Recently in Michel Roux Category

Brett Graham's two-Michelin-starred restaurant the Ledbury in London has won yet another award after being named the top restaurant in the UK in the Sunday Times Food List.

The award comes after the Ledbury recently topped both the Zagat and Harden's surveys for best food in London and after Graham earlier this year won the prestigious Chef of the Year Catey.

The Sunday Times Food List is based on food quality alone, chosen by 8,000 restaurant goers from across the UK and compiled by Harden's Restaurant Guide in conjunction with Rémy Martin.

Graham commented: "It's a huge honour to top the list, especially as it comes from such a broad base of customers. This is a testament to everyone in the extremely talented and energetic young team here at the Ledbury."

Raymond Blanc's Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons in Great Milton, Oxfordshire, came second in the Food List while last year's winner, Gidleigh Park, placed third. 

Gidleigh Park also won the Rémy Martin X.O. Excellence Award for Best All Round Restaurant, while Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley picked up the Coeur de Cognac Award for Best Dessert, and Heston Blumenthal's Dinner at the Mandarin Oriental received the Rémy Martin V.S.O.P Best Newcomer Award.

Other findings from the Sunday Times Food List, which will publish the top 100 restaurants in Britain in full on Sunday (30 October), include that half of the top 100 restaurants are outside London (up from 40% last year); while Asian restaurants have fallen by half; and there are 31 new entries.

Michel Jnr and Albert Roux's latest restaurant venture, Roux at the Landau at London's Langham hotel, doesn't live up to the standards of service one would expect, according to Hugo Rifkind writing in The Times.

Filling in for Giles Coren, Rifkind enjoys the food at the restaurant, the first collaborative venture between the father and son team in nearly 20 years. But he finds the front of house "surprisingly weird", especially considering Roux's recent TV series, Michel Roux's Service.

He says: "The table was set for four, even though I'd called up to tell them we'd only be three, which seemed to send the waiters into an uncomprehending loop, incapable of even acknowledging our presence while we remained next to an empty chair. [...] I'm not kidding; we were honestly there for 45 minutes before we even had a drink."

Meanwhile The Guardian's John Lanchester says although right on the pulse as far as culinary trends go, the menu at North Road is hit and miss. "When Hruskova is on form, you genuinely feel you're getting a glimpse of something new. [...] The pleasures aren't obvious ones. This leaves a lot of room for underwhelmedness when it doesn't go exactly right," he says.

The Independent's John Walsh complains that the food at the restaurant at the Royal Academy seems to be an afterthought to the décor and advises the chef to visit some decent suppliers.

The Telegraph's Matthew Norman has a long, confusing meal at L'Etranger in London and vows to remain a stranger to the restaurant until Doomsday at the earliest, while The Observer's Jay Rayner says despite being run by women Opus in Birmingham is a macho restaurant lacking in guiding passion or principle.

Finally, Yotam Ottolenghi gets a more positive review from The Independent on Sunday's Lisa Markwell, who says the chef, author and delicatessen owner has struck gold with his new restaurant Nopi in London's Soho.

Time is running out to enter the 2011 Roux Scholarship, the winner of which will receive a three-month stage at a three-Michelin-starred restaurant anywhere in the world. The deadline for entries has been extended to Friday, 4 February.

Entrants, who must work in the UK and be between 22 and 30, have to submit a monkfish recipe for four people, accompanied by a rice dish and a green vegetable.

The semi-finals are due to be held on 10 March in Birmingham and London, with the final taking place at London's Westminster Kingsway College on 18 April.

Joining Michel Roux on the judging panel will be his son Alain, brother Albert and nephew Michel Jnr, as well as the first Roux Scholar Andrew Fairlie and judges Brian Turner, Gary Rhodes, David Nicholls and James Martin.

Previous winners include Simon Hulstone, Sat Bains, Andre Garrett and Hrishikesh Desai, who went to Thomas Keller's French Laundry for his winning stage and was the first Roux Scholar to venture outside of Europe.

Last year's winner of the Roux Scholarship, Kenneth Culhane of BaxterStorey, will be travelling to New York City to Jean-Georges Vongerchten's flagship three-star restaurant Jean-Georges in March.

To enter visit the 2011 Roux Scholarship website.

The first episode of Michel Roux's Service aired on the BBC last night.

