Chef, restaurateur and businessman who paved the way for a culinary rebirth in Britain when he opened Le Gavroche in 1967
At the time when Albert Roux opened the restaurant Le Gavroche in Lower Sloane Street, central London, in partnership with his younger brother, Michel, in 1967, the most innovative kitchens in Britain were often run by amateur cooks from other walks of life, who lacked that rigorous youthful apprenticeship and hard graft that was the presumed career path of any haute cuisine chef worth his (rarely her) salt.
Beyond the grandest hotels, which still followed the precepts of Escoffier and other French masters, British restaurants paid homage to a cookery – still most often French – that was both more domestic and more relaxed. They were awful.
Continue reading...