Elizabeth Haigh facts for kids
| Born | Elizabeth Allen May 1988 (age 37) Singapore |
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| Education | Central St Martins Westminster Kingsway College |
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Elizabeth "Liz" Haigh (born May 1988) is a talented chef from Singapore. She became well-known after appearing on the TV show MasterChef in 2011. Later, she helped a restaurant called Pidgin earn a special award called a Michelin star. Today, Chef Haigh runs her own restaurant, Mei Mei, which is a type of cafe called a kopitiam located in Borough Market in London.
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Chef Elizabeth Haigh's Journey
Early Life and Education
Elizabeth Haigh was born in Singapore to a Singaporean mother and an English father. She grew up in Maidenhead, England. When she was older, she went to Central Saint Martins in London to study to become an architect. However, while studying, she discovered her true passion was cooking!
MasterChef Experience
In 2011, Elizabeth decided to try out for the BBC TV show MasterChef. This was her first time cooking for a large audience or outside her home. Even though she was eliminated early in the competition, it confirmed her love for cooking.
Starting a Culinary Career
After MasterChef, Haigh decided to become a professional chef. She started working at a gastropub called The Green Oak in Windsor. Later, she moved to another restaurant, the Royal Oak, where she learned a lot from the head chef, Dominic Chapman. While working, she also took cooking classes at Westminster Kingsway College. She also gained experience at Neil Rankin's Smokehouse restaurant.
Opening Pidgin and Earning a Michelin Star
In 2015, Elizabeth Haigh teamed up with James Ramsden and Sam Herlihy to open a restaurant called Pidgin. They had previously run a successful "supper club" called Secret Larder. Pidgin quickly became popular. In 2017, just a short time after opening, Pidgin was awarded a Michelin star. This is a very high honor for a restaurant, showing it has excellent food. After this big achievement, Elizabeth left Pidgin.
Launching Mei Mei
After leaving Pidgin, Elizabeth started her own company, Kaizen House. She planned to open a new restaurant called Shibui, which would focus on wood-fired cooking with different international flavors. However, she decided to wait due to economic reasons. Instead, at the end of 2019, she opened Mei Mei. Mei Mei is a kopitiam, which is a traditional coffee shop or cafe, located in Borough Market. It serves delicious food inspired by Singaporean cuisine.
Book Publication and Related Concerns
In May 2021, Elizabeth Haigh released her cookbook titled Makan. However, in October 2021, the publisher, Bloomsbury, decided to stop selling the book. This happened because some parts of Makan were found to be very similar to another cookbook, Growing up in a Nonya Kitchen, written by Singaporean author Sharon Wee in 2012. Sharon Wee stated that she had not given permission for her work to be used. There were also claims that parts of Makan were similar to other food blogs and cookbooks. While basic recipes are generally not protected by copyright laws, the way instructions and stories are written can be.
