National Final to take place at the Alain Roux Culinary School
We are delighted to be holding the National Final 2024 at the Alain Roux Culinary School which has been created on the site of Michel Roux OBE’s former home at The Waterside Inn. The school was created as a unique centre of culinary education and training for the restaurant’s own kitchen and front of house staff, as well as guests, while the adjoining Michel Roux library holds Alain’s late father’s extraordinary collection of books. Its interiors were designed by Laura Roux.
The six national finalists will use state-of-the-art equipment on its six kitchen stations and will serve their dish to the judges in the library, which overlooks The Waterside Inn’s new herb garden and the rose garden planted in Michel Roux’s memory. The latter was inspired by the rose flavour he so loved to use in his patisserie. A fitting tribute, too, when all the Rouxs started their careers in patisserie.
Alain Roux said: “This Final will feel like a homecoming! We are literally bringing The Roux Scholarship home… to my father’s home and I could not be happier. There can be no better tribute, as we look to celebrate 40 years since the founding of The Scholarship by my father and uncle. The legacy of which he was most proud is The Roux Scholarship.
“Next year, in his own kitchen, we will choose our new Scholar to join the family. We will miss our loyal, talented friends at Westminster Kingsway College, but my Culinary School is the culmination of a dream I shared with my father. More than a loving tribute, it enhances, underpins and preserves the Roux family legacy for the next generation.”
Michel Roux Jr said: “In life, there are ‘pinch me’ moments and to be able to hold the 40th anniversary Roux Scholarship final in what was my uncle’s house is definitely one of them. Both brothers would be so proud to see the school and that we are holding the final there.”
For more information on the Culinary School and the courses in patisserie, sauces and many other subjects it offers, visit https://www.waterside-inn.co.uk/culinary-school/
