Monica Galetti

Early life

Galetti was born in Samoa, and was initially raised by two aunts as her mother had moved to Auckland, New Zealand, for work. At the age of eight, Galetti moved from Samoa to Wellington, New Zealand, and lived there with her parents and five siblings. In the early 1990s, she studied for a diploma in hospitality at Central Institute of Technology, Upper Hutt.

Career

After completing her studies, Galetti worked at Lower Hutt restaurant Timothy's. The owner sent her to cooking competitions in Australia, America and Europe, and she began to look for a position in London by sending her CV to top restaurateurs. The first offer she received was from Michel Roux Jr - a beginning position as first commis at his two-Michelin-starred restaurant Le Gavroche, well below her position in Wellington as chef de partie. However, she accepted the offer and moved to London in 1999. She worked rapidly through the sections of the kitchen and became senior sous-chef, a position she held until 2015. She was the first woman to hold such a senior position at the restaurant.

While working for Roux, she launched, and was Head Chef of, the restaurant Le Gavroche des Tropiques in Mauritius.

She has been a judge on the BBC series MasterChef: The Professionals since 2009, as well as a presenter on other food-related television programmes.

It has been announced that along with her husband David she will be opening a new restaurant in London in January 2017 called 'Mere'. This has been achieved with backing from WSH chairman Alastair Storey.

Galetti serves Samoa as its UK Tourism Ambassador.

Publications

Personal life

In 2004, Galetti married French-born sommelier David Galetti, the Head Sommelier at Le Gavroche. They have one daughter, Anais Galetti, who was born in 2006.