Elizabeth Haigh
Liz Haigh | |
|---|---|
| Born | Elizabeth Allen Template:Birth year and age Singapore |
| Occupation(s) | Chef, restaurateur |
| Known for | Michelin star at Pidgin, proprietor of Mei Mei kopitiam |
Elizabeth "Liz" Haigh (born Allen, May 1988) is a chef originally from Singapore who gained recognition after participating in MasterChef in 2011 and later achieving a Michelin star at Pidgin, a restaurant located in Hackney. She is presently the proprietor of Mei Mei, a kopitiam situated in Borough Market.
Career
Haigh was born in Singapore to an English father and a Singaporean mother and grew up in Maidenhead. She initially pursued architectural studies at Central Saint Martins in London. During her time as a student, she took part in the BBC's MasterChef on a whim. Although she was eliminated early in the competition, this sparked her decision to embark on a culinary career.
Her professional cooking journey started at The Green Oak gastropub in Windsor, followed by a position at the Royal Oak in Paley Street working under head chef Dominic Chapman. Concurrently, Haigh attended courses at Westminster Kingsway College and gained experience at Neil Rankin's Smokehouse restaurant.
In 2015, Haigh partnered with James Ramsden and Sam Herlihy to launch Pidgin, which originated from their supper club known as the Secret Larder. Pidgin was awarded a Michelin star in 2017. Subsequently, Haigh departed to create Kaizen House and had plans to open her own restaurant named Shibui in 2018. This venture aimed to highlight wood-fired cuisine influenced by various culinary traditions but faced postponement due to economic challenges.
At the end of 2019, Haigh made her solo entrance into London's dining scene by opening Mei Mei, a kopitiam located within Borough Market.
Plagiarism allegations
In May 2021, Haigh released her cookbook titled Makan. However, Bloomsbury, the publisher, withdrew the book in October 2021 citing "rights issues" after accusations emerged that Haigh had plagiarized recipes and narratives from Sharon Wee's 2012 Nonya cookbook Growing up in a Nonya Kitchen. Wee claimed she was not approached for authorization before sections of her material appeared in Makan. Additional allegations included copying content from other sources such as the food blog Rasa Malaysia and a Singaporean cookbook published in 1981. Moreover, during market research, Singaporean company Anthony The Spice Maker identified that usage instructions for two spice blends featured on Mei Mei’s online store bore an 80% similarity to their own. While recipes are typically not covered by copyright protection under US or UK law, accompanying instructions and related content may be regarded as "substantial literary expression" and therefore protected by copyright regulations.