Over the coming nights, chef Michel Jr will attempt to transform a motley bunch of yoofs into passable waiters. Fred Sirieix, restaurant manager at the Hilton Park Lane's Galvin at Windows restaurant, plays Robin to his Batman. It's already clear that our Dynamic Duo has its work cut out. The only qualification their pupils seemed able to muster was Ashley's Asbo - though it became clear that if a GCSE in swearing existed they'd all be A-students.

The show had its amusing moments - Nikita offering diners a glass of prosciutto while they perused the menu; members of the team making up non-existent table numbers - but its underlining message was a sobering one: Too many youngsters have been let down by our education system, and are left on the cusp of adult life lacking even the most basic social and communications skills.

At the end of the first episode, Twitter burst into life as thousands of hospitality workers voiced their support of a show which is sure to give much-needed profile to the unsung heroes that work front of house. Among those who tweeted was chef John Benson Smith, who called the show "the first constructive Catering TV programme for 35 years".

What did you think of the show? How would you define service standards in the UK currently? What can we do to encourage more youngsters to consider service as a career of choice?

Most importantly, who will win one of the two Academy of Food and Wine Service scholarships up for grabs?

Michel Roux Jr, chef patron of the two-Michelin-starred Le Gavroche and co-presenter of the BBC's MasterChef the Professionals, has become the latest celebrity chef to launch an iPhone application.

Michel Roux Jr, Fine Dining with the Master Chef includes recipes and video masterclasses, wine pairing suggestions, event planning tips and access behind the scenes at his three London restaurants.

The application features 65 classic dishes taken from the menus of Le Gavroche over the past 40 years as well as two step by step video masterclasses and wine pairings from Le Gavroche sommelier David Galetti.

Updated every month, it also offers access to Roux's three London restaurants, Le Gavroche, Roux at Parliament Square and Roux at the Landau, with menus and a booking facility as well as a Day in the Life of documentary behind the scenes of Le Gavroche.

Michel Roux Jr, Fine Dining with the Master Chef is available from iTunes at £4.99.

Liverpool chef Claire Lara has been named the winner of the BBC's Masterchef: The Professionals 2010.

30-year-old Lara, who is the first woman to win the title, was crowned the winner after a gruelling final under the watchful eyes of judges Michel Roux Jr and Gregg Wallace in which she beat fellow competitors David Coulson and John Calton.

The judges praised Lara for her brilliance and consistency throughout the competition. "Claire has an immense amount of talent. Her cooking skills are a revelation," said Roux. "We started this competition looking for a talent and we have uncovered a diamond. She has that exceptional talent that will take her to stardom."

A speechless Lara said: "I am so happy. I thought everyone was pretty good. This is brilliant."

The final of Masterchef: The Professionals comprised a series of tasks, which included a patisserie challenge judged by acclaimed French patissier Pierre Hermé as well as a service at René Redzepi's Noma in Copenhagen, which was this year named the best restaurant in the world.

Another challenge saw the contestants create a three-course menu at a dinner held at London's Pearl restaurant for some of the UK's most acclaimed chefs with more than 40 Michelin stars between them. They included Pierre Koffmann, Alain Roux, Michael Caines, Brett Graham and Phil Howard.

The Masterchef: The Professionals final culminated in a cook off during which the chefs each created a three course meal.

Lara's winning menu comprised a starter of crispy skinned sea trout with apple purée and caper and cider beurre blanc; followed by a main course of roasted boneless pigeon on mashed potato and peas and pancetta with quince jelly and a red wine sauce. Her dessert comprised raspberry and white chocolate millefeuille with lemon thyme discs and raspberries.

Indian restaurants are the focus of this weekend's restaurant reviews but sadly the critics fail to be impressed by what they are served.

Writing in The Times Giles Coren is horrified at the changed menu at curry chain Bombay Bicycle Club after it was taken over by Bollywood celebrity Shilpa Shetty.

"We ordered. It came. It was terrible. Don't want to talk about it," he moans. "Six or seven bowls of brown cloacal waste, containing amorphous protein chunks. The sick of an infant who lives on Dairylea Lunchables."

Zoe Williams of The Sunday Telegraph is underwhelmed by Gordon Ramsay's F Word winner Lasan in Birmingham, where despite lovely service the food is like an "elaborate punishment for an unknown crime".

The Observer's Jay Rayner says that if you want a slice of old Bombay you won't find it at new Indian café Dishoom in London's Covent Garden. However, that doesn't stop it pulling in the crowds forcing him to queue outside.

