Jessica Rosval is the World’s Best Female Chef 2026 for The World’s 50 Best Restaurants. The individual award, presented in Lima during the international ranking ceremony, comes alongside an achievement that expands its impact: Al Gatto Verde, the restaurant led by the Canadian chef on the Casa Maria Luigia estate just outside Modena, enters the Top 50 directly at number 24.
For Italian fine dining, this is not merely recognition for a professional who developed within Massimo Bottura's brigade. It is confirmation of the international visibility achieved by a project launched in 2023, built around cooking over embers, the wood-fired oven, and smoking techniques, as well as its relationship with the Emilian supply chain and the agricultural landscape in which the restaurant operates. In the destination dining ecosystem, where reputation, accolades, and the ability to attract travelers reinforce one another, entering the ranking can have tangible effects across the entire region.
Rosval welcomed the award by emphasizing the value of community and openness to the outside world: "For me, this award means a great strength of community, of traveling, of going to restaurants, of discovering new things." A sentiment consistent with the chef's path, which has combined international training and extensive experience in Italy with structured social initiatives.
From Montréal to the Modenese countryside
Born in Montréal, Jessica Rosval trained in classical French cuisine and worked in British Columbia before moving to Italy in 2013. Joining the team at Osteria Francescana marked the beginning of a professional journey developed within the gastronomic ecosystem created by Bottura and Lara Gilmore. In 2019, she became chef de cuisine of Casa Maria Luigia, the hospitality property in the Modenese countryside, before taking the helm of Al Gatto Verde upon its opening.
The restaurant has chosen fire as a central operational element, not as a mere aesthetic reference. Embers, wood, and smoke become tools to influence textures and flavor intensity, in a cuisine that connects local ingredients, Emilian memory, and references developed by the chef in Canada. This identity has already earned a Michelin star and the Stella Verde in the 2025 guide, an accolade tied to sustainability practices.
The coincidence with the top of the 2026 ranking offers an additional perspective. Indeed, in first place globally is Asador Etxebarri in Atxondo, in the Basque Country, the restaurant of Bittor Arginzoniz renowned for its work on the grill. The two establishments have different languages and scales, but they demonstrate how an ancient technique continues to be relevant in contemporary fine dining when backed by control, knowledge of raw materials, and conceptual consistency.
The award also looks at work outside the dining room
The citation released by The World’s 50 Best Restaurants is not solely about the culinary offering of Al Gatto Verde. The organization highlighted Rosval's ability to lead the brigade and her commitment to opening professional opportunities for women. An aspect linked above all to Roots, the social restaurant founded with Caroline Caporossi and connected to the Associazione per l’Integrazione delle Donne.
Roots offers migrant women a paid training program in the restaurant industry. In 2024, the initiative received the Champions of Change Award from 50 Best itself. The new accolade therefore provides greater visibility to a model that seeks to address one of the sector's chronic vulnerabilities: discontinuous access to training, income, and qualified roles for people facing linguistic, social, or administrative hurdles.
It is a point that deserves to be set apart from the rhetoric of inclusion. The professional kitchen remains a labor-intensive environment, with challenging hours and a traditional divide between the public prestige of haute cuisine and the conditions of those who make it possible every day. The value of projects like Roots depends on the continuity of the pathways, the quality of the training, and their ability to translate into employment, not merely on the exposure gained through an award. Nonetheless, 50 Best brings this experience before an international audience of chefs, entrepreneurs, and travelers.
Massimo Bottura, who was present in Lima, interpreted the result as recognition of growth built over time: “I am happier today than when we receive awards ourselves.” For the Modena chef, the transition from a flagship brigade to the autonomous leadership of an internally trained chef is also an indicator of a group’s ability to generate new leadership, rather than concentrating attention on a single name.
The Italian snapshot in the 2026 ranking
Al Gatto Verde is one of five Italian restaurants included in the ranking’s top fifty. The best national placement belongs to Piazza Duomo by Enrico Crippa, twentieth in Alba; followed by Al Gatto Verde at 24th, Reale by Niko Romito at 27th, Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler at 38th in Brunico, and Le Calandre of the Alajmo family at 43rd in Rubano.
Compared to 2025, Italy loses one entry in the Top 50. Lido 84 does not appear following the restaurant’s closure in March 2026, while Uliassi drops out of the main ranking to land at number 51. The figure does not, therefore, reflect numerical growth in Italian representation, but points to a changing of the guard: the exit of established names is matched by the arrival of a young venue, rooted in a scattered hospitality model rather than just the urban restaurant format.
For Modena, the result adds another piece to an already consolidated gastronomic reputation. Over the years, the city and its province have built reputational capital that encompasses hallmark local products, signature dining, cultural tourism, and rural hospitality. An accolade like the one awarded to Rosval can broaden the audience interested in the destination, but at the same time it increases pressure on the local system: availability, skills, supply chains, mobility, and the capacity to maintain an offering that lives up to expectations become decisive factors.
The title of Best Female Chef remains an award separate from the ranking and does not, on its own, measure the quality of the entire sector, nor does it resolve the issue of female representation in leadership positions. It does, however, carry significant symbolic weight. Rosval is the second female chef at the helm of an Italian restaurant to receive it, after Nadia Santini, who was awarded in 2013 and remembered during the evening in Lima following her recent passing.
The next test will be turning this attention into stability. Al Gatto Verde will have to manage the surge in demand and international expectations without diluting the identity that fueled its rise. For Rosval, the award provides a broader platform from which to showcase both her cuisine and the work of Roots. For Italian dining, on the other hand, the Modena case shows that global competitiveness can stem from the intersection of technique, local heritage, hospitality, and social responsibility, provided these elements are part of a verifiable project rather than just its narrative.
