Michel Roux Jr, 57, slammed lean chicken breast, which is popular with health bloggers, as ‘horrible and awful’ before revealing how much he loves to eat turkey livers on toast
If you had turkey breast for your Christmas dinner, Michel Roux Jr has some advice for you: Next year, eat the bird’s liver instead.
You might assume a two Michelin-starred chef such as Michel Roux Jr would be hankering for some succulent turkey breast – it seems he would rather eat the animal’s heart.
The 57-year-old slammed lean chicken breast, which is often heralded by health bloggers, as ‘horrible and awful’ before revealing how much he loves to eat turkey livers on toast.
Speaking about the breast, he said: ‘It’s a slab of dry, white protein. It’s awful’.
‘Horrible… it’s horrible. And unless you’re a bodybuilder, why else would you want to eat just pure protein like that? There is not pleasure in it.’
Roux, who is the son of celebrity chef and restaurateur Albert Roux, added: ‘Eating is pleasure, or should be a pleasurable moment, and the thigh meat of the chicken is far more flavourful than a chicken breast, for me.’
The chef, who took over the exclusive Mayfair restaurant Le Gavroche from his father in 1991, made a case for families to be open to cooking the turkey’s ‘fantastic’ giblets rather than just throwing them away.
Roux, who has just released a recipe book about offal called Les Abats, suggested that people following a healthy lifestyle and wanting to eat high amounts of protein should try tucking into animal hearts instead of white breast
‘The livers of a turkey are absolutely stunning’, he said at the BBC Good Food Show. ‘They are so so good. Turkey livers on toast, oh my word. The hearts, the hearts are so good.’
And Roux, who has just released a recipe book about offal called Les Abats, suggested that people following a healthy lifestyle and wanting to eat high amounts of protein should try tucking into animal hearts instead of white breast.
The father-of-one said: ‘If you want lean meat then there can be no leaner than heart or liver. Heart is so lean, it’s just pure protein.’
The established chef, who has hosted BBC One’s Saturday Kitchen, even offered some rather unconventional beauty advice for people wanting thick nails and hair.
Roux called turkey breast: ‘Horrible… it’s horrible. And unless you’re a bodybuilder, why else would you want to eat just pure protein like that? There is not pleasure in it’ and admitted that he enjoyed turkey liver on toast
‘And if you want make your nails and hair grow better’, he said. ‘Then eat collagen – so eat pigs feet, and veal feet, veal trotters – full of collagen. Couldn’t be better for you.’
Gwyneth Paltrow, 45, claims on her lifestyle website that it offal is ‘great for elasticity of skin as it is full of collagen’ and also helps with digestion
The benefits of eating collagen for beauty reasons has been hailed by celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Salma Hayek and the Hemsley sisters who drink something called bone broth.
The liquid is similar to a stock and involves simmering animal bones for up to 24 hours.
Miss Paltrow, 45, claims on her lifestyle website that it is ‘great for elasticity of skin as it is full of collagen’ and also helps with digestion.
Meanwhile, Miss Hayek has sworn the collagen-filled broth is ‘very good for all your health’.
However Dr Frankie Phillips, dietician and spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association, is not convinced eating collagen does much for your skin.
‘While having a balanced diet can help you have healthy hair and nails – there is no specific food which can magically transform and give you a healthy glow’, she said.
‘If you eat collagen, it is broken down and digested so it’s not going to have a miraculous effect.’
She added: ‘There is no convincing scientific research that shows that eating collagen is going to improve your skin.’
Although, Dr Phillips did admit that when cooked properly ‘offal can taste delicious’.