Helene Darroze (L) Photo: IC

A French chef who inspired a tough kitchen character in the hit animated film Ratatouille was named the world's best female chef on Wednesday.

Helene Darroze, 48, has an eponymous restaurant in Paris and another in the Connaught hotel in London, which has two Michelin stars.

Darroze was named the world's best female chef by Britain's Restaurant magazine, and is to collect her prize at "The World's 50 Best Restaurants" awards in London in June.

"It is an honor to win the award because there are talented female chefs all over the world and I imagine it's hard to choose just one," Darroze said in a statement.

"My hope is that the winners of this award inspire young women, including my daughters, to follow their passion and work hard to hone their skill regardless of their profession."

Well known in the restaurant world, Darroze built her career as a single mum with two adopted daughters and inspired the character Colette in Disney Pixar's 2007 Ratatouille, a tale of a rat who can cook and begins helping at a prestigious French restaurant.

"Haute cuisine is an antiquated hierarchy built upon rules written by stupid old men, rules designed to make it impossible for women to enter this world," Colette says in the film.

"But still I am here. How did this happen? Because I am the toughest cook in this kitchen."

A fourth-generation chef who was cooking dessert for her parents' dinner parties by age 12, Darroze trained under top chef Alain Ducasse, took over her father's restaurant in 1995 and opened her own in 1999.

AFP