Roast beef is soo English, it’s what the the French still call the English as a nick-name/ insult- “les rosbifs”- although wikipedia believes this may be because the English have a reputation for turning up in the France, and burning their lilly-white skin in the hot sun.
For a few years, you couldn’t get beef on the bone. You can now, and it’s worth tracking down, because it adds to the flavour of the beef. The other thing you need is some fat on the meat. Without the fat it just doesn’t taste, well, of beef.
The other thing it needs is a little bit of colour. Perfect beef, for me, is on the bone (beef rib) with some fat marbled through it, roasted in a hot hot oven for not quite long enough. It needs to be dark on the outside, and pink and juicy in the middle.
To the outside of the beef, before it goes into the oven, run in a mix of salt, dijon mustard and worcestershire sauce. To rest the beef on, under the beef, throw in some whole garlic cloves, 1/2 or 1/4 onions (2). This’ll help the stock flavour up as the beef roasts. Roast for 20 minutes in the hottest oven you can (240C ) then for 20 minutes a a kilo, at 190C . Less for Rare beef, and more for well done.
Once the meat is roast- AND THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT- let the meat rest for at least 30 minutes. It will be mildly warm when you carve it. If you’re serving it with gravy then carve it nice and thin- it should be mild pink and tender.