Imogen CalderwoodACCLAIMED celebrity chef Michel Roux Jr has named Mijas as the town that inspired him to take on the world, tastebuds first.
The 54-year-old French-English owner of the two-Michelin-starred Le Gavroche, in London, visited the Andalucian pueblo with his family, where he tasted things he had ‘never tasted before’.
“My first real memory of travelling is summer holidays with my parents,” said Roux, who was born in Kent in the UK.
“We drove all the way to Mijas, on the Costa del Sol. That’s a heck of a long drive – two days, with my sister next to me being a real pain and constantly whingeing – but I remember tasting things I’d never tasted before.
“I got a great big chunk of honey in the comb and was baffled as to how to attack it. I ended up just scraping and sucking it. I had orange juice, too – made with fresh, real, squeezed oranges.”
He said: “Very rarely will I sit down in a dank and dreary hotel and order the international bill of fare, like a bowl of pasta.
“I always go for the adventure, eating in places where the locals eat. Food is a joy, and whether you’re eating street food in Thailand or the finest dining possible, that feeling should be the same.”
From Mijas, Roux’s travels have taken him to eat crocodile in Broome, in northwest Australia; snake in China; and boiled pig’s head covered in pickle in Barbados.
