There’s a new chip off the old block of cooking’s most famous clan. Sophie Farrah sees Emily plate up
Issy Croker
If both your father and grandfather were among the world’s most highly regarded chefs, it’s safe to say that you would probably feel the pressure. Emily Roux, however, is taking it in her stride. Now an accomplished chef in her own right, the latest culinary star in the family firmament has cooking in her Gallic blood.
“When I was about 10, I would go to Le Gavroche at the weekends and help out. Basically they just plonked me in a corner with kilos of potatoes to peel and I loved it,” she recalls.
Bien sûr. For Emily’s father is, of course, the Michelin two-star chef Michel Roux Jr, while her grandfather is Albert Roux OBE, the chef and restaurateur who co-founded Le Gavroche – the London restaurant that was the first in the UK to gain three Michelin stars – with his equally illustrious brother. And yet, despite this matchless heritage of haute cuisine, Emily never had the frying pan shoved into her tiny hand.
“My mum didn’t really want me to go into the business,” she recalls. “She herself did hospitality and catering, so she was very aware of the long hours and explained all that to me clearly. Obviously I didn’t listen to her! As for my dad, he knew how my mum felt, so he didn’t push me. He just said: ‘Do what you want to do – whatever makes you happy.’”
Born and raised in Clapham, Emily left home at 18 to head for catering college not in the UK, but in France, where she felt that she could train anonymously without the additional pressure that might come with being ‘a Roux’.
“I wanted to do my own thing, and in France ‘Roux’ is very much like Smith– everyone is called Roux there. Lots of people have scrutinised me because of my name, even if they haven’t admitted it to my face, but in any case I don’t listen. I keep doing my hard work and it has always paid off.”
The training was rigorous and included internships at some of the world’s leading restaurants, such as Alain Ducasse’s Michelin three-star Louis XV in Monaco and the hot Parisian pair of Le 39V and Akrame. But it was her very first placement, at the two-star Table du Lancaster, near the Champs-Elysées, that formed her toughest challenge to date.
“It was the first time that I’d actually experienced what it’s like day to day – being part of the kitchen brigade and doing the long hours. Little sleep, lots of listening. It was very hard. A lot of my friends from school dropped out then, as you never really know what it’s like until you do it full time.
“But I remember when they first put me on an actual section – you just feel fantastic. After a few weeks I absolutely loved the place. I was part of the team and they asked me to stay, and at that stage I was still very much anonymous. It was at least a month, if not two, before they finally grasped who I was, and by then they already knew me and what I could do.”
Since her return to the UK nearly two years ago, Emily, now 26, has been busy working with luxury corporate catering company Restaurant Associates, as well as family consultancy business, Chez Roux. Earlier this year she also hosted several pop-ups at Le Gavroche and, in November, was due to cook with both her father and grandfather for the 10th anniversary of Roux at The Landau, fine dining wing of luxury Marylebone hotel, The Langham. Working beneath the paternal gaze holds no fears, she insists, though she rules out a permanent residence within the walls of Le Gavroche.
“He’s my dad more than a chef, so I don’t feel any pressure cooking with him,” she says fondly. “As for Le Gavroche, it’s 50 years old and it’s amazing, but I don’t feel that I would be right for it. My style is different, for one thing, and there are people who have worked there for 25 years who saw me running around the kitchen as a six year old! It would be a difficult dynamic – not just for me, but for them.”
In fact, it is Emily’s mother, Giselle, rather than her famous father, who collaborated with Emily in the compilation of her debut book. Published back in September, New French Table offers a fresh take on both classic and contemporary recipes – from the provincial home cooking of the Ardèche to the sweet treats of Brittany – ably demonstrating how the French kitchen has evolved to suit a modern lifestyle.
“One day I was sitting at the table with my parents. Mum had cooked and Dad asked her for the recipe,” explains Emily. “Mum laughed and said: ‘Look, you’re not pinching another one of my recipes to put in your book!’ So Dad challenged her to write a cookbook of her own.
“She was a bit scared at first, but we combined her skills as a home cook with my professional experience and worked on it together. I’d only recently come back from France, so working with her almost daily for weeks was incredible – family is so important.”
The finished and – quite frankly – mouthwatering result is a stylish book containing over 100 recipes that range from lighter soups and salads to everyday family dinners and big showstopper feasts, including some of Emily’s slightly more challenging creations.
“The pig’s head probably wouldn’t be everyone’s first choice to try out at home!” she laughs. “But there are step-by-step pictures to help you along the way.”
When not engaged in serving up tête de cochon, Emily lives in Putney with her husband Diego Ferrari, head chef at Le Gavroche – un petit monde, n’est-ce pas? – and together they plan to open their very own restaurant within the next year or so. London is their target city, provided that they can find the right spot.
“French food will obviously feature, but my other half is Italian, so there’ll definitely be fresh pasta too. Nothing overly fussy or complicated – just things that we would like to eat ourselves.”
Also on the radar for 2018 are more of Emily’s masterclasses, ‘Cooking the Emily Roux Way’, launched recently at Cactus Kitchens in Clapham. Drawing on recipes from New French Table, the classes showcase Emily’s contemporary take on classic French food.
But before all of that there is Christmas: a family feast of culinary endeavour.
“Christmas in the Roux household is pretty amazing. When you consider that my husband and I are there, along with my father and grandfather, that’s already four chefs together in one kitchen! One of us does the starter, someone else the main and so on. We all chip in.
“Of course, we don’t actually wear our chef whites – although my father is known for sporting a kind of Christmassy lumberjack shirt!”
Classic with an individual twist, one might say.
- New French Table by Emily & Giselle Roux is out now, published by Mitchell Beazley, price £25; octopusbooks.co.uk
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