Best Female Chef Award 2026, sponsored by Lexus

Jessica Rosval

Italy's adopted champion of women in kitchens

When Jessica Rosval took a trip to Italy in 2013, it changed the course of her life. The chef was visiting Modena to celebrate her birthday, culminating in a special visit to Massimo Bottura's Osteria Francescana (The World's Best Restaurant 2016 and 2018).

The experience proved momentous to Rosval, with the chef writing to Bottura the very next day, offering to take any role in the kitchen just to work there. Two months later, Rosval found herself in the restaurant's lauded kitchens, and she's been part of the Bottura family ever since.

Born in Canada, Rosval attended culinary school in Montreal before beginning her career at the city's much-loved, now-closed Chez L'Épicier and Whistler's Bearfoot Bistro. After relocating to Italy, she rose through the ranks at Osteria Francescana, eventually taking on the running of the restaurant's events, then becoming chef de cuisine at Casa Maria Luigia, Bottura's countryside guesthouse just outside of Modena, in 2019.

Since 2023, she has helmed the kitchen at Al Gatto Verde (No. 24 on The 50 Best Restaurants 2026 list), leading a young, international team, encouraging each member to contribute their own experiences and memories into the menu. Rosval's focus at the newest restaurant in the Bottura group is wood-fire cooking and sustainability, with the plastic-free kitchen sourcing felled trees for its grilling and operating primarily on solar power.

Named Female Chef of the Year 2021 by L'Espresso, Rising Star by The Best Chef Awards in 2022 and Best Female Chef 2023 from Identità Golose, Rosval's star has been on the ascent for some time.

In 2024, alongside Caroline Caporossi she was named winner of the Champions of Change Award, as part of The World's 50 Best Restaurants, for her work at The Association for the Integration of Women. The pair launchedthe initiative in 2020 to provide resources for migrant women to find stable employment and make the most of their potential.

In 2022, the pair founded Roots, a social enterprise restaurant which has a professional, paid training programme for migrant women passionate about food and becoming cooks. By the end of 2025, 63 women – many of whom may have left their home country in challenging circumstances, to settle and flourish in Modena and beyond – had graduated.

Rosval's determination to ensure that women from all walks of life can find skills, confidence and a real future in the kitchen, alongside her excellence as a culinary leader, have led her to be named the winner of the Best Female Chef Award, sponsored by Lexus, as part of The 50 Best Restaurants 2026.