Thursday, June 6, 2013

Michael Roux

All Data Listed Below from Wikipedia

Michel Roux, OBE (born 19 April 1941), also known as Michel Roux Snr. is a French-born chef and restaurateur working in Britain. Along with his brother Albert, he opened Le Gavroche, later to become the first three Michelin starred restaurant in Britain, and The Waterside Inn, which was the first restaurant outside France to hold three stars for a period of 25 years.
Michel followed his brother into becoming a pastry chef, and again to England in order to open their first restaurant. Together they have been described as the "godfathers of modern restaurant cuisine in the UK", and Michel has been inducted into several French orders, and has received two lifetime achievement awards from different publications. He was decorated during a period of National Service for France during the 1960s.
He founded the Roux Brothers Scholarship along with Albert in 1984, and has worked as a consultant for companies such as British Airways and Celebrity Cruises over the years. After he and his brother split the business in 1986, Michel took the Waterside Inn, which he handed over to his son, Alain, in 2002. He remains an active food writer and has appeared on television shows such as Saturday Kitchen, MasterChef as well as the Roux family centric series, The Roux Legacy.

Career[edit]

Roux was born in Charolles, Saône-et-Loire, in a room above his grandfather's charcuterie (a delicatessen specializing in meat products). He moved to Paris with his family after the war, where his father Michel set up his own charcuterie, after not taking over the family business in Charolles. His father gambled away all of the family's money, and the shop was closed to prevent it from goingbankrupt. By the time Michel turned ten, his father had left the family and was not heard from again.[1]
Michel's older brother Albert had already become a patissier (pastry chef), and Roux followed him into this field at the age of fourteen. He became an apprentice to Camille Loyal in Belleville, working seventy hour weeks. Michel's tasks at the pâtisserie included making up to sixty Galette des Rois over the course of three days for Epiphany. Albert found Michel further employment as his apprenticeship ended. As Albert was working at the British Embassy in Paris as a sous chef, Michel joined him there as the pastry chef for the Embassy. He moved on from there to become a chef in Philippe de Rothschild's service, while Albert moved to England to work there.[1]Between 1960 and 1962, Michel served his French National Service. He was first stationed at the Palace of Versailles, but was later posted overseas in Béchar, Algeria. He was awarded the Médaille commémorative des opérations de sécurité et de maintien de l'ordre en Afrique du Nord.[2]

Michel Roux making pastry in 2009
Michel nearly decided to give up cooking to become an opera singer,[3] but instead followed Albert to London, despite not being able to speak English. He would later recall that people thought he was mad for travelling to England in view of the fact that he considered the state of English cooking at the time was horrific,[1] describing it as "the dark ages".[4] In 1967 they opened their first restaurant, Le Gavroche at Lower Sloane Street in London.[1] The opening party was attended by celebrities such as Charlie Chaplin and Ava Gardner. For the following week, Chaplin was reportedly shuttled across London so he could eat there.[5] In 1972 the Roux brothers opened a second restaurant, theWaterside Inn, in Bray, Berkshire,[1] and launched a catering business.[6] In 1974, when Michelin stars were first awarded in the UK, Le Gavroche and the Waterside Inn were both amongst those restaurants to win a star, and when a number of restaurants won two Michelin stars for the first time in 1977, both Roux restaurants were among them. Le Gavroche would move to a new location inMayfair in 1982, and in the same year became the first restaurant in the UK to be awarded three Michelin stars. The same rating for the Waterside Inn would follow in 1985, but Le Gavroche would go back down to two stars in 1993 and never regain the three star level. In 2010, the Waterside Inn became the first restaurant outside France to hold three Michelin stars for a period of 25 years.[7][8][9]
The Roux Brothers Scholarship was founded by Albert and Michel in 1984. It is an annual competition to select a single chef to send out as an apprentice.[6] The first winner was Andrew Fairlie, and winners over the years have included Sat Bains (1999) and Simon Hulstone (2003).[10] In 1986 the brothers split their restaurant business between them following a disagreement over the direction that their joint business should take,[4] Albert took Le Gavroche, while Michel took the Waterside Inn.[6] Michel became a consultant to British Airways for twenty years between 1983 and 2003, and for Celebrity Cruises since 1990. The Roux brothers' catering company was purchased by Compass Group in 1993, with Albert retained as a consultant.[6]
Michel Roux's son, Alain Roux, currently runs the Waterside Inn in Bray, having taken over as chef patron in 2002.[6][11] In July 2008, Roux announced that he would move permanently to Crans-Montana, Switzerland, citing c
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Gordon Ramsay

