Category Archives: Raymond Blanc

Raymond Blanc celebrates 25 years of Le Manoir

15 Wednesday Jul 2009

Posted by in Raymond Blanc

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Thumbnail image for RB Catey lightened.JPGThe two-Michelin-starred chef and 2009 Lifetime Achievement Catey award-winner Raymond Blanc was on sparkling form yesterday as he threw a lavish party at Le Manoir Aux Quat’Saisons to celebrate the hotel’s silver anniversary.

Around two hundred guests were treated to a piano recital on Le Manoir’s impeccable lawns, and then joined in on a rendition of La Marseillaise to mark Bastille Day, before the formal speeches began. Sensing a lack of Gallic gusto in our singing, Raymond ordered a second rendition - this time with all guests holding clenched fists to their hearts - which he led rousingly from the stage. Fantastic.

The French Ambassador spoke first, and named Raymond as one of only three people, along with the French President and the Queen, with the power to pull him away from official duties at his London residence on Bastille Day. Paul White, President and CEO of Orient-Express, then paid tribute to Raymond’s success, recalling how he had seen the French chef’s star rising over the years, through the pages of Caterer and Hotelkeeper.

Before speaking to his guests, Raymond welcomed every member of his 203-strong team onto the lawn. Then, at the climax of a typically impassioned and heartfelt speech, he brandished his Catey and dedicated it to them all.

The menu:

Tartare of Scottish langoustine, flavours of Japan

Salad of heirloom tomato, Kalamata olive, Sicilian tomato essence sorbet

Confit of wild River Severn salmon, elderflower, yuzu cream, garden radish

Mr Ring’s “Bury Hook” lamb, braised fennel, coco beans, aubergine puree

Pochaed peach in white wine and citrus fruits, black figs filled with a port ice-cream

 

Fire at Le Manoir leaves Raymond Blanc out in the cold

27 Tuesday Nov 2007

Posted by in fire, Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons, Raymond Blanc

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cold.jpgChef-restaurateur Raymond Blanc’s famous country hotel, Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, was evacuated earlier this week when ventilation equipment above the kitchens caught fire.
Fire crews were called to the hotel and double Michelin-starred restaurant in Great Milton at lunchtime on Monday, when smoke tripped the fire alarms. I was at the hotel at the time, interviewing Raymond Blanc – when the alarm went off, Raymond was leading me on a guided tour of Le Manoir’s grounds. He had shown the good sense to don an overcoat and scarf; I had come out without a coat, as usual.
Hotel guests, lunchers and staff poured out onto the lawn – paying customers on the gravel path to save their high heels and expensive brogues, kitchen brigade on the lawn in their clogs. “We must thank God it is not raining”, Raymond told his guests.
It may not have been raining, but the day was bitterly cold. Determined to conclude our interview, Raymond pulled his scarf from around his neck and used it to mop the rain water off two cast-iron garden chairs that were shaded from the winter sun by a giant old tree. We sat down and cracked on, though soon I was so cold that I could barely grip my pen, let alone force it to move across my notepad.
Provided I can decipher my notes, I’ll be putting together a major article on Raymond’s plans for Le Manoir in the new year.

Alain Ducasse arrives in London

13 Tuesday Nov 2007

Posted by in Alain Ducasse, Caterer and Hotelkeeper, Christopher Cowdray, Dorchester Hotel, Ducasse, Gary Rhodes, Henry Brosi, John Campbell, Michel Roux Jnr, Michelin stars, Raymond Blanc, Restaurants, The Dorchester Hotel, Vineyard at Stockcross

