Angela Hartnett whips up a delicacy on Wednesday. Picture by Rashbehari Das

If Gordon Ramsay is as famous for his bark as the delectable bites he creates, his “protegé” in the kitchen gets her point across more softly, but most convincingly — particularly when it comes down to the cooking.

Angela Hartnett, one of the few female chefs to have made it to the elite league, securing herself a Michelin star at Ramsay’s London restaurant Menu at the Connaught, is in town for a three-day stint at West View Bar & Grill, ITC The Sonar Calcutta, where she is serving her speciality — Mediterranean cuisine.

Michelin is the food bible in Europe and its rating determines a chef’s celebrity status.

With stops in Mumbai, Calcutta and Delhi, this is Angela’s first trip to India, but she is no stranger to Asia, having been a part of the launch of Verre, Ramsay’s restaurant in Dubai.

The woman who believes that fine dining is more about “what’s on the plate” than silver service, doesn’t rule out an Indian venture by the world’s most famous chef. “I wouldn’t put it past Gordon. We are opening across the world,” she smiles.

At just 39, Angela, has become one of Britain’s celebrity chefs, having appeared in Hell’s Kitchen, as well as in a number of other BBC shows. But Angela considers herself chef first, star later.

“I don’t particularly want to do so much TV. It is too time-consuming. Gordon is doing TV all the time. But I like spending time in the kitchen with the boys,” she says, quite at home in the Bypass hotel’s kitchen, where she will be busy till Thursday night.

Back home, Angela is, in a sense, starting from scratch. The Connaught, undergoing lengthy renovations, will no longer be home to Menu and The Grill Room. She is set to take up the reins of two new standalone restaurants in Mayfair and north London, which will have to win those coveted Michelin stars all over again. “It truly is flattering, particularly as there are so few women who have one,” she says about her Michelin star rating.