Le Gavroche

Le Gavroche Restaurant - Michelin Two Star dining from Michel Roux Jr.

Michelin Two Star dining from Michel Roux Jr.

Le Gavroche was the first UK restaurant to be awarded one, two and three Michelin stars.

The chef de cuisine is Michel Roux Jr, who took over the reins from his father, Albert in 1991.

The fact that Le Gavroche continues to maintain the highest of reputations amongst both diners and critics is testament to the excellence of the food being prepared by Michel.

http://www.le-gavroche.co.uk

Le Gavroche: Restaurant Review - Decanter

A little offshoot survives, in the form of family trees of professionally related people, like chefs.

In the UK, at the top of a large culinary tree, are the Roux brothers, whose restaurants trained the generation of chefs who made London the gastronomic hub it is today.

The wine cellar is vast, built up over the years, and mainly French; the list runs to 54 pages and includes 50 by the glass, dozens of half-bottles and more than 100 magnums, both with a good spread of vintages.

Mark-ups on younger and less expensive wines are London standard, but older vintages are less of a push.

The best strategy might be to arrive early, order a glass of wine in the cosy upstairs bar, and have a good look at the list.

What Le Gavroche served at its 50th birthday lunch - Decanter

Many of the chefs at the lunch to celebrate Le Gavroche 50th started their careers with the Roux family.

Michel Roux Jr paid tribute to his father Albert and uncle Michel who started the restaurant in Lower Sloane Street in 1967 whilst thanking his staff present and past.

In its 50 years, Le Gavroche has arguably witnessed, and taken part in, a revolution in British food culture.

Guests were treated to a menu of cockle and skrei cod stomach risotto served with Le Soula Blanc 2011, noix de ris de veau with a Côte-Rôtie “les Jumelles” 1967 from Paul Jaboulet Aine, slow cooked shoulder of Herwick lamb  with potato skins and wild garlic condiment (the Herwick lamb supplier had travelled down from the Lake district to be present) with Château Lilian Ladouys 2010 and Gavroche Dark 71% Chocolate Mousse, oranged Balvenie Caribbean cask whisky jelly and shortbread with Vieux Rivesaltes 1989, Domaine Gerard Bertrand.

Michel Roux Jr told the guests ‘you are family’, a view reinforced by the non-stop reminiscing and anecdotes that the guests shared or their memories of  50 years of classic Roux hospitality.

Le Gavroche - London Restaurant Reviews | Hardens

The menu exceptionnel is a firm favourite, and the wine flight, although on the face of it rather expensive, provides very suitable choices to match the particular characteristics of each dish; an example of this was an English Chardonnay which, although not easily identifiable as being that cepage, perfectly matched the stone bass on the plate.

Salted and seared stone bass with a sensational hazelnut condiment followed and the dish was raised to another level by the well-judged addition of chicory, balsamic flakes and some surprising orange.

The two meat dishes were both superb: poached and glazed pork cheek, tender as you like and complimented beautifully by a pumpkin and mustard purée and a really tasty rosemary jus, and then a supreme roast Lake District loin of venison backed up with venison stuffed red cabbage and a lovely juniper sauce.

The Calvados Baba was matched with a Canadian ice cider, which made the whole dish perhaps just a touch too appley for our palates.

We concluded that perhaps the reason was that, bizarrely, with the first and the final dishes matching each other in uniform lightness and softness, and those in between covering a rather dark-coloured palette, the visual aspect of the food on the table lacked variety and from that aspect classicism had suffered in the face of modernism.

Review of London British restaurant Le Gavroche in October 2013 ...

Soufflé suissesse is a signature dish of Le Gavroche, an old fashioned, rich and delicious cheese soufflé cooked on double cream that has been simmered and reduced.

Snow crab gratin (£24.20) with parsley and espelette pepper in a Hollandaise sauce had good quality crab, the cheese topping enjoyable and the pepper well controlled, but it was quite salty, even to my taste.

Turbot (£48.60) was served with heritage carrots, radish and chive butter sauce; this generous piece of turbot had lovely flavour and was superbly cooked, the simple chive and butter sauce letting the fish be the star of the dish without too much flavour distraction (18/20).

Desserts are a highlight at Le Gavroche, and this soufflé was hard to fault, the texture light, even cooked through with plenty of fruit flavour (19/20).

The set lunch here is a relative bargain but you should not expect the same level of dishes: clearly a whole meal with wine for the price of a main course in the evening is going to involve compromise.

Classics revisited: Le Gavroche

I had to wait until my 30th birthday to be taken to Le Gavroche, but there at lunch the other day were not one but two tables of parents treating their tweenies.

The sight of anyone in a restaurant under voting age would usually result in me requesting the quietest table in the corner, but here that wasn’t an option; not only was Le Gavroche fully booked, but there was also no need.

A meal at Le Gavroche should be part of anyone’s education.

Michel lightened things up a little, but Le Gavroche is essentially still the restaurant founded by his father and uncle and the last bastion in London of classically rich French haute cuisine.

Other restaurants have signature dishes; Le Gavroche has a signature menu, a roll call of legendary creations.

Restaurant review: Le Gavroche | Life and style | The Guardian

I first ate at Le Gavroche in 1974, seven years after Albert and Michel Roux opened their doors to the public on Lower Sloane Street in Chelsea.

But I particularly remember two other things about that first meal at Le Gavroche: the duck, which was so rich, so rare and so very French, and the lady, who didn't even like her soup.

Thirty-four years on, I would fondly like to think that it may have been a young Silvano Giraldin who helped us through that menu, although, according to gastronomic archives, he joined Le Gavroche in 1971 and was not promoted to general manager until 1975, so he may have just poured the Malvern water.

Apart from a move to Mayfair in 1981, opening for lunch, a bit of a hike in prices and son Michel taking over the cooking from papa Albert, the Le Gavroche model has remained largely unchanged.

For somewhere such as Le Gavroche, with its comfort and impeccable service, the set price of £48 is a relative snip, seeing as it includes pre-lunch nibbles, a choice of three dishes from first, main and desserts (for which one of the choices is the magnificent cheese trolley), half a bottle of wine per person (a judicious choice of two whites and two reds), water, coffee and petits fours.