Emily Roux and Diego Ferrari on legacy, identity and the Roux family name

When Emily Roux decided her career path, there was always going to be a balance to be struck – respecting the legacy of her family name, while flourishing as a chef in her own right.

Alongside husband and business partner Diego Ferrari, she has found the perfect match in Notting Hill.

Opening in 2018, Caractère combines the French and Italian heritages of Emily and Diego, with its precision and relaxed atmosphere earning the restaurant a Michelin star in February 2025.

Balancing legacy with independence

Something Emily knows she will never avoid is the links to her family name, the Rouxs being one of the most famous culinary families in the UK.

But being a Roux is something Emily embraces, particularly as part of competition The Roux Scholarship with her dad Michel Jr and uncle Alain, a competition to showcase young chefs, originally set up by Michel and Albert Roux in the 1980s.

Now in her mid-30s, it is something Emily has become more accustomed to.

“I think there’ll always be pressure because of the name,” she admitted.

“Growing up and maturing, having kids, I think resilience and patience is something that I’ve gotten better at.

“I think as a 20-year-old, when you’ve just started out in your career, you’re so full of passion and ambition and want to do everything as quick as possible. But I think now the pressure is not the same.

“I want to, of course, be part of the legacy that my family have built and continue that legacy.

“So I think there’s less of a pressure now than I probably felt when I was younger. I’ve just gotten used to it now and I can deal with it better.”

She added: “It was both pressure that I put on myself and from the outside in. Pressure on myself, that’s part of who I am and part of my DNA. I want to do well.

“I’m somebody who is quite precise and concise and wants things well done, so I will put pressure on myself to do things well, regardless of whether it’s in a kitchen or not.

“Definitely there was also pressure from the outside, not from family members, but just in general. That’s what I felt. Maybe that wasn’t the case, but I kind of felt that.

“I think for any young chef, you want your own identity. You want your own food. That is the whole point of having your own restaurant, to be able to do your own food.

“I think that’s what we do at Caractère. That’s also why the name of the restaurant is Caractère. It all came from Diego and I’s extreme stubbornness, and in French that’s one word: caractère. They’re full of character, i.e. very stubborn.

“So I think it’s only normal that we’ve put our own stamp to this and that it’s outside of the Roux name.”

Building Caractère together

Caractère has a small team, where both Emily and Diego play active roles in running the kitchen, as well as all the processes behind the scenes.

And, rightly so, Emily is proud of what they have built.

“It’s been an incredible journey,” she said.

“Over the eight years, it’s been ups and downs and all sorts of roadblocks in the way, including Covid, Brexit and Tube strikes, which affect us massively.

“I don’t think we ever would have imagined having to deal with everything that we dealt with.

“When Covid hit, we also had our first son that year, so it was a lot of newness. That was hard.

“I’ve got to say I’m very thankful that I have a husband and partner in the business to be an extra strong person beside me.”

She added: “It really does take a village, and having the two of us, Diego and I, makes us stronger and better, and altogether it’s easier to ask questions.

“Sometimes you feel you know the right answer, but when you ask somebody else the question and you get another opinion, then you question your own answer.

“So I think that’s actually very good, very positive.”

A partnership in and out of the kitchen

Milan-born Diego first got into hospitality aged 14, moving to Paris six years later to work under Alain Ducasse.

He later took on the role of head chef of Le Gavroche, before opening Caractère with Emily.

“Obviously marrying into one of the most iconic families in the UK was a bit of pressure in the beginning,” said Diego.

“But from the beginning, this family was very easy for me to work with, to take off this pressure. It was not that difficult.

“I think it was just the first impression. The first impression was, okay, what am I going to do? But then it was pretty smooth and easy.”

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He added: “Working with Emily together and touching pretty much all the jobs that we do in a restaurant is very important. It is also very important to have different jobs in the restaurant.

“Emily does a lot of paperwork, accounting. I look after suppliers a bit more, the savoury in the kitchen, she looks after the sweet.

“But at the end I need to know what she thinks about the dish idea or how something tastes.

“We are very much complementary in what we do, and I think this is the secret. Don’t try to take the work of the other and more just arrive at the end together.”

Staying true to Caractère’s identity

The hospitality landscape has changed since Caractère first opened its doors.

Asked how much their own restaurant has altered, Emily said: “I don’t think we’ve changed our identity since we opened in 2018.

“I think we’ve very much stayed true to our values in that ingredients speak for themselves. Choose the great ingredients, the great produce and protein and vegetables, and try and sublime them in the simplest way, but using our traditional and core foundations that we were brought up with.

“Although we’re from two different food cultures and heritage, Italy and France, with me born and raised in the UK, I think we try and bring the best of all of that together. That is still very much what we believe and do today.

“I think we’ve definitely fine-tuned and evolved during those years, and all of those hurdles that we’ve gone through have obviously tweaked those things along the way as well. But I think our core values have stayed the same.”

Diego concurred, adding: “The style of food at Caractère obviously evolved along the years.

“We do much more attention to detail, but the sense of what we do, I think it’s still the same from day one.

“We want something not too complicated, very good, and to source the best product as we can.

“Obviously seasonality is very, very important and good cooking, good sauce, good technique, and I think it’s stayed pretty much the same from day one until now.”

Creating a restaurant that feels like home

Asked what she hopes guests feel about Caractère, Emily said: “I would like every customer that comes through the door to feel at home outside of home. I would like them, when they leave here, to feel like they’ve joined a little bit of this family.

“I genuinely think that’s possible, one, because all of our staff have been here for nearly two to three years, so you will see the same people when you come back. And I think the consistency that we deliver is spot on.

“I genuinely feel that we’re at a very beautiful place where front of house, back of house, everything is just so perfectly intertwined that you will feel like you’re at home, but with exquisite food that you might not be able to replicate at home, which makes it that extra little special.”