Some food memories with Michel Roux - Part 2

Michel would sometimes bring the ingredients for a cassoulet or a choucroute when returning from Paris. We would then schedule either of these dishes to be on the lunch menu on a Saturday, I think these were really amongst Michel’s favourites, proper earthy cooking. We would have the choucroute for staff lunch with Michel providing bottles of Stella Artois (not bad at 11:15 on a Saturday morning!), I do wonder if the reason we had these dishes on the menu was so that he could take a really healthy portion back to Ryepeck with him!

Andouillette was one of Michel’s favourites which he also used to bring back from Paris. I remember once when he was eating with guests he wanted his Andouillette which had been in the fridge a while, I was nervous about sending it as it was really high, so I asked the waiter to check that he still wanted it. He said just tell Mark to send it, so with some apprehension, I did. He came to see me in the kitchen afterwards and said it was the best one he had tasted, I’m not sure if the rest of the table would have agreed! He also loved tripe, Tripes à la mode de Caen, he invited his friend Tony Rawlinson into the kitchen on a Saturday morning on a couple of occasions to cook the tripe which they both loved, once cooked we preserved it in glass jars so it would last, it took ages to lose the pungent aroma of the tripe from the kitchen.

January and February was truffle time, scrubbing off the earth with a (new) nail brush. Cooking the truffles in veal stock, putting them in kilner jars and preserving them for use during the year. While we had them fresh we would put Oeuf brouilles aux truffes on the specials menu; the eggs had been stored in a jar with the truffles to add extra pungency, the eggs were then scrambled with chopped truffle going through and some fresh truffle shaved onto the dish in front of the customer at the table. The truffle was weighed on its departure from the kitchen and on its return!

Michel loved fish cooked on the bone “Tronçon of turbot sauce choron” which was great utilisation of the large grill that we had, a large slice of turbot grilled on the bone with spinach, a potato “rose” lemon basket and sauce Choron. Now using only a few perfect ingredients is seen as the way forward, he must have been ahead of his time! 

All of the meat was cut to order and sometimes, when cutting fillet steaks, he would take a thin slice and either eat it raw with a pinch of sea salt or lightly oil it and cook it blue directly on the solid top joking that was what he did when he was in Algeria!

One of his menu favourites was Cassolette of crayfish and scallops, with lightly steamed crayfish tails and slices of scallops with long julienne of courgettes and fresh pasta in a dressing made from shellfish oil, grain mustard and lemon juice. This was a dish from the early days by Michel Perraud, head chef of The Waterside Inn when I started. When the old head chefs (Pierre Koffman, Christian Germain, Michel Perraud and myself ) were asked to go back and cook for various anniversary dinners Michel P asked me “why do I always get asked to cook this dish?” Probably because it was one of chef’s favourites and also a great starter! 

The Waterside was famous for its desserts, especially soufflés, particularly the Raspberry and the Mirabelle, but we did deviate from fruit based and Grand-Marnier soufflé was particularly one of his favourites.

Tarte citron is probably the dessert that I most associate with Michel, he even provided M&S with the recipe, it was served with a slice of Delice Cassis and a pulled sugar flower, beautiful in its simplicity. Never bettered. 

It’s good to reminisce, about such a powerful and influential chef!

Mark Dodson.