The latest spin-off from the hugely successful Masterchef franchise, The Professionals, featuring young chefs who work in the more humble reaches of the culinary trade, has been a ratings success for BBC2, pulling in 2.4m viewers, more than a tenth of the nightly audience.

Regular Masterchef host Greg Wallace (above, right) has been joined again for the second series of the show by Michel Roux Jr (above, left), son of the legendary French restaurateur Michel, and no slouch in the kitchen himself. For the up-and-coming contestants on the show, the chance to cook for Roux, head chef at Le Gavroche since 1993, is enough of a prize.

The Mayfair-based restaurant is one of the capital’s longest-standing destination restaurants, having been set up in 1967 by Michel and his brother Albert. It was the first British establishment to gain three Michelin stars, boasting such signature dishes as Le Caneton Gavroche, a “whole poached duck in a light consomme served with three sauces for two”.

Roux is a natural for television, eschewing the ferocious effing and blinding of his friend Gordon Ramsay to instead communicate his displeasure with any gastronomic gaffes through a remarkable assortment of facial expressions. While more gentle in tone than the volatile Scot, the Anglo-French chef’s succint demolitions of poor kitchen performances are equally devastating, something the 49-year-old has no qualms about.

“[The show] is aggressive,” Roux told the Daily Telegraph, “in as much as it’s for real. If [the chefs] are wrong, we tell them. We never bully them. But the challenges we set are as near to real as you can get.” And the rewards for the chefs when they are commended by Roux – in itself an accolade few will ever receive – can be great; the winner of the last series of The Professionals, Derek Johnstone, now works for Roux in London.

But for some, including the Guardian‘s Vicky Frost, the true star of the show has been Monica Galleti. A sous chef at Le Gavroche, Galetti whittles the initial four contestants down to three by asking them to perform ‘simple’ food prep exercises like spatchcocking a poussin. “She may be the best thing ever to happen to MasterChef,” says Frost. “Totally fierce, totally fair” and should be “given her own series”. 

FIRST POSTED SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

I met his father in my London days. He was a gentle man as I recall, so I’ll watch this with interest