Growing up in a famous family left Skye Gyngell with no desire to step into the spotlight.
But Australia’s first ever Michelin-star winning chef reluctantly did so anyway before her death at 62 this past weekend, candidly opening up about past addictions to heroin and alcohol in the context of the extraordinary success she later found in the restaurant world.
Ms Gyngell was the daughter of famed broadcaster Bruce Gyngell – the first person to appear on Australian television – and Ann Barr, a well-known interior designer.
Perhaps best known is her brother David Gyngell, former CEO of Nine Entertainment, who infamously became embroiled in a public brawl with his friend billionaire James Packer on the streets of Bondi in 2014.
On Sunday, David’s wife and Channel Nine presenter, Leila McKinnon, confirmed Ms Gyngell had died from skin cancer.
Despite Ms Gyngell’s global success – which saw her tenured at London‘s Michelin-starred Petersham Nurseries Cafe and her own restaurant, Spring, able to charge over $AUD1600 a meal – the chef never sought the glitz and glam of the TV networks.
‘I don’t have the need for fame or celebrity,’ she told the UK’s Daily Telegraph in 2011.
‘I don’t want to stand for hours with a bloody camera pointed at me doing the same thing over and over again.
Skye (second from left) with her dad Bruce Gyngell and her siblings, Briony (left) and David
Skye’s mother Ann Barr was a well-known interior designer in Australia and was inducted into the Design Institute Hall of Fame for her work
Ms Gyngell’s media mogul brother David is married to Channel Nine presenter Leila McKinnon
‘At the end of the day it doesn’t mean anything, and as a cook and a gardener, there is still so much to learn.’
Ms Gyngell also spoke of her addictions to heroin and alcohol while growing up in Sydney’s east, referring to this period as the time she was the ‘f**k up’.
In the article, which posed the question whether Ms Gyngell was the ‘Courtney Love of cooking’, she revealed her addictions led her to become estranged from her family.
She said they arose from poor self-esteem, the impact of having a father in the limelight, and the casual use of drugs in her inner circle.
‘I felt there was no space and that everybody was watching us,’ she said.
While many of her friends sadly died, Ms Gyngell says her reasons for making it through were cooking and her beloved daughters.
She said her father’s death in 2000 was a watershed moment after he left her out of his will.
She soon began attending Narcotics Anonymous and gave up drugs and alcohol in her 30s.
‘It was the best thing he could have done,’ she later told The Times.
‘I’m a much better cook now I’m sober… the smell [of it] is enough for me.’
Though she admitted that her work became ‘another addiction’, where she thought about food obsessively and loved to experiment with combinations.
‘I can understand why artists have problems with alcohol – obsession and addiction are closely linked,’ she added.
Her father, Bruce (left) became known as the man who saved TV-am – Britain’s first breakfast television station – from bankruptcy in the 1980s
Reconnecting with home
The London-based restaurateur said food was a major influence when wanting to reconnect with her life back in Australia.
She told the Financial Times in 2021 that ‘our senses of smell and taste capture memories so well’.
‘When I create dishes at my restaurant Spring in London I’m always thinking of that; verbena and peach takes me back to a hot summer childhood in Australia, for example,’ she said.
‘My cooking is a way of trying to reproduce happy moments.’
She also spoke about her joy at returning to Australia as often as she could to visit her friends and family.
‘In Australia, home is not a house to me any more because my family home is long gone, and my brothers and sisters have their own lives and kids,’ she said.
‘But that landscape is definitely home… I always bring things home from Sydney – big jars of Vegemite, Dr Paw Paw cream, the brands that feel important to you because you grew up with them, or on them, in the case of Vegemite.’
Ms Gyngell was Australia’s first female recipient of a Michelin star
The Petersham Nurseries Cafe was awarded a Michelin Star in 2011
The curse of the Michelin Star
Ms Gyngell left Australia aged 19 to attend a cookery school in Paris, before moving to London and finding success as the head chef at Petersham Nurseries Cafe.
In 2011, the cafe secured Ms Gyngell her first Michelin star.
But it was this honour that proved to be the downfall of Ms Gyngell’s time at the cafe. Within a year, she announced she was leaving.
‘It’s been a curse,’ she told Fairfax at the time.
‘Since we got the star we’ve been crammed every single day, which is really hard for such a tiny restaurant. And we’ve had lots more complaints.
‘People have certain expectations of a Michelin restaurant, but we don’t have cloths on the tables, our service isn’t very formal.’
In 2014, she launched her restaurant, ‘Spring’, located inside Somerset House, cementing herself as one of Britain’s leading chefs, so much so that she could charge over $1600 a meal.
Her culinary feats drew an impressive list of high-profile clients over the years, where she began private catering for the likes of Mick Jagger, Madonna, Nigella Lawson and Guy Ritchie.