All Data Listed Below from Wikipedia
Gordon James Ramsay /ˈræm.ziː/, OBE (born 8 November 1966)[1] is a British chef,restaurateur and television personality.[2] He has been awarded 15 Michelin stars in total and currently holds 14.[3][4] Ramsay is known for presenting TV programmes about competitive cookery and food, such as the British series Hell's Kitchen, The F Word,Ramsay's Best Restaurant, Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, Gordon's Great Escape,Gordon Behind Bars, and Gordon Ramsay's Ultimate Cookery Course, along with the American versions of Hell's Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, MasterChef, and Hotel Hell. Restaurant Gordon Ramsay was named 33rd in Elite Traveler and Laurent Perrier Top 100 Restaurants in the World in 2013.[5]

Early cooking career[edit]

By this time, Ramsay's interest in cooking had already begun, and rather than be known as "the football player with the gammy knee",[9] at age 19, Ramsay paid more serious attention to his culinary education. After weighing his options, Ramsay enrolled at North Oxfordshire Technical College, sponsored by the Rotarians, to study Hotel Management. He describes his decision to enter catering college as "an accident, a complete accident".[9]
In the early 1980s, he worked as a commis chef at the Wroxton House Hotel then ran the kitchen and 60-seat dining room at the Wickham Arms, until his sexual relationship with the owner's wife made the situation difficult.[20] Ramsay then moved to London, where he worked in a series of restaurants until being inspired to work for the temperamental Marco Pierre White at Harvey's.[9]
After working at Harveys for two years and ten months, Ramsay, tired of "the rages and the bullying and violence", decided that the way to further advance his career was to study French cuisine. White discouraged Ramsay from taking a job in Paris, instead encouraging him to work for Albert Roux at Le Gavroche in Mayfair. (While at Le Gavroche, he met Jean-Claude Breton, now his maître d' at Royal Hospital Road.) After working at Le Gavroche for a year, Albert Roux invited Ramsay to work with him at Hotel Diva, a ski resort in theFrench Alps, as his number two. From there, Ramsay moved to Paris to work with Guy Savoy and Joël Robuchon, both Michelin-starred chefs. He continued his training in France for three years, before giving in to the physical and mental stress of the kitchens and taking a year to work as a personal chef on the private yacht Idlewild, based in Bermuda.[9]

Head chef[edit]

Upon his return to London in 1993, Ramsay was offered the position of head chef at La Tante Claire in Chelsea. Shortly thereafter, Marco Pierre White re-entered his life, offering to set him up with a head chef position and 10% share in the Rossmore, owned by White's business partners. The restaurant was renamed Aubergine and went on to win its first Michelin star fourteen months later. In 1997, Aubergine won its second Michelin star. Despite the restaurant's success, a dispute with Ramsay's business owners and Ramsay's dream of running his own restaurant led to his leaving the partnership in 1997.[9] In 1998, Ramsay opened his own restaurant in Chelsea, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, with the help of his father-in-law, Chris Hutcheson. The restaurant gained its third Michelin star in 2001, making Ramsay the first Scot to achieve that feat.[21]
From his first restaurant, Ramsay's empire has expanded rapidly, next opening Petrus, where six bankers spent over £44,000 on wine during a single meal in 2001,[22] then Amaryllis in Glasgow (which he was later forced to close) and later Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's. Restaurants at the Dubai Creek and Connaught hotels followed, the latter branded with his protégé Angela Hartnett's name. Ramsay has opened restaurants outside the UK, beginning with Verre in Dubai. Gordon Ramsay at Conrad Tokyo and Cerise by Gordon Ramsay both opened in Tokyo in 2005, and in November 2006, Gordon Ramsay at the London opened in New York City,[23] winning top newcomer in the city’s coveted Zagat guide, despite mixed reviews from professional critics.[24]
In 2007, Ramsay opened his first restaurant in Ireland, Gordon Ramsay at Powerscourt, at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Powerscourt, Co. Wicklow.[25] In May 2008 he opened his first restaurant on the US west coast – Boxwood, in The London West Hollywood hotel, formerly the Bel-Age hotel on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles.
On 9 August 2011, Ramsay opened his first Canadian restaurant in Montreal – Laurier Gordon Ramsay, formerly Rotisserie Laurier BBQ.[26] However, in February 2012 Danny Lavy — the owner of the restaurant — announced the restaurant was disassociating itself from Ramsay, citing a lack of involvement and understanding on Ramsay's part.[27] In 2013, the restaurant closed.[28]

Awards[edit]

