MICHEL Roux Jr. loves sausages. He really, really loves sausages ("It's as simple as that!"), so it makes sense that he's signed up to be the face of this year's British Sausage Week, which runs from today until November 8.

"Even though I have got French heritage, I was born in England and brought up on the great British banger," explains the chef, who heads up his family's two-starred Michelin restaurant, Le Gavroche, in London.

His current go-to sausage recipe is definitely on the gourmet end of the banger spectrum though: a take on beef bourguignon, it's pork sausages grilled and cooked like a stew in red wine sauce, and served with mashed potato.

In between cooking up a storm on the sausage front and leaving MasterChef: The Professionals in 2014, the 55-year-old has been braving budding cooks, ranging in age from nine to 12 years, in First Class Chefs on the Disney Channel UK.

"It was wonderful, absolutely wonderful," he says enthusiastically. "Having never worked with children on camera before, it was quite an experience, very heart-warming. And it was great to see them so passionate about food."

Were there any dramas?

"Loads and loads! They were working as teams, so sometimes they were best friends and, because they didn't always agree on how to cook a recipe, things could get very, very fraught - but they all made up in the end."

He's hopeful there will be a second season, but even if there isn't, his diary is already bulging over the next few months. There's a Channel 4 series he's just finished filming called The Diner, big plans for another cook book, and then there's the success of his daughter Emily and their joint projects to focus on too.

A keen marathon runner (20 and counting), he has been out of action for a few months due to a problem with his calf muscles, but promises: "Next year I'll come back with a vengeance."

Aside from the obvious health benefits, he explains that mentally, running is "a great escape, and to be on my own, that's really nice. And then, because you burn off a lot of calories, you can eat whatever you want. Haha!"

Just before Roux Jr. returns to his sausages, (he'll be taste-testing many of the 500 that will be on offer during British Sausage Week), since we're talking bangers, the question has to be asked... "My first ever car was a Peugeot 104. It was certainly rough around the edges. It was old and was even rougher round the edges when I sold it on to the next person - an even bigger banger!"

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