Clare Smyth, a Northern Irish chef who catered for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s evening wedding reception, has been named the world’s best female chef.

The culinary star, born in Antrim, was presented with the award at the World’s 50 Best Restaurants gala in Bilbao, Spain, on Monday, where she bemoaned the dearth of women at the pinnacle of her profession.

“We still have a real lack of women recognised at the top of the industry,” Smyth, whose own restaurant was overlooked for the top 50, told attendees.

“We have to do something about that, we’re not going to change it by ignoring it … to separate [male and female chefs] for me is strange, but we don’t see enough women coming through at the top.

“I would love to see very soon that we don’t need gender-specific awards because women will have recognition and there will be a balance in the industry.

“Hopefully we’ll see plenty of women on the 50 Best list and there won’t be a need for that award,” she added.

The Italian chef Massimo Bottura won best restaurant for his Modena-based Osteria Francescana.

Smyth left her family’s farm between Ballymena and Belfast when she was 16 to study catering at Highbury College in Portsmouth. She then worked at Terence Conran’s Michelin House restaurant, the French Laundry in California and Per Se in New York, before becoming chef patron at Restaurant Gordon Ramsey in 2007.

It was at Gordon Ramsay that she became the first and only female chef to run a British restaurant with three Michelin stars – just seven women in Michelin’s history have ever held its coveted three-star rating.

In July 2017 she opened her Notting Hill restaurant, Core by Clare Smyth, which has since been awarded the title of best restaurant at the 2018 GQ Food and Drink Awards.

Smyth catered for the royal wedding evening reception on 19 May for 200 people. Guests including George and Amal Clooney, Serena Williams, and Meghan’s best friend, Jessica Mulroney, and her husband, Ben, were served up “posh burgers” and pork belly with candy floss for dessert.

Smyth is the first British woman to win 50 Best’s Elit Vodka world’s best female chef award.

“I spent 15 years of my life in three-Michelin-starred restaurants and I trained to be the best I could be,” she said at the time. “It didn’t just happen, it wasn’t magic, I put in the work.

“I stood shoulder to shoulder with men in the toughest kitchens in the world and excelled and loved it.”

Smyth was awarded an MBE in 2013 for services to the hospitality industry.