A life in the kitchen

This is an absolutely delightful, engrossing book which is very hard to put down. Michel Roux jr details the various stages of his upbringing and culinary training, with revealing insights into his family life and how it integrated with the Roux family's ethic regarding food right from the start.The book is a mixture of autobiography and recipes, and both aspects reveal an honest, down-to-earth and humourous personality which one might not expect given the cool, disciplined magnificence of Le Gavroche. The recipes vary between simple and challenging, but in many instances one gets the feeling that the results are achievable, if the ability is present, rather like a musician interpreting a classical piece.Michel's tales are full of fun and intrigue, outlining the antics of youth, the sexual tension in the kitchen, and of course the ongoing pursuit for the highest standards in food. The book is also revealing in its insights into how a restaurant is run, with interesting and varied accounts spanning the author's own career.This is a fascinating and utterly joyous book, which succinctly represents the sheer talent and charisma of this wonderful chef and his love of food.

One of my "go to chefs" for kitchen ideas. I took this book to the Good Food Show at the NEC and the Master signed it for me. I told him he, his father and uncle lives in my kitchen. Magic!

This is more than a cookbook.it is the life story of one of Britain's greatest chefs wrote in plain English and also contains a lot of Michels recipes as well.the book is very well laid out and gives a very good insight into this great chef.the recipes are also very good and most are well within reach of the average home cook.Overall I would recommend this book.

Its quite an interesting book to read but after a year I haven't actually tried out any of the recipes.

Anyone who enjoys cooking and takes an interest in the master’s work will love this book!It is frank, inspiring and the recipes are very, very good. Anyone can understand themand try them. The feeling of accomplishment when you succeed with such a master’srecipe is terrific and just makes you want to keep cooking.

My first impression was that this book is much heavier in weight than I imagined it would be...and indicates how much it actually contains ! Sweet, gentle memories of all sorts, inter-mixed with recipes. To say the book is appetizing, is no understatement. It made me want to take the lady in my life to Le Gavroche, partly because I know she'd appreciate all that it offers. May I just say that Le Gavroche was one of the Greatest experiences of my life; and we will enjoy trying some of the recipes from the book even though you'd have to be pretty good to make them as incredibly delicious as Michel can. Even a novice would get great inspiration from this book.

i love love love this book, not only is it full of amazing recipies that work (ive tried all but two) but you get a great background of the man himself...apart from the fact that i have a major crush on michel the book gives you everything from easy comforting recipies to the more challanging recipes from Gavroche..a wonderful book that will be treasured.

This is a good book but I have taken it to an oxfam book shop because it has most of its recipes in another Michel Roux book called ‘Cooking with the master chef’ which I already had in my collection. ‘Cooking with the master chef’ is a more modern book with more recipes in so I would absolutely recommend that book instead.

Concise, well told story line. Informative, enjoyable, and genuinely inspiring. Highly recommended.

Got to know him through "food&wine", on BBC, and have already tried some of his recipes with excelent results(specially the ones with mussels, which i love).Besides the recipes, his life story is quite interesting and well written.

Great reading and great chef....