Fab Food! Exclusive Five Minute Chat with Star Chef Michel Roux Junior

Feeding the Family

Recipes

Published on Saturday, 20 June 2015 11:00

Last Updated on 19 June 2015

Monica Costa

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If you love good food, you will enjoy London Mums’ five minute interview with Celebrity Chef Michel Roux Junior. 

1. How have you found filming First Class Chefs? Please can you share a few anecdotes from the show?

Filming First Class Chefs was absolutely amazing. It was such a joy to work with and film with the children, to mentor them and be like a father figure. To pick out one particular moment wouldn’t be fair, it was so good. I thought that the dynamics of the teams working together was really interesting. For example, with one team of two boys, one team member was very very positive and one was a little bit negative – but they jeer each other up and at the end of the cooking session one of them would say, ‘Oh we’ve nailed it!’ and the other would say ‘No it’s good enough, they’re not going to like it!’. So there was lots of different dynamics in the kitchen, it was just great fun.

 

2. What’s your favourite recipe from the show?

There were many really tasty dishes that were cooked on the show but one particular recipe which stays with me is a cod dish. It was covered in pesto and baked in the oven. It was cooked perfectly and was so moist, it was restaurant standard and the seasoning was great too. Also later in the show there was a tiramisu which was very very good. There were lots and lots of different dishes that were really good.

 

3. You come from a chefs’ family so the passion for good food is in your blood. What are the qualities a Michelin chef has to have?

I think to be a professional chef you need dedication and to understand it is hard work. Now whether or not any of our First Class Chefs contestants will come into the catering industry, I don’t know, but there’s certainly potential there. If they don’t become chefs, well one thing is for sure, they will know how to cook and appreciate good healthy food.

 

4. Your daughter Emily is also working as a chef. What’s your family cuisine trademark now that you are entering the third generation of chefs?

Third generation of chefs – yes dad, myself and now my daughter. I think if you look at what makes us tick as Rouxs, its French food and the classics. By that I mean classic French cuisine and also classic technique, but it evolves over the generations. So what my father was cooking is slightly different to what I’m cooking. What my daughter is cooking is obviously different to what I’m cooking. It’s still French, it’s still based on the classics and using classic techniques. But it’s of her era, it’s now and that’s great because it’s still got the Roux trait. You can taste the passion and it’s there to see.

5. How would you like to be remembered?

How would I like to be remembered? Gosh, obviously I’m a chef so as a good chef and to have filled and made many happy tummies!

 

6. If you were King of Britain what would you do first?
   My word, where do I start? I’m not sure if this comes under the King’s remit or the Prime Minister’s remit, but it would be to make food education compulsory at the youngest possible age. So healthy eating, getting that message across, cooking at home and getting involved in food – it’s all very very important. I think that’s been lost over the years so we need to get that across to kids as early as possible.

 

7. What is your guilty pleasure?
   My guilty pleasure…I don’t consider it guilty but it’s chocolate. But I really have a dislike for cheap confectionary.

 

8. What is your favourite restaurant in London?

I think we are very lucky in London to have so many great restaurants to choose from. At the moment I live in south London and my favourite place to go and eat is The Manor on Clapham Manor Street. It’s just a fun and buzzy place where you get some great food with a contemporary style.

Watch First Class Chefs from Monday 22^nd June 2015 at 4.30pm on Disney Channel!