Meet Jessica Rosval, the world’s best female chef

Jessica Rosval was named Best Female Chef last night in Lima, at the ceremony of The 50 Best Restaurants 2026. It was a double celebration for the chef of Al Gatto Verde, the restaurant within Massimo Bottura’s Casa Maria Luigia, just outside Modena, which has climbed 68 places to no.24 on the list, making it the second-highest-ranked restaurant in Italy.

And deservedly so. At Al Gatto Verde, Rosval has been making sparks fly – quite literally. Wood-fire cooking is the heart of her kitchen, where flames, embers and smoke complement refined dishes that are often rooted in the tradition of Emilia-Romagna, the region where the Canadian-born chef has spent most of her professional life. Among the signatures on the à la carte menu are Miseria e Nobiltà, an empty tortellino with a woodland ragù and Emilian truffle, and the Smoked Meat Carrello, served with house condiments and burnt-ends bread, while the current tasting menu, Fables, takes its inspiration from Italian fairy tales.

The 50 Best Restaurants 2026 – Best Female Chef Award, sponsored by Lexus

Her Italian chapter began almost by chance. In 2013 Rosval travelled to Modena to celebrate her birthday with dinner at Osteria Francescana, wrote to Bottura the very next day offering to take any role in the kitchen, and two months later she was working there. After culinary school in Montreal and stints at the now-closed Chez L’Épicier and at Whistler’s Bearfoot Bistro, she rose through the ranks at Francescana, ran the restaurant’s events and, in 2019, became chef de cuisine at Casa Maria Luigia, Bottura’s countryside guesthouse.

Al Gatto Verde opened in September 2023 in the guesthouse’s courtyard, between 18th-century villas and its balsamic vinegar cellar. It grew out of Tòla Dòlza (take your time, in Modenese dialect), the Sunday gatherings around the wood-fired oven launched in June 2020. The restaurant now holds a Michelin star and a Michelin Green Star; its kitchen is plastic-free, runs primarily on solar power and fuels its grills with felled trees. “My Canadian roots and the traditions of Emilia meet here, giving us the freedom to create something deeply connected to this place, yet entirely our own,” said Rosval.

The award also recognises her work away from the pass. In 2020 she and Caroline Caporossi launched the Association for the Integration of Women, which helps migrant women find stable employment, and in 2022 the pair founded Roots, a social enterprise restaurant in Modena with a paid professional training programme for migrant women who want to become cooks. By the end of 2025, 63 women had graduated. Their work earned them the Champions of Change Award from The World’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2024.

The latest accolade crowns a steady ascent: Rosval was named Female Chef of the Year 2021 by L’Espresso, Rising Star by The Best Chef Awards in 2022 and Best Female Chef 2023 by Identità Golose.

Food Desk

Al Gatto Verde is at Casa Maria Luigia, Stradello Bonaghino 56, San Damaso, Modena, Italy. For further information or to book a table, visit the restaurant’s website here.