‘He would carve meat and flambé the crêpes suzette at the table. After venturing to the nearby city of Besançon, he sat outside the Michelin-starred restaurant Le Palais de la Bière and watched the maitre d’ in action. It wasn’t until Raymond was around seventeen years old that he got his first true taste of hospitality. It was the women in the family who always cooked – I would be the one who hunted or gutted the rabbits, for my mother to then cook.’ ‘It never entered my mind to become a chef. But Raymond rarely had a chance to actually cook – that was his beloved Maman Blanc’s job, along with his two sisters. A potato was never just a potato each variety they grew had a different purpose. Having such a close connection to nature and growing ingredients from scratch was a necessity for the Blanc family, but it instilled in Raymond a true love for quality produce. I knew where to find partridge eggs, could identify every wild mushroom and bring back buckets of berries and wild flowers to sell on the side of the road to make a little extra money.’ Outside of the garden, we would go foraging and hunting. I got to know the earth and the cycles of the seasons very, very well. From the age of seven, my friends would be out playing football, my sisters cooking in the kitchen and me and my brothers would be gardening. ‘We were a working-class family of seven and almost everything we ate came from our garden. ‘I was completely surrounded by food every day of my life growing up,’ he says. Growing up in a small village called Saône in eastern France, food was a huge part of daily life for Raymond and his four siblings throughout the 1950s and ‘60s. All this from a self-taught chef who simply loved food in all its forms. A genuine trailblazer, Raymond was seeking out organic ingredients before most chefs knew what the word organic meant his two-starred Oxfordshire restaurant Le Manoir has been delighting diners for over thirty years, and eating there is an experience which embodies the idea of hospitality perfectly. But few can hold a candle to Raymond Blanc, a chef who has single-handedly been transforming Britain’s food scene since the 1970s. Tom Kerridge, Marcus Wareing, Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay, Heston Blumenthal – all these chefs are incredible in their own right, popping up on our televisions and straddling the line between presenter and cook. ‘A good brasserie,’ says Raymond, ‘is all about comfort, informality, warmth, total relaxation, and fun with family and friends – as well as food that’s simple, authentic, wholesome and irresistible.There are only a handful of chefs who have achieved household-name status. He is the author of many successful best-selling cookbooks and a well-known face on television, most recently presenting his ITV series, Simply Raymond Blanc.īut most of all, he loves his pubs and brasseries. He is also Culinary Director of Eurostar, creating seasonal menus for passengers of Business Premier, and Chef-Director of Arsenal FC’s Diamond Club. He is President of the Sustainable Restaurant Association. You might also spot Raymond at a table – he’s a regular at two of his favourite locals, Brasserie Blanc in Oxford and the Black Horse in nearby Thame (he adores a dessert of blackcurrant pavlova). He inspires our brilliant teams both in the kitchens and front-of-house. Raymond is chef-patron of Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, the hotel-restaurant in Oxfordshire which has retained two Michelin stars since it opened 39 years ago.Īs a founder of Heartwood Collection, he is very much the guiding light of the business and what is on the menu each season. He came to Britain as a young waiter in 1972, soon discovered a true passion for cooking – et voilà, as he’d say – the rest is food history… His first job in hospitality was as a 17-year-old, waiting on tables in a brasserie in Besançon, in the French region of Franche-Comté. He is a pioneer of sustainability and an acknowledged champion of the great British food revolution.Ī giant of gastronomy, Raymond is in fact entirely self-taught. Raymond Blanc is among the world’s finest chefs and hoteliers.
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