The First Masterchef: Michel Roux on Escoffier
Michel Roux Jr explores the life and influence of his great culinary hero, Georges Auguste Escoffier. The man who turned eating into dining. The first great restaurant chef, Escoffier established restaurants in grand hotels all over the world and in these centres of luxury and decadence, the world's most glamorous figures of the day would mix: actresses and princes, duchesses and opera singers. Catering to this international jet set, Escoffier produced fabulous dishes that combined luxury and theatricality, elevating restaurant food to an art form. In a time of untold luxury and decadence, when money and pleasure combined like never before, he cooked and named dishes for all of London's society - from Queen Victoria and Bertie, the fun-loving Prince of Wales, to the most glamorous entertainers of the day - Oscar Wilde, the actress Sarah Bernhardt and opera singer Nellie Melba. 125 years later, Michel joins historian Kate Williams to enjoy a very delicious Peach Melba in the Savoy today and discover how the Victorian British were convinced that eating out was the thing to do . Prior to Escoffier and the Ritz, 'nice' women would never have been seen eating in public.