Michel Roux Jr: Underpaying workers is a stain on my character
Michel Roux Jr: Underpaying workers is a stain on my character
Telegraph reportersSun, November 8, 2026 at 6:00 AM UTC
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Michel Roux Jr says he ‘put his hand up immediately’ when the underpayment was discovered - Alamy Stock Photo/Ben Queenborough
Michel Roux Jr has described a 2016 investigation that found kitchen staff at his restaurant were being paid below the minimum wage as “a stain on my character that I will take to my grave”.
The 66-year-old English-French celebrity chef was found to have been paying some kitchen staff at Le Gavroche, his Michelin-starred Mayfair restaurant, less than the minimum wage in a Guardian investigation 10 years ago.
Following the investigation, Roux apologised and offered backpay to those who had been affected, saying the underpayment had been unintentional.
Speaking about the incident to Lauren Laverne on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, he said: “At the time, I put my hand up immediately, and I wasn’t looking for any excuses or scapegoats or anything like that.
“I’m the boss at the end of the day; the buck stops with me. It’s a stain on my character and [one] that I will take to my grave, and I feel awful about it now.
Roux says the hospitality industry still has work to do to attract young talent - Jim Dyson
“The remedy was to pay what was missing and to try and cut the hours, which is something in our industry that we are really trying very hard to do.”
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Roux, who has appeared on TV shows including the BBC’s Masterchef: The Professionals, Saturday Kitchen, and Food and Drink, closed Le Gavroche in 2024 to spend more time with his family. He said he had refused to sell it because it was “more than a restaurant – it was my way of life”.
He went on to say that long hours were putting young people off starting a career in the hospitality industry.
Roux added: “I believe that the hospitality industry is working very hard to remedy that, to make it much more appealing to youngsters to come in.
“I think there’s still more to go in the industry. We’re complaining, ‘Oh, nobody wants to come and work for us’ – look at yourselves. Are we offering what youngsters want nowadays?”
Included in Roux’s Desert Island Discs selection were the Sex Pistols’ Anarchy in the UK, Bob Marley and the Wailers’ Three Little Birds, and David Guetta’s Shot Me Down.
The full interview can be heard on this week’s episode of Desert Island Discs, which will air on iPlayer on Sunday and on BBC Radio 4 on Friday, Nov 13, at 9am. It will not be broadcast on Radio 4 on Sunday because of a change to the schedule for Remembrance Day.
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
