Photo Anthony Blake
The Roux brothers of London, England are culinary legends. Their sister restaurants, Le Gavroche and the Waterside Inn, are now on their second generation. In the late 1970s I worked for Chef Albert Roux at Le Gavroche. The cuisine at the time was rooted in the classics. In fact, some dishes dated back to the 1800s and were derived from such masters at Escoffier, Dubois, Careme, Nignon and Villart. One of the joys was that Albert Roux collected original editions of books from these masters and they were available as reference works for any ambitious cook. Many of the recipes in these culinary "bibles" are unreserved luxury from the tables of old money and royalty.
The egg dish pictured above was long a standard at Le Gavroche. It is a fresh artichoke bottom filled with a smoked salmon and truffle mixture bound with home made mayonnaise flavored with ketchup and cognac, topped with cold poached egg and adorned with an aspic glazed disk of smoked salmon with a button of sliced truffle. Hungry?
Chef Michael