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Alain%20Ducasse.jpgLast night, superchef Alain Ducasse, the man with the most Michelin stars in the world, hosted a star-studded dinner at his new restaurant at London’s Dorchester Hotel before it opens to the public tonight.
Welcoming us, Monsieur Ducasse promised not to serve frogs’ legs, if guests promised not to mention the rugby world cup.
The table plan read like a who’s-who of the UK dining scene: Mark Hix, Tom Aikens, Marcus Wareing, Raymond Blanc, Philip Howard, Michel Roux jnr, Gary Rhodes, Giorgio Locatelli, Henri Brosi, John Campbell, Theo Randall, Sir Terence Conran and many others came to meet the great man and sample his food. At the end of the meal, all of them lined up like kids outside a sweetshop, to view the magnificent kitchen Monsieur Ducasse has had put in at the restaurant.
The sight of so many top-drawer chefs in one room prompted the Vineyard’s John Campbell to tell me: “if a bomb drops on the Dorchester now, you’ll have nothing to write about anymore in the Caterer!” I replied that it would leave UK foodies dining on beans on toast from then on.
Christopher Cowdray wouldn’t have been at all pleased to see a bomb land on us. Christopher is the CEO of the Dorchester Collection. As our seared scallops course arrived, Christopher pointed out to me the amoeba-thin shaving of dried tuna that topped the dish, and which moved like a flickering flame in the heat rising off the scallop below. Stunning.

First glimpse of the latest Hospitality Action advert

12 Monday Nov 2007

Posted by in AA Gill, Heston Blumenthal, Hospitality, Hospitality Action, Marco Pierre White, Raymond Blanc, Tom Parker Bowles

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Marco%2C%20AA%2C%20Tom.jpgIn a recent blog I reported on how Marco Pierre White, AA Gill and Tom Parker Bowles had linked up for a photoshoot in support of industry charity, Hospitality Action. this week’s Mail on Sunday published the fruits of their labour.
The three agreed to pose together for the latest HA awareness advert. This ongoing series of adverts depicts top chefs suffering the sort of life-altering set-backs often experienced by beneficiaries of HA funding. Previous ads have portrayed Raymond Blanc being led by a guide dog, Heston Blumenthal living rough and Anton Edelmann languishing in a hospital bed.
Once they had finished the shoot, AA Gill and Marco went out to lunch at a restaurant Gill was reviewing for his Sunday Times column, still in full tramps’ outift. In the column – which is well worth a read for a first-hand account of the day – Gill describes being “dressed up in a vomitous suit by Detritus and Garbage and a stinking, slimy shirt and dead man’s shoes. My face was distressed and my ankles blackened, and snot was rubbed into my hair.”

Marco and friends dress down for Hospitality Action

23 Tuesday Oct 2007

Posted by in AA Gill, Caterer and Hotelkeeper, Heston Blumenthal, Hospitality Action, Marco Pierre White, Raymond Blanc, Tom Parker Bowles

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AA_Gill%5B1%5D.jpgLast Friday I witnessed the unlikely spectacle of Marco Pierre White and Sunday Times restaurant critic AA Gill comparing leg hair, and saw a member of the aristocracy dressed as a tramp – all courtesy of Hospitality Action.
White and Gill were joined by food columnist and son of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Tom Parker Bowles at the shooting of the latest Hospitality Action awareness adverts. This ongoing series of adverts depicts top chefs suffering the sort of life-altering set-backs often experienced by beneficiaries of HA funding. Previous ads have portrayed Raymond Blanc being led by a guide dog, Heston Blumenthal living rough and Anton Edelmann languishing in a hospital bed.
Gill arrived on set first, sporting a stained and raggedy jacket and trouser combo that looked as if he had lost one of his review-lunches down the front of it. “I borrowed one of your suits, Marco”, he claimed, when the Hell’s Kitchen supremo appeared. Marco exemplified Oxford Street doorway-chic, his Robinson Crusoe-style trousers exposing his ankles and calves. After a few moments spent gauging who had the fuzziest legs, they slumped onto a park bench, vodka bottles in hand, singing “underneath the arches” and laughing like drains.
Only last week, Gill wrote in the Sunday Times: “I always book under a false name, but I never wear a disguise. Getting into a wig and a costume and talking in a funny voice to eat dinner is weird and way too self-obsessed – it’s the sort of thing they do in America.” According to HA chief exec Penny Moore, he broke that rule last Friday, when he and Marco left the shoot to review a nearby restaurant in full down-and -out garb. Considering that he had sportingly given up a day of his life to support HA, I think we can forgive him …
Tom Parker Bowles took longer to emerge from make-up than his fellow tramps. “It’s hard to make an aristo look rough”, quipped Marco.
Look out for the resulting adverts in future issues of Caterer and Hotelkeeper.

