the existing article; this adapted text is shared under the same licence. Contributor history.