Taking The Michel

Michel Roux Jr. proves himself to be a modern day Scrooge

Michel Roux Jr. plays the jovial giant on television and is lauded by many as a great chef. He’s undoubtedly talented but, sadly, in his own business, he has been anything but a saint. Though this member of ‘The Club’ has now promised to change his ways and give his staff the service charge he had previously been dipping into for extra profit (he conveniently termed it “revenue”), one cannot help but observe that he only did so after getting caught out.

Aside from being yet another overpaid BBC staple, Roux Jr. has previously admitted to stingily feeding his staff potato peelings at his restaurants. Here, in contrast, though, is a chef who buys himself £500 coats at Asprey (that he never wears) and here is a man who loves Krug champagne at £285 a pop; here also is an individual who is a brand ambassador for Lexus (he has two of their cars) and here is a person who also owns a holiday home in the South of France.

In a statement, issued on his website on Friday, multi-millionaire Roux Jr. remarked:

“You may have read a recent report in the national press that Le Gavroche was underpaying some junior staff members. I would like to reassure you that the welfare of our staff is of primary importance, and that all our staff are receiving the correct salary. The hospitality industry needs a lot of hard work to create a fabulous dining experience for guests, and the fact that Le Gavroche is a great place to work is, we hope, apparent to everyone who dines with us”.

“In order to provide a better working environment, we took the decision earlier this year to close the restaurant all day Monday, as well as being closed Saturday lunchtime, and all day Sunday, and I have also decided to increase even further the amount of time off enjoyed by all restaurant employees, at the same time maintaining all salaries at the current level despite less hours being worked. Le Gavroche will implement this through closing the restaurant for lunch on Tuesdays, so future opening hours, from March 2017 onwards, will be dinner only Tuesday and Saturday, lunch and dinner Wednesday, Thursday and Friday”.

Elsewhere, though, Jay Rayner leapt to the defence of his “mate”, responses included such comments as Roux Jr. “set himself up for this fall, through a combination of conceit, disingenuousness and level of celebrity”. Another remarked: “He employs people who make him very wealthy and pays them less than minimum wage” whilst on another site one more summed it all up: “This man plays the nice guy but beneath it all he’s just a selfish, greedy s**t who doesn’t give a f**k about anyone other than himself”. They got it in one: Michel Roux Jr. is actually nothing but a modern day Ebenezer Scrooge.