World famous chef Michel Roux

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Heart and Sole

Along with his brother, Albert, Michel Roux Sr OBE has probably done more than any other chef to revolutionise British cookery. The brothers opened the famed Le Gavroche restaurant in London in 1967, which brought authentic French cuisine and fresh ingredients to jaded British palates. The Waterside Inn in Berkshire, which Michel ran until handing over to his son, Alain, a few years ago is the only restaurant in Britain
to have held three Michelin stars for 27 consecutive years.

Today, Michel, now 70, lives in Switzerland, in the Alpine resort of
Crans-Montana. ‘The sky is blue, and I’m looking out over 40 kilometres of mountains,’ he tells me, in deep, Gallic tones (despite living in Britain for more than 40 years, his French accent is as strong as ever).

He has just published a new book called simply, Desserts, featuring mouth-watering delicacies from fig and honey pannacotta to chocolate truffles. And the New Year sees the Good Food TV channel launch The Roux Legacy, a series charting the extraordinary influence Michel,
Albert and their respective sons Alain and Michel Jr have had
on British cuisine.

But the reason he is speaking to me is because he is keen to sing the praises of his protégé, Andrew Hemingway, chef-patron of The Contented Sole in Burnham on Crouch. Andrew trained under Michel at The Waterside Inn, and went on to open the Essex restaurant four-and-a-half years ago with his business partner, Stuart Burbidge.

Michel, who now spends a couple of months a year in Britain, took the trouble to visit The Contented Sole back in August. He dined on seared scallops with pea and mint puree and beef Wellington with pommes dauphinoise, and declared the food delicious. ‘The scallops were perfectly cooked – delicate, and with a wonderful texture, and the beef Wellington was superb,’ Michel reveals.

‘You can’t beat Essex for fish. The seafood and fish are superb, and there is excellent meat from local farms’

Despite training with Michel and Antony Worrall Thompson, Andrew decided to return to his Burnham roots because he loves his home town (his late father, Michael, built and owned the Burnham Yacht Harbour). But, as Michel points out, Burnham is not the easiest location in which to open a fine-dining restaurant.

‘Andy is a wonderful young man – a hard worker, and very dedicated,’ says Michel. ‘And he loves his neck of the woods; he wanted to be in his community. But the problem is that Burnham is very much a cul-de-sac. It has to be a destination – it doesn’t lead anywhere. So I wish him well and I really hope people make the effort to go there and patronise the place.’

Michel has personal experience of running a restaurant locally. He had
a stake in The White Hart in Nayland, on the Essex/Suffolk border, which was run by another of Michel’s Waterside Inn protégés. Despite receiving much acclaim for its French cuisine, The White Hart eventually closed, Michel himself having pulled out in 2007. It has led him to believe that
it is hard for an haute cuisine restaurant to thrive in the county. And
the recession and its aftermath has only made it harder.

‘I was there for quite a few years and I tried very hard. For a couple of years we were breaking even, but it was a pain in the neck,’ he says. ‘I don’t know why it was so hard; I’d really like to find out. Maybe we were too adventurous. The people are exactly the same as anywhere else,
and there is money in Essex, but maybe they are not as generous as they should be. They should take their children to restaurants and not just on a Sunday. The only way you get better restaurants and higher standards is if you patronise good places.’

He stresses that expensive restaurants are not always the best; quality is what counts. ‘You can’t beat Essex for fish. The seafood and fish are superb, and there is excellent meat from local farms.’

Michel Roux was born in 1941 in Charolles in the Burgundy region of France. He grew up above his grandfather’s charcuterie shop. When he was eight, the family moved to the outskirts of Paris where Michel’s father opened his own charcuterie. But his father squandered his money and the business was forced to close. When Michel was ten, his father deserted his wife and children.

‘The only way you get better restaurants and higher standards is if you patronise good places.’

