Michel Roux: Service (and Masterchef)

While we often dined at the Waterside Inn in Bray, I ate at the Gavroche only once with my parents, in my late teens.  It was my mother's birthday and the one thing that sticks in my mind about that occasion was that she ordered a Negroni in the bar upstairs (equal parts gin, sweet vermouth and campari).  They served her a double and by the time our table was ready and we had to go downstairs she was quite tipsy!

Michel Roux has done a wonderful thing with his Service on the BBC.

My French ex-husband was a restaurant manager who had trained as such in France with a proper recognised qualification. He was a master at his trade which is still the love of his life. 

Our chef friends never quite understood the importance of Front of House; they arogantly didn't believe that you would come back to a restaurant where the food was average if the service was special, but not the other way around - there are just too many good restaurants to choose from.

I got very annoyed with the Guardian journalist John Crace's review of the programme - it is precisely because of people like him that poor/mediocre service is the norm in England - and from his confusion between Michel Roux Jr, Sr and Raymond Blanc I wonder why he was writing an article relating to gastronomy in the first place.

His criticism of the show being that Michel was too nice and this doesn't make for good reality TV is simply ridiculous.  When the programme concluded, from the Tweets I read, there wasn't a dry eye anywhere amongst the viewers. It was precisely Michel's gentle, patient handling of the youngsters that made the show stand out as an enthralling, as well as educational, piece of reality television.

Having said that, my eldest son, currently 2 years into his law degree, was so inspired by the show he is wondering if this would not be a more suitable career - my only advice is please get your degree first and then you can do whatever you like!

And now Masterchef - the X-Factor version.  They obviously did listen to Mr Crace!  Masterchef was a great show, focusing on food and people's passion for it - let's hope that once these preliminary's are over, it will settle back down into the show we know and love.