Albert Roux, the French-born chef whose London restaurant Le Gavroche was the first in Britain to earn three Michelin stars, died on Monday. He was 85.
His death was confirmed in a statement on the restaurant’s website, citing Mr. Roux’s family.
The statement said that Mr. Roux “had been unwell for a while.” It did not give a cause of death or say where he had died.
Mr. Roux and his brother, Michel Roux, who died last year, brought fine dining to a new level in London with the opening of Le Gavroche in 1967 on Lower Sloane Street in Chelsea. It was named after the fictional boy character, or the “urchin,” in Victor Hugo’s “Les Misérables.”
It was the only restaurant to offer classic French cooking in London at the time.
Le Gavroche was the first restaurant in Britain to be awarded one, two and then three Michelin stars, and it was the first Michelin-rated restaurant to offer a set-price lunch. It was awarded its third Michelin star in 1982.
The restaurant, which moved to Mayfair in 1982, currently has two Michelin stars.
“He was a mentor for so many people in the hospitality industry, and a real inspiration to budding chefs, including me,” Mr. Roux’s son, Michel Roux Jr., who has run the restaurant since 1991, said in the statement.
Albert and Michel Roux were made honorary officers of the Order of the British Empire in 2002.
The Michelin Guide for Britain said on Twitter that Mr. Roux was “a father of the U.K. restaurant industry and his legacy will live on through the many chefs who passed through his kitchen.”
Among those chefs were Pierre Koffmann, Marco Pierre White and Gordon Ramsay. In an Instagram post on Wednesday, Mr. Ramsay described Mr. Roux as a “legend, the man who installed Gastronomy in Britain.”
A full obituary will be published soon.