Ruth Watson’s top tips for improving your hotel

04 Tuesday Sep 2007

Posted by in Five, Hell's Kitchen, Hotels, Marco Pierre White, Raymond Blanc, Ruth Watson, The Hotel Inspector

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Ruth%20Watson.jpgClearly the season of the hospitality TV show is upon us. Joining Raymond, Jamie, Marco and Nigella this Thursday is Ruth Watson, whose third series of The Hotel Inspector starts on Five, on Thursday evening.
The show sees Ruth attempt to reverse the fortunes of ailing British hotels and B&Bs. In advance of the first episode, Ruth has sent us her ten top tips for improving your hotel. Here are five of her ideas, to whet your appetite for the programme.
* Keep all external signs clean and have up-to-date ratings information on them.
* Look up and smile when someone approaches the reception desk.
* Change all pillows at least once every two years.
* Sleep in every room to ascertain which are noisy, cold or uncomfortable.
* Provide hand-cut toast at breakfast, not pre-sliced bread. Don’t use plastic packets of butter and marmalade.
What other tips would you add to this list? Let us know.

Descending into Hell’s Kitchen

03 Monday Sep 2007

Posted by in Hell's Kitchen, Marco Pierre White, Olga Polizzi, Raymond Blanc

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Marco%20cartoon.jpgHot on the heels of Raymond Blanc’s new kitchen reality show, The Restaurant, which began last Thursday, tonight sees the start of the new series of Hell’s Kitchen, in which Marco Pierre White tries to impart cheffing skills to a hapless bunch of celebs.
I’m going along for dinner tonight, courtesy of Hobart, who have supplied the kitchen equipment used by Marco and his students. I’ll tell you how it goes when I get back. Meanwhile, check out this interview with Marco on the Mirror’s website. It sounds as though Marco is getting off on the wrong foot with the national press already …

Cooking for the rich and famous – can you trump Sasha Distel?

15 Wednesday Aug 2007

Posted by in Marco Pierre White, Raymond Blanc

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Sasha.jpgMy roundtable discussion with Raymond Blanc and Marco Pierre White, which I referred to in my last posting, was as high-octane and eventful as you’d expect from two such big, impassioned personalities.
I’ve yet to write up the notes I scribbled through the lunch, and when I make sense of them you’ll be able to read my account of the day in the September 6th issue of Caterer and Hotelkeeper, which Marco is guest-editing. Meanwhile, one snippet of conversation springs to mind.
The two chefs are no strangers to catering for – and hobnobbing with – stellar celebrities nowadays. But both could remember the first time they ever catered for a star. For Marco, the star in question was Sasha Distel, for whom he cooked a full English breakfast at the George Hotel in Leeds. Marco admitted that he waited around all day to cook a dinner for the French crooner upon his return from the local theatre where he was performing. Sadly, Monsieur Distel went straight to his room, leaving White desolate.
Raymond’s first celebrity diner was the rather more A-list Charlton Heston. “He filled up my tiny red-and-white tablecloth restaurant in Oxford, but he was just a normal guy,” reminisced Blanc, who resolved never to be starstruck from that day on.
Who is the biggest star you have ever cooked for? And have you ever been left tongue-tied by seeing one of your idols walk into your restaurant or hotel?

Five stars around one table

14 Tuesday Aug 2007

Posted by in Marco Pierre White, Michelin stars, Raymond Blanc

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Raymond.jpgNot much time to post this morning – I’m up to London to interview Marco Pierre White and Raymond Blanc together for the September 6th issue of Caterer
, whichMarco is guest-editing. Together, the two can boast five Michelin stars. Marco spent some of his formative cheffing days at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, but the two superchefs haven’t met for over a decade, so there should be lots of stories to tell when I get back to the office …