Gordon Ramsay has paid tribute to legendary restaurateur Albert Roux, who opened Britain’s first Michelin-starred restaurant and revolutionized the country’s fine-dining scene. Roux died on Monday at the age of 85. His family said the iconic chef had been “unwell for a while,” according to a statement obtained by The Evening Standard. Michel Roux Jr. praised his father in the statement, calling him a “mentor for so many people in the hospitality industry and a real inspiration to budding chefs, including me.” Ramsay is among dozens of famous British chefs who got their start at Roux’s legendary restaurant Le Gavroche, and the “MasterChef” star praised him in an Instagram post on Wednesday. “So so sad to hear about the passing of this legend, the man who installed gastronomy in Britain,” Ramsay wrote in the caption. “We’ve shared the same office for the last decade and walking up those stairs today is going to be really difficult, thank you Albert for everything you gave me, God Bless you Chef.”
In a second Instagram post, Ramsay said that Roux was ” hard, fair, passionate and incredibly understanding of what you could achieve if you listen.”Roux moved to the UK from his native France when he was 18, giving up dreams to become a priest to hone his cooking chops in the kitchens of politicians, athletes, and the French Embassy, according to the Evening Standard. In 1967, Roux and his brother Michel — who also worked as a private chef — joined forces to open Le Gavroche in London. Seven years later, Le Gavroche became the first restaurant in the UK to win a Michelin star, The New York Times reports. In 1982, it became the first restaurant in the country to win three Michelin stars.
The brothers also opened The Waterside Inn in Berkshire, England, which received three Michelin stars in 1985. The Michelin Guide also paid special tribute to Roux with a tweet on Wednesday, calling him the “father of the UK restaurant industry.” Roux’s restaurants became a training ground for Britain’s top chefs, including Ramsay, as well as Marco Pierre White, Marcus Wareing, and Monica Galetti. According to The Guardian, more than half of Britain’s Michelin-starred restaurants in 2013 were run by chefs who had trained with Roux.
Mentoring chefs was important to Roux and Michel, who died last year at the age of 78. In 1984, the brothers launched a scholarship fund to help nurture Britain’s culinary talent. The brothers also helped bring cooking to television with their series “At Home with the Roux Brothers” in the 1980s. Tributes from other famous chefs poured in for Roux on Wednesday as news of his passing broke. Roux is survived by his son Michel Roux Jr, who now runs Le Gavroche, as well as his daughter Danielle.