Opened in 1998, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay was Ramsay’s first solo restaurant, located at Royal Hospital Road, London. In 2001, it was voted Top Restaurant in the U.K. in the London Zagat Survey and was awarded its third Michelin star, making Gordon Ramsay the first Scottish chef to win three Michelin stars.[29] Though he spends more time on television than in the kitchen, Gordon Ramsay's Chelsea restaurant still managed to retain its three Michelin star status according to the latest edition of the guide. Ramsay is one of only four chefs in the UK to maintain three Michelin Stars for his restaurant (the others being Heston Blumenthal, Alain Ducasse andAlain Roux).
He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in the 2006 honours list for services to the hospitality industry, but almost missed the award when his plane was delayed.[30]
In July 2006, Ramsay won the Catey award for "Independent Restaurateur of the Year", becoming only the third person to have won three Catey awards, the biggest awards of the UK hospitality industry. Ramsay's two previous Catey awards were in 1995 (Newcomer of the Year) and 2000 (Chef of the Year). The other two triple-winners are Michel Roux, and Jacquie Pern.
In September 2006, he was named as the most influential person in the UK hospitality industry in the annual Caterersearch 100 list, published by Caterer and Hotelkeeper magazine. He overtook Jamie Oliver, who had been top of the list in 2005.[31]
Also in 2006, Ramsay was nominated as a candidate for Rector of the University of St Andrews, but lost at the polls to Simon Pepper.[32]
Ramsay's flagship restaurant, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, was voted London's top restaurant in food bible Harden's for eight years, but in 2008 was placed below Petrus, a restaurant run by former protégé Marcus Wareing.[33]

Gordon Ramsay Holdings[edit]

All of Ramsay's business interests (restaurants, media, consultancy) are held in the company Gordon Ramsay Holdings Limited, which was run in partnership with his father-in-law Chris Hutcheson. Ramsay owns a 69% stake valued at £67 million.[34]
Whereas previous ventures acted as a combined consultant/brand, in November 2006 Ramsay announced plans to create three restaurants in the United States in partnership with private equity firm Blackstone Group, who are refurbishing each of the chosen hotels into five star locations at a cost of £100 million per hotel. At an investment of £3 million per restaurant for the 10-year lease, all the restaurants offer the chef’s trademark modern European cuisine, and opened in 2006/2007 at:
In late 2006 Gordon Ramsay Holdings purchased three London pubs which he converted into gastropubs. These are: The Narrow inLimehouse, which opened in March 2007, the Devonshire in Chiswick, which opened in October 2007 and The Warrington in Maida Vale, which opened in February 2008. Both The Devonshire and The Warrington were subsequently sold in 2011, leaving The Narrow as the sole pub in GRH's portfolio.[35]
Ramsay acts as a consultant to numerous catering organisations, and was recruited by Singapore Airlines as one of its "International Culinary Panel" consultants.[36]
In May 2008 it was confirmed that Ramsay's protégé of 15 years, Marcus Wareing was going solo having opened and operated Pétrus at The Berkeley Hotel on behalf of Gordon Ramsay Holdings since 2003.[37] With the name Pétrus owned by Gordon Ramsay Holdings, industry sources suggested it was likely to transfer to another restaurant in the group with the former La Noisette site identified as the most likely.[38]
In April 2010, Jason Atherton, Executive chef of Maze restaurants worldwide resigned to open his own venue in Mayfair.[39]
On 19 October 2010, the company Gordon Ramsay Holdings Limited announced that Chris Hutcheson had left his position as CEO of Gordon Ramsay Holdings Ltd. Shortly after, Ramsay released a letter to the press describing how he had unravelled the "manipulative" Hutcheson's "complex life" after having him followed by a private detective. His father-in-law's "away days," wrote Ramsay, "were rarely what I thought they were." Company accounts show Hutcheson borrowed up to £1.5 million from Gordon Ramsay Holdings, of which he was chief executive, though he says he reported the borrowings to the company and paid the money back. Hutcheson said he had been "vaporised" and subjected to a "public hanging" by Ramsay, whom he described as a friendless egotist.[40]
In January 2013, Gordon Ramsay was inducted into the Culinary Hall of Fame[41]
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Ferran Adria

All Data Listed Below from Wikipedia

Career[edit]

