Last modified on Wed 6 Jan 2021 23.36 EST
Albert Roux, who has died aged 85, did more to encourage and foster Britain’s restaurant sector than any other chef working in the UK. The roll-call of names that passed through the kitchens of his Mayfair restaurant, Le Gavroche, which he opened with his late brother Michel in 1967, is the classic who’s who of the culinary cheffing firmament. It includes Marco Pierre White, Gordon Ramsay, Pierre Koffmann, Phil Howard, Marcus Wareing and Rowley Leigh, each of whom in turn passed on what they had learned from Albert to so many others.
He was firmly in the business of unapologetic luxury. “We knew nothing of the British indifference to food,” he once told me, of his early years in Britain, “because we had only ever cooked for the rich.” Both brothers had arrived in the country from Paris, as private chefs for the aristocracy, Michel for the Rothschilds, Albert for the Cazalets. It was their employers’ money and contacts that ena
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Albert Roux s legacy lives on in restaurants across the UK – everyone wanted a slice of his magic
With his brother Michel, the chef and restaurateur kick-started a rebirth of fine-dining restaurants in this country
Albert Roux, who has died at the age of 85
Credit: PA
By the time Marco Pierre White chanced his arm at a job at Le Gavroche in 1981, its co-founder Albert Roux, who has died at the age of 85, was a well-established figure in the culinary firmament.
Indeed the restaurant had just moved from its original premises in Lower Sloane Street to Upper Brook Street in swanky Mayfair. But still at the stove was Albert, who had opened Le Gravroche in 1967 with his brother Michel, who predeceased him in March last year.
Method
Split the escarole in half, down through the root, and split in half again. Cut away the root and stalk and then separate all the leaves. Wash in a large bowl of very cold water and then spin-dry before filling a large salad bowl.
Roll the pears in the lemon juice. Halve them
and scoop out the cores with a teaspoon. Then slice them not too thinly and return them to the lemon juice. Spread them out over the salad. Cut the Roquefort as best you can and then distribute the pieces in turn.
Sprinkle ½tsp sea salt, ½tsp coarsely milled black pepper and the vinegar into the salad, and then add the olive oil. With a sharp knife, cut down into the salad and turn the leaves in the process. Keep going until thoroughly mixed. Taste the leaves – they may need more seasoning, or a bit more oil for lubrication.