Among the first British female chefs to attract a Michelin star, Molyneux is best known for her long stint cooking at Dartmouth restaurant The Carved Angel.
She retired in 1991 having blazed a trail for female chefs at a time when the top of the restaurant industry was completely dominated by men.
Originally from Birmingham, Molyneux cooked at only a handful of venues throughout her long career, starting out at the Mulberry Tree in Stratford-upon-Avon before moving to the Hole in the Wall in Bath to cook under influential chef George Perry-Smith.
She joined The Carved Angel as head chef in 1974 and eventually made it her own, putting the restaurant on the map with her distinctive take on modern British cookery.
Writing in the Guardian, Tom Jaine said Molyneux made an “early stand in favour of creative local sourcing of ingredients” and could have been “deemed a feminist beacon” with her staff largely made up of women.
She published a number of cookery books over the course of her career, including the highly-rated The Carved Angel Cookery Book.
The kitchen at the former The Carved Angel site (now called simply Angel) continues to be run by a woman, with head chef Elly Wentworth posting on Instagram: “Joyce was a great inspiration for many of today’s top chefs and highly regarded by her peers from the 1970s through to her retirement in 1999. I will always fondly remember her visit for lunch in 2018.”
James Martin also paid tribute on social media, describing her as “a pioneer of the UK food scene” while Chez Bruce chef Bruce Poole called her “a true titan of British cooks”.