Interview: The Roux Legacy

Michel Roux Jr & his family have become a fine-dining dynasty. Andrew Kay talks to the famous chef on the eve of a new TV show about the Roux family’s history and future.

It’s 11am on a Tuesday morning and I am calling one of the most famous chefs in the world in the kitchen of his Mayfair restaurant Le Gavroche. There is no mistaking that Michel Roux Jr, named by his father Albert Roux after his equally famous uncle Michel Roux, is at work as I can hear the too familiar clatter of a busy working kitchen in the background. The Roux family has become a legendary dynasty from their early days in Chelsea to what now seems like a culinary empire, but it’s heartening to see that Michel Roux Jr is still hands on despite his burgeoning TV career, the next chapter of which is about to hit our screens.

So you are embarking on a new TV programme about the Roux Scholarship?
“The Roux Legacy yes, but it’s not just about the scholarship. When we first set off with our production company it was about the scholarship but since then it has grown, it really is the Roux Legacy. It’s about the early years when my father and uncle came to London and it’s about how Le Gavroche was born, my father and uncle’s first restaurant back in 1967, and it is about our family history. It covers our background and then it goes through time to where we are now and, of course, about the future including my daughter.”

Is your daughter cooking for the firm now?
“No, she now works for Alain Ducasse in Monaco.”

Do you think of yourself as a Frenchman or an Englishman?
“I would say that I consider myself French when France wins and English when the English win. I am French of course, with French nationality, and I did my French National Service, but I was born in England and had English Schooling, which I think makes me very English. My daughter went to the French Lycée and she is far more French. I did only English schools.”

“I consider myself French when France wins and English when the English win”

You are still very hands on in the kitchen at Le Gavroche. How do you find the time to combine that with so much TV work?
“As you can hear, I am in the kitchen now. I spend 90 per cent of my time in the kitchen and although the TV does take up a lot of my time I am still able to be here at Le Gavroche. Fortunately the MasterChef studios are here in London so I manage to work that into what is a very busy schedule.”

Do you still get the chance to work in the pastry section of your kitchen?
“It was very much a speciality and I did my apprenticeship in pastry and still enjoy it yes, but I have less opportunity now.”

MasterChef: The Professionals, which you do, is very different from the amateur MasterChef contest which does have an element of car-crash television. Your presence makes a real difference, you seem not to be looking for those disasters…
“Yes, on MasterChef: The Professionals we are looking for perfection and we don’t set our stall out to make people go wrong, although it does happen, even with professional chefs, but it is a real joy when they get it right.”

And of course you have made a star out of Monica Galetti…
[Laughs] “Monica was a star before I made her a star.”

Yes, but she has become something of a sex symbol now…
“Yes, she has quite a following I must say. I took her and her husband David, who also works here at Le Gavroche, to the Harlequins rugby one weekend and she got stopped more than I did, which was rather nice actually.”

The programme I enjoyed most was Michel Roux’s Service which emphasised the whole Roux philosophy in that it is not just about the food…
“Absolutely, it isn’t just about the food. In fact, back in the early days in Lower Sloane Street, Father and Uncle used to take it in turns to work the room front of house so that they could see how things were working. One week Uncle Michel would be in the kitchen and Father Albert would be taking orders and carving out front. Actually serving, something that is now unheard of – chefs now hide away in the kitchen.”

You talk passionately about Le Gavroche being very much a French restaurant but in your cooking you are experimenting all the time. Where do those ideas come from?
“Well, I travel extensively and I eat locally and find things that will be different and often inspiring, not just abroad but also here in Britain. Being who we are we are also lucky to have suppliers who come knocking on our door with exciting produce [laughs]. You see, someone has just handed me some free-range organic meats, it’s wonderful, I love that. People are so passionate now about food.”

What is it that makes so many great foreign chefs come to work in England, especially as we had such a bad reputation for lousy food?
“Well, those days are gone, well perhaps not all gone but certainly changed, and I would like to think that my father and uncle had a lot to do with that. British food was the laughing stock of the world back in the ‘60s and ‘70s but how that has changed. People will come to London and to the UK for a weekend of great foods.”

Do you have a food vice Michel, something you are embarrassed about liking?
“Only chocolate.”

Chocolate’s not a vice, I meant something really low grade…
“Oh yes, but I can’t stand cheap confectionery – it has to be top grade.”

Are you looking forward to seeing the new programme?
“Very much. It involves almost all of the family with great anecdotes and some very embarrassing photographs too. It has all the family cooking but also lots of chefs who have been through the Le Gavroche experience talking and cooking too. And of course front of house staff. It’s all about what makes the Roux family tick.”

The Roux Legacy is new and exclusive to Good Food, Sunday – Thursday at 8pm from 29 January (Sky / HD 249, Virgin 260).