Albert Roux is many things. He’s the chef who, along with his brother Michel, won Britain its first, second and third Michelin star at their restaurant Le Gavroche. He’s a legend. He’s a charming Frenchman, and he’s the man who I’m having lunch with today.

Le Gavroche has influenced and shaped British cuisine like no other restaurant. It’s a haven for people wanting classic cuisine made with the finest ingredients.

Across the ocean from Le Gavroche, on a farm at the tip of Africa, I find myself with Albert and his wife of three years, Cheryl. They are visiting Vondeling wine estate in the Voor Paardeberg. Albert has known the owner for years, and stocks some of the estate’s wines at Le Gavroche.

Albert is in the kitchen, naturally. He’s pouring cream into a large stockpot that’s bubbling with mushrooms and herbs. “I cook with a lot of cream,” he says. “My food is rich.

“For lunch we’re having Caesar salad with real Roquefort. I smuggled the cheese into the country in my suitcase,” he says mischievously. “I was concerned the sniffer dogs would find it!”

Smuggling ingredients across borders seems to be a habit for Albert – when Le Gavroche opened in 1967, certain ingredients were impossible to come by in Britain. Albert’s wife would drive to France and smuggle ingredients such as foie gras, poulet de bresse and Camembert over the English border.

Albert finishes stirring his sauce and pulls a tray of beef fillets towards him. He rubs them with salt and herbs. “The less you do to them the better,” he says referring to the cuts of meat. “If you have a really fine ingredient, less is definitely more. It’s like a beautiful woman who only takes five minutes in front of the mirror.”

We leave the fillets to roast in the oven. A table has been set up in the courtyard for us. In the dappled shade, Vondeling wine-maker Matthew Copeland pours us generous glasses of Petit Blanc. We tuck into the salad with gusto – the Caesar salad is a true classic and this, in Cheryl’s opinion, is what marks the difference between a cook and a chef. “Nobility and an in-depth knowledge of the classics,” she says.

This Albert has in spades. Sons and grandsons of charcutiers, the Roux brothers grew up on a farm in Burgundy. As a young lad, Albert cooked for the officers’ mess during the war in Algeria, a culinary period he describes as “cooking whatever I could catch”.

From there, the Roux brothers went on to become personal chefs for the Cazalet and Rothschild families. These families offered both financial and personal support when the brothers opened Le Gavroche. The brothers’ small menu, which comprised true French classics, attracted stars, both Michelin and Hollywood ­– Charlie Chaplin and Ava Gardner attended the opening night.

Albert’s son, Michel Junior, has long since taken over the apron strings at Le Gavroche, and Albert is enjoying a state of relative retirement that sees him consulting, appearing on TV and playing practical jokes. “I’m an eternal joker,” he says, like a man who has long decided this fact.

The urchin in Les Misérables inspired the name Le Gavroche. While there’s nothing ragamuffin about the restaurant, the name comes from the scene where the little urchin defiantly challenges the soldiers. It’s this defiance that characterises the Roux legacy.

“It was mayhem my darling,” Albert says when quizzed about the reaction to their first Michelin star. “The news went worldwide. The French ambassador rang me one morning to tell me he was very proud of me. I wanted to tell him to f-off.”

“Baba,” he says to his wife, “will you come cut the beef?” Cheryl sharpens a knife while winking at her husband. The two clearly have a playful relationship. They love eating out and there’s been no shortage of that on their trip to Cape Town.

Terroir stood out for them. “Michael is a fantastic chef,” enthuses Albert. “Another place we enjoyed was Harbour House, really fantastic setting and delicious oysters – a great place for seafood.”

The beef is perfectly cooked, of course. The slices of rare, pink meat are served with horseradish and a light jus, made with the run-off juice and white wine.

Albert is hesitant to get onto the topic of food trends. “Food is not fashion and should never be treated as such,” he says emphatically. “I’ve seen the birth of fusion cuisine, or rather confusion cuisine. I’ve seen lean cuisine – where the only thing that wasn’t lean was the bill.”

“New trends in food will come from the ‘new’ countries. Young chefs from the new world, like South Africa, will have the most influence on how cuisine is shaped in the coming years.”

Albert knows a thing or two about up-and-coming young chefs. He’s mentored a veritable herd of them. Marco Pierre White, Gordon Ramsay, Pierre Koffman and Marcus Wareing, to name just a few, have all worked at his hot pass.

“Gordon Ramsay is a lovely man, he has such a big heart,” injects Albert. “He’s not the temperamental person you see on TV. The public sees him the way the media wants him to be seen; he’s not like that at all.”

Albert is also no stranger to controversy himself. He didn’t storm around the kitchen making reality hopefuls squirm, but his business is a family business, and that can be trickier than a twice-baked soufflé.

His brother Michel wanted just one restaurant. Ever the entrepreneur, Albert opened more restaurants. Eventually they separated the business, so that Albert would run Le Gavroche and Michel would take over the Waterside Inn (another Michelin-studded restaurant).

“To run a family business is something really fantastic,” he says tucking into his wife’s peppermint dessert. “But then again it can be bloody awful!”

An oozing mound of Camembert (also smuggled) is sweating centre stage. “This cheese is simply obscene,” Albert says with admiration, directing swathes towards his plate.

Our lunch is at an end, the cheese quickly robbed of its contents. I leave the company of the Rouxs with the feeling that this legacy is nowhere near its final curtain call. In fact, it’s about to experience its third act.

Meet Emily, daughter of Michel Junior, granddaughter of Albert and grand-niece of Michel. The 19-year-old has wanted to be a chef since she was a toddler. She has grown up in the heat of the kitchen. Moreover, she has since studied cordon bleu, and has done “bloody well”. La femme Roux enters Le Gavroche.

By Malu Lambert

To win case of Vondeling wine enter here.