‘My father was a very naughty man,’ he says. ‘He left my mum alone
with four children. He used to like women and the horses too much, and the money quickly went. He was a nasty piece of work. He was a fantastic craftsman – his pâtés, his boudin blanc, quenelles were all superb, but he didn’t have any morals. I never saw him again, and I didn’t want to.’
After his father left, he transferred all his affections to his mother. ‘My mum is and will remain the love of my life.’

After training as chefs-patissiers, Albert left for England to work for Lady Nancy Astor and later at the French embassy in London, while Michel landed a job with the fabulously wealthy Rothschild family. ‘It was amazing. Money was no object. If I wanted to use foie gras or lobster, there was no restriction. They demanded the highest standards, which was perfect, because I don’t like to supply anything but the best. I left school at 14, but I always say I’ve been to the best university because at the Rothschilds I learnt about finance, wine, menu-planning, and art – everything from sculpture to paintings.’

Albert and Michel enjoyed their time in England, but both were appalled by the dreary,
overcooked food.

‘We would try to find a good restaurant in London, and it was always appalling,’ says Michel. ‘Each time we went out, we’d regret it. The mid-60s was a dark age for food in Britain. There were maybe ten or 15 restaurants in London, mostly in hotels like The Savoy, and they were pretty average. Even in the French restaurants the food was cooked in advance, left on the stove for hours, and when it was served it was as dead as a dodo.’

The brothers realised this sorry situation offered them a golden opportunity. ‘It was always our dream to start a business together and we quickly decided it should be in London, because there was absolutely no competition,’ he remembers.

It was a gamble. At the time, Michel was working for the Rothschilds and his wife was second-in-charge at Givenchy. ‘We were making a small fortune. We had two young children and I couldn’t speak a word of English. But we took the plunge. We knew our restaurant would either be an instant success, or die a quick death. If we’d opened in Paris it would have taken ten, 20 years to be recognised because there were so many good restaurants. In London, there was nothing.
‘

It was not easy,’ he adds, ‘because back then, food was not on the agenda. Nobody used to talk about food or sex. Now it makes me a bit sick because everyone seems to be an expert on food and sex.’

Le Gavroche opened in 1967, and received immediate acclaim for its fresh, authentic French cuisine. The brothers’ influence spread quickly; many believe they have done more than anyone to raise culinary standards in Britain. ‘When Michelin visited London in 1969, they decided there were not enough good restaurants to be able to produce a guide. And yet in 1974 they were back, and published their first UK Michelin Guide. That’s how quickly things had changed.’

By then, Michel and Albert had ventured out of London, opening The Waterside Inn in Bray in 1972. In 1974, they launched the Roux Scholarship to help train young British chefs. The pair have trained about 800 young British chefs to date, and former protégés include Marco Pierre White, Marcus Wareing and Gordon Ramsay.

‘I would say that more than half of any of the top restaurant chefs in any UK guide come from the Roux stable,’ he says. It is one reason why he and Albert were awarded honorary OBEs in 2002.

These days, Michel’s son, Alain, runs The Waterside Inn, while Albert’s son, Michel Roux Jr, runs Le Gavroche, while also appearing on the BBC’s Masterchef: The Professionals. But at 70, Michel is still a prolific author of cookery books, and travels the world holding master classes. He has been showered with international awards and honours for his achievements.

Michel believes the transformation in British cuisine today compared to the 1960s has been extraordinary. ‘It hasn’t been an evolution, it’s been a revolution. The change has been tremendous and anyone who had left the UK 45 years ago and come back now would think they were in the wrong country. Today, young British chefs are as good as any on the continent.’

But Michel remains passionate about ensuring this improvement continues and urges Essex diners to patronise a fine-dining restaurant in the heart of their community. ‘Andy deserves to be successful and I hope people from that part of the world will realise they have to support his restaurant. The only way to keep local haute cuisine restaurants alive is to visit them regularly. You will regret it if they disappear in these difficult times.’