THE KING'S NEW CHEF

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 108, 10 May 1938, Page 16

THE KING'S NEW CHEF

SON OF PARISIAN SCULPTOR

A young French boy, learning to be a pastrycook, walked the streets of Paris just before the war with a basket of pastries on his head. He dreamed of the day when he would leave the pastry kitchen to become a great chef. He little dreamed that the day would come when he would make his pastries in' a Royal kitchen and be appointed chef to a British Sovereign, writes Marianne Playfayre in the London "Daily Telegraph." . The boy was. Rene' Rdussin. son of a Parisian sculptor. More than twenty years' experience in every branch of his chosen calling has made him a master of his craft and given him a knowledge of the tastes of the great. His experience of cooking in various parts of the world—he is probably the greatest globe-trotter among chefs who have attained fame —will stand him ii: good stead in his new appointment as chef to the King.

At Buckingham Palace, Sandringham, Balmoral, and Windsor he will have to cook for guests from all parts of the world.

At one time he had under him a team of eighteen chefs, who thought nothing of preparing several banquets a day. That was when he worked for a firm of caterers.

He has been chef In private houses in England and South Africa. He has been in charge of the kitchens of a luxury liner on Mediterranean and Atlantic cruises. One, of the railway companies secured him for a time for their exclusive hotels.

M. Roussin is never happier than among the copper pots and pans which he regards as the perfect cooking utensils. He has a favourite sport—swimming. The line of noted chefs to whom he succeeds includes Antonin Careme, who designed the kitchens at Windsor Castle for Queen Victoria; "Father" Cedard, King George the Fifth's chef, and Henri Foupart, summoned from retirement in France to act as Coronation chef last year.