The Waterside Inn, Bray, England - Michelin three-star restaurant.
The Roux brothers, Michel and Albert, are considered the founding fathers of modern British cuisine. Michel Roux was chef de cuisine for Mademoiselle Rothschild before heading to London in 1967. It was a start of a culinary revolution for the nation. For four decades, Michel Roux has set the pace for UK restaurant dining, starting with Le Gavroche, which he opened with his brother in London in 1971.
The siblings opened The Waterside Inn in Bray a year later (nearby is Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck). Le Gavroche, became the first UK restaurant to be awarded a Michelin star, then two and in 1984, three Michelin stars. A year later, The Waterside Inn, also received three stars.
The Waterside Inn has retained its top ranking ever since, 25 years on – one of just three restaurants in Britain today with three stars. Michel Roux’s Australian-born wife, Robyn, has played an integral part in the restaurant’s success and his son, Alain, is now Chef-Patron. The restaurant is famed for its desserts and continues to deliver polished, contemporary haute French cuisine.
Michel Roux was born in Charolles, in central France, above the charcuterie (delicatessen) his grandfather ran. He left school at 14 to undertake a patisserie apprenticeship in Paris. His latest book, Pastry, is just one of a long line of seminal books about cooking, including Sauces, Eggs, and 1993’s The Roux Brothers on Patisserie. In a memorable career of accolades, Michel regards winning France’s highest culinary honour, the Meilleur Ouvrier de France (The Finest Craftsmen of France) for patisserie in 1972, as one of his greatest achievements.
With brother Albert, Michel was one of the original TV celebrity chefs in the 1980s with a feisty TV series. Michel, now 68, divides his time between Switzerland, France and England, while continuing to train the next generation of chefs. More than 1000 chefs have worked in Roux’s kitchen, including former three-star chefs Pierre Koffman and Marco-Pierre White.
The highly prized Roux Brothers Scholarship, which began in 1984, instills a new generation with Roux’s high standards. The brothers received honorary OBEs in 2002 and their industry peers voted the duo the UK’s most influential chefs in 2003. The influential Restaurant Magazine, publishers of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants, gave the Roux brothers its lifetime achievement award in 2006.
Michel Roux’s autobiography, Life is a Menu, was published in 2000.