Meanwhile Richard Johnson, writing in The Independent on Sunday, finds a modern Italian menu with a twist at Tempo in London's Mayfair where former St Alban chef Yoshi Yamada is in charge of the kitchen.

Matthew Norman of The Daily Telegraph describes a studiedly unmemorable lunch in an instantly forgettable restaurant at Koffmann's, while John Walsh of The Independent loves the food but not the prices at Michel and Alain Roux's Waterside Inn in Bray, Berkshire.

Michel Roux Jnr's new restaurant, Roux at Parliament Square, this week plays host to a rare collection of historical mirrors, worth nearly £1m.

The collection is being displayed at the restaurant to mark the launch of the Mirrors exhibition at the Ronald Phillips Gallery, which runs from 9 to 29 June and showcases 90 English mirrors dating from 1660 to 1820 including a pair of Chippendale ovals and a mirror once owned by former Prime Minister Sir William Gladstone.

Each of the mirrors displayed at Roux at Parliament Square in Westminster will be for sale with price tags ranging from £12,000 to £850,000 and part of the proceeds going to VICTA, a charity supporting blind and partially sighted children.

Simon Phillips, chairman and owner of Ronald Phillips, said: "We wanted to put the mirrors somewhere unexpected in the run up to the exhibition launch - in a place where people could enjoy them as they go about their day to day business."

Michel Roux Jnr added: "These beautiful pieces are hundreds of years old, so it's amazing to think of all the things they may have seen over the years and it's great to see them on show here."    

Roux at Parliament Square is a joint venture between Roux and Compass Group's Restaurant Associates.

French-born US chef Daniel Boulud's first European venture, Bar Boulud at London's Mandarin Oriental hotel, is the focus of the weekend's restaurant reviews. And luckily for the chef, the restaurant does not disappoint the critics.

Writing for The Sunday Times, AA Gill finds the best burgers at Bar Boulud, which he otherwise considers a mediocre restaurant albeit with excellent service.

"Burgers, for all their mythology, are monoglot food," he says. "These ones manage to retain their oafish, redneck muscle, but have an added French je ne sais quoi. A bit of wit. A good pick-up line."

Meanwhile John Walsh of The Independent experiences faultless flavoursome cooking at Bar Boulud and says both the chef and his bar are "hugely welcome in the metropolis".

And although The Observer's Jay Rayner gets annoyed during the booking process at Bar Boulud, once he dines there he is impressed with the menu and value for money it offers.

Meanwhile in The Independent on Sunday Toby Young is impressed with Michel Roux Junior's co-venture with Compass' Restaurant Aossociates, Roux at Parliament Square. He declares the restaurant, where former Roux Scholar Daniel Cox is head chef, more of a classy coalition than culinary compromise.

Matthew Norman, writing in The Guardian, discovers a menu of inconsistent quality at Viajante, where Portuguese chef Nuno Mendes is fighting an "internal battle between technical excellence and plain foolishness".

Jasper Gerard of The Daily Telegraph says Paramount atop London's Centre Point building, which last month opened to the public, is tough on prices and tight on portions but the view is worth stomaching the food.

In The Times Giles Coren is experiencing the post-honeymoon-blues but says former Roussillon chef Alexis Gauthier's new restaurant at Lindsay House in Soho offers unarguably great cooking worth two Michelin stars.

Michel and Alain Roux last night played host to a stellar line up of more than 100 chefs and industry luminaries who joined the father and son at their restaurant, the Waterside Inn, to celebrate 25 years of three Michelin stars.

The Waterside Inn, which first opened in 1972, is the only establishment outside of France to have achieved 25 consecutive years of Michelin's top accolade.

Last night's event saw the UK and Ireland's Michelin-starred chefs gather at the iconic restaurant in Bray, Buckinghamshire, with guests including chefs Heston Blumenthal, Raymond Blanc, Gary Rhodes, Marcus Wareing and Pierre Koffmann.

Other chefs included Tom Aikens, Tom Kitchin, John Burton-Race, Angela Hartnett, Andrew Fairlie and Atul Kochhar, as well as Michelin director Jean-Luc Naret and the UK and Ireland Michelin guide's editor Derek Bulmer.

Guests were served a menu of 25 dishes taken from menus created at the Waterside Inn over the past 25 years. They included flan d'escargot en habit vert from the 1985 menu; turbot en croûte de volaille à la sauge from 1989; canard aux clous de girofle et au mile from 1995; fondant de pigeonneau et caille au citron vert from 2000; and entremets amandine à la pomme verte from 2010.