Why You Have To Think Differently to Win a Michelin Star in 2026 - Emily Roux

This week on Hungry: Emily Roux reflects on building Caractère with her husband Diego Ferrari, earning its Michelin star, and learning that excellence depends on patience, consistency and a tightly connected team. She shares lessons from working in Paris, Monaco, Japan and alongside leading chefs, revealing how curiosity, adaptability and deep immersion shaped her cooking. The conversation explores the Roux family legacy, her childhood inside Le Gavroche, the assumptions that come with a famous surname and her determination to establish herself independently. Emily also discusses the realities behind restaurant ownership — rent negotiations, staffing, motherhood, difficult conversations and the financial pressure of surviving Covid. From London’s restaurant boom and Japan’s devotion to ingredients to the importance of sauces, crockery and customer experience, Emily explains how Caractère blends classical foundations with a lighter, more contemporary identity — and why good things, including Michelin stars, take time. Ayra is your external front of house. An artificially intelligent communications manager that lives on your website and across your social channels, chatting and responding to customers 24/7 with warmth and personality. She's trained on your business and built to act. Taking the reservation, holding the card, sending the reminder, recovering the lost booking. Instantly and autonomously. click the link to learn more. 📙Download HUNGRY Big Banging Reading list here 🧾 HUNGRY survey would be so grateful if you may please fill out ON THE MENU: 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:05 Why Michelin Success Took Seven Years 00:08:01 How Two-Star Chefs Think 00:16:34 Inside a No-Shortcuts Kitchen 00:21:00 Why Caractère Rewrote the Tasting Menu 00:32:07 The Brutal Reality of Restaurant Rent 00:38:02 Japan, France and Britain Compared 00:46:54 What Le Gavroche Taught Emily Roux 00:53:06 Can Caractère Earn Two Michelin Stars? 01:03:08 The Woman Behind the Roux Dynasty 01:08:22 Motherhood Versus Restaurant Guilt 01:11:40 Growing Up Inside Le Gavroche 01:15:56 Why Hard Conversations Build Better Leaders 01:20:43 Escaping the Roux Nepotism Label 01:27:41 How Covid Nearly Ended Everything 01:34:07 Why Good Decisions Need Time 01:36:05 Michel Roux’s Best Advice 01:38:14 Turning Criticism Into Better Leadership ============================================== ♨️Still bloody HUNGRY? Course ya are. Each week I spend 15 hours writing my newsletter. It’ll take you 5 mins to read. Full of wisdom from the biggest names in food and drink. Subscribe here - https://hungryfeast.beehiiv.com/🍲 ============================================== 🤝 Let's Connect! ►Let’s link-up here ​ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-pope/) ►Stalk me here ​ (https://www.instagram.com/_hungry.pod/) This episode was edited by: G.Thomas Craig (https://www.linkedin.com/in/gthomascraig/)