Skye is the daughter of legendary broadcaster Bruce Gyngell and his first wife, the interior designer Anne Barr, whose death was also announced at the weekend..
Fellow chefs have shared touching tributes to Gyngell, with Jamie Oliver describing her death as “terrible sad news”.
“She was an amazing woman and incredible cook and kind-hearted,” Oliver wrote.
“She will be very, very, very missed. Thank you for all you did to inspire young cooks.”
TV presenter and British pastry chef Ravneet Gill described Gyngell as an “inspiration”.
Gyngell’s family has requested privacy as they mourn her death.
Her death follows her battle with Merkel cell carcinoma, a rare and aggressive form of skin cancer, after she found a lump on the side of her neck in April 2024.
She was forced to undergo a nine-hour operation at a London hospital to remove 40 glands, including her saliva glands.
Doctors later told her she would lose her taste and smell, and there was a potential the senses would never return.
Gyngell said the diagnosis caused her to burst into tears, not because it would impact her career, but it was the fear she may never be able to enjoy tasting food again.
Gyngell was and remains the only female Australian chef to receive a Michelin Star, a prestigious rating awarded to restaurants for excellence in culinary arts.
She trained in France and worked in London before she became head chef at Petersham Nurseries in Richmond, London, when it opened in 2004. She was awarded a Michelin Star seven years later.
In a New Zealand connection, in 2011 she created a pop-up restaurant in London in conjunction with Cloudy Bay Wines.
The trailblazing chef was born in 1963 in Sydney. Her father, Bruce Gyngell, was already a household name, having been the first person to appear on Australian television in 1956.
It did not take long for Gyngell to make her mark in the hospitality industry.
She was later appointed culinary director of Heckfield Place in 2012 and two years later opened her own restaurant called Spring in Somerset House.
Her incredible culinary skills also saw her write a series of popular cookbooks and contribute to hospitality commentary in the form of newspaper columns.
Gyngell’s passing is the second to rock the family recently, with news of her mother Ann’s death confirmed on Saturday.
The heartbreaking news was shared by Channel 9 presenter Leila McKinnon, who is married to former Nine executive – Bruce and Ann’s son, and Skye’s brother – David Gyngell.
“A post seems too small a way to mark the life and death of Ann Gyngell, my mother-in-law, who died this week … Ann saw everything in colour, even the days of the week, each had their own shade,” McKinnon wrote to Instagram on Saturday.
“As a 6-year-old she was evacuated from Singapore during a storm and survived a risky voyage under Japanese attack to make it to Sydney … a place with which she immediately fell in love.
“During a visit to Sydney, Pierre Balmain asked her to come to Paris and model for him …
She was friends with Marlene Dietrich who during a Sydney visit in the mid-60s bathed my husband, which obviously makes Marlene a close relation of mine.”
The presenter also praised her mother-in-law’s career as an interior designer, which saw her inducted into the Design Institute’s Hall of Fame for her work.
In her later years, Ann “gave back” to the community working as a volunteer teacher at Wayside Chapel.
“To me, she was a kind, loving, supportive mother-in-law, a dear friend, and a wonderful grandmother to my children ... she will be dearly missed by us all, vale beautiful Ann,” McKinnon wrote.
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