A liquid olive, one of Adrià's appetizers
Ferran Adrià began his culinary career in 1980 during his stint as a dishwasher at the Hotel Playafels, in the town of Castelldefels. The chef de cuisine at this hotel taught him traditional Spanish cuisine. At 19 he was drafted into military service where he worked as a cook. In 1984, at the age of 22, Adrià joined the kitchen staff of El Bulli as a line cook. Eighteen months later he became the head chef.
In 1994, Ferran Adrià and Juli Soler (his partner) sold 20% of their business to Miquel Horta (a Catalan millionaire and philanthropist and son of the founder of Nenuco) for 120 million Pesetas. This event became a turning point for el Bulli: the money was used to finance an expansion of the kitchen and the relationship with Horta opened the door to new clients, businessmen, and politicians who helped spread the word about the creative experimentation happening at the time in Cala Montjoi.[2]
Along with British chef Heston Blumenthal, Adrià is often associated with "molecular gastronomy," although like Blumenthal the Catalan chef does not consider his cuisine to be of this category.[3] Instead, he has referred to his cooking as deconstructivist.[4] He defines the term as 'Taking a dish that is well known and transforming all its ingredients, or part of them; then modifying the dish's texture, form and/or its temperature. Deconstructed, such a dish will preserve its essence... but its appearance will be radically different from the original's.'[5] His stated goal is to "provide unexpected contrasts of flavour, temperature and texture. Nothing is what it seems. The idea is to provoke, surprise and delight the diner."[6] As he likes to say, "the ideal customer doesn't come to elBulli to eat but to have an experience."
ElBulli was only open for about six months of the year, from mid-June to mid-December. Adrià spent the remaining six months of the year perfecting recipes in the workshop "elBulliTaller" in Barcelona. The restaurant closed on July 30, 2011.[7] It will reopen as a creativity center in 2014.[8]
ElBulli had 3 Michelin stars and was one of the best restaurants in the world. It received first place in the Restaurant Top 50 in 2002. Then in 2005, it ranked second. It was again awarded the first place in 2006, and retained this title in 2007, 2008 and 2009, making a record 5 times in the top spot. In 2010, after elBulli announced it would close for good the next season, the title was awarded to Noma of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Adrià is well known for creating "culinary foam." Adrià explored foams created without the addition of cream or egg white; foams are made of a flavoured liquid and an additive (such as lecithin), then aerated through a variety of methods, including whipping with animmersion blender or extrusion from a siphon bottle equipped with N2O cartridges. Further culinary processes (such as freeze-drying or freezing with liquid nitrogen) may be applied to foams as well. Using a single flavoured liquid allows the flavour of the final product to be less diluted and thus more intense.
Adrià is the author of several cookbooks including A Day at El Bulli, El Bulli 2003–2004 and Cocinar en Casa (Cooking at Home). With his young assistant Daniel Picard, Adrià has made almonds into cheese and asparagus into bread with the help of natural ingredients.[9]
Adrià has been a featured chef on Great Chefs television.[10]
In the fall of 2010, Adrià and José Andrés will teach a culinary physics course "Science and Cooking" at Harvard University.[11]
In October 2010, Adrià announces an alliance with Telefónica.[12]
In March 2012 he announced the new project he's working on: LaBullipedia.[13] In a later interview he described as "A Western haute cuisine Wikipedia at the service of information but also creativity".[14]

Controversy[edit]

Adrià denounced his fellow 3-star Michelin cook Santi Santamaria who described his approach to cuisine as "pretentious". TraditionalistSanti Santamaria attacked Adrià's dishes in El Bulli as unhealthy, alleging that "Adrià's dishes are designed to impress rather than satisfy and used chemicals that actually put diners' health at risk". Top chefs, however, accused Santamaria, who runs the 3-star Can Fabes also in Catalonia, of envy and "endangering the reputations of Spanish kitchens".[21] The criticism has split top Spanish chefs into pro- and anti-Adrià camps.[22] Unusual dishes that have been criticized include frozen whisky sour candy, white garlic and almond sorbet, tobacco-flavoured blackberry crushed ice and Kellogg's paella (Rice Krispies, shrimp heads and vanilla-flavoured mashed potatoes).
German food writer, Jörg Zipprick, accused Adrià of more or less poisoning his customers with the additives he uses in his cuisine and said that Adrià's menu should carry health warnings: "These colorants, gelling agents, emulsifiers, acidifiers and taste enhancers that Adrià has introduced massively into his dishes to obtain extraordinary textures, tastes and sensations do not have a neutral impact on health".[23]

Works[edit]

el Bulli 2003–2004 Cookbook
In October 2008, Ferran Adrià published A Day At El Bulli along with Juli Soler, and Albert Adrià. The book describes 24-hours at the El Bulli restaurant, with images, commentary, photographs and 30 recipes. Most of the recipes included are complex and require many out-of-the ordinary kitchen appliances, such as a Pacojet, freeze-dryer, liquid nitrogen tank, candyfloss machine and Perspex molds.
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