Raymond Blanc OBE (born 19 November 1949) is a French chef, born in Besançon, France. Today he is one of the Britain's most respected chefs.[1]Blanc is the owner and chef at Le Manoir aux

Raymond Blanc OBE (born 19 November 1949) is a French chef, born in Besançon, France. Today he is one of the Britain's most respected chefs.^[1]Blanc is the owner and chef at Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons, a hotel-restaurant in Great Milton, Oxfordshire, England. The restaurant has two Michelin stars and scored 9/10 in the Good Food Guide. He is entirely self-taught.^[2]

Blanc was born in Besançon, the capital of the Franche-Comté region in eastern France, between Burgundy and the Jura mountains. While his two sisters were taught to cook by the influential Maman Blanc, his father taught Blanc and his two brothers to work in the kitchen garden. His father gave him a colander and foraging map for his 10th birthday, and what he collected his mother taught him to cook.

Training as a waiter, Blanc worked at the Michelin-starred Le Palais de la Bière in Besançon. In 1972 he was fired for upsetting the head chef (Blanc had offered him advice on how to cook), but the manager knew of a job in England.^[3]

Not speaking English well enough to survive without a notepad, he was dispatched to The Rose Revived in Newbridge, Oxfordshire, arriving three days after landing at Dover in his Renault 5 Gordini. Blanc married the owner's daughter Jenny, and the couple had two sons.^[3]

In 1977, the couple opened Les Quat' Saisons in Summertown, Oxford: "we mortgaged the house, owed 18 further people, and opened in a corridor between a lingerie shop and Oxfam". An overnight success, he won "Egon Ronay Guide Restaurant of the Year", two Michelin stars and a host of other distinctions.^[3]

In 1981, Blanc opened a chain of boulangeries and pâtisseries called Maison Blanc that also contain cafès. There are currently 14 branches of Maison Blanc across the country, including several in London and one in Oxford. Maison Blanc cakes are now available nationwide in Waitrose.^[4]

In 1983, Blanc purchased a manor-house in the Oxfordshire village of Great Milton and opened Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons, a country house hotel and double Michelin starred restaurant. Awarded five AA stars and with a score of 19/20 from respected French guide Gault Millau, Le Manoir describes itself as "one of the ultimate gastronomic destinations in the country".^[5]

Blanc opened the first of a chain of smaller restaurants, Le Petit Blanc restaurants in Oxford in June 1996. Blanc's stated aim with these was to bring the French philosophy of "good food being central to good living" to the United Kingdom. His desire was to create and serve food that can be enjoyed by everyone – "from the time-conscious business person to those looking for a welcoming family restaurant". Raymond was a featured chef on Great Chefs television, appearing in Great Chefs of the World. ^[6]

Blanc suffered two mini strokes when he was 42, brought on by stress and overwork ^[7]

In June 2003, after nearly losing the chain as part of his divorce settlement to Jenny,^[3] the four Le Petit Blanc Brasseries (now known as Brasserie Blanc) in Birmingham (of which closed in 2008),Cheltenham, Manchester and Oxford became part of the Loch Fyne Restaurant Group portfolio. Blanc maintains a share in the business, and continues to be actively involved creating new menus, developing the chef and kitchen teams and participating in the promotion of the restaurants. Since 1996, Raymond has opened the following Brasserie Blanc's.

In March 2013, Raymond Blanc made the news with Mayor of London Boris Johnson, to publicise a scheme to get young people into the food and hospitality industry. Blanc himself took on twenty-one apprentices across the Brasserie Blanc Restaurants.^[11]

On 13 January 2007, he appeared on Saturday Kitchen. In the Omelette Challenge, he came out last because he took the longest to cook an omelette. However, he was nudged up a few places by James Martin, right above Ken Hom, as Blanc produced a black truffle out of his pocket and garnished the finished omelette with truffle shavings.

Summer 2007 saw the BBC promotion for his new reality TV programme The Restaurant airing on UK television. (The show is known to BBC America viewers in the US as Last Restaurant Standing). The promo showed a group of well-dressed diners in a slow-motion food fight, to a Gonzales backing track. The show was aired as part of BBC Two's autumn season in 2007 and returned, with minor changes to the format, in 2008. In 2009, The Restaurant returned to BBC Two in a low-budget format. This season has been much criticised for the poor standard of contestants, for neglecting the successful elements of previous series, and for Blanc choosing as the winner a team without any discernible culinary ability outside of making cocktails.

Raymond Blanc has made numerous appearances on all major television stations, during prime time viewing, in Great Britain. These include his own series Food & Drink in 1987, Take Six Cooks in 1986 and Masterchef in 1990, 1991, 1992, 1995 & 1998 as well as ‘The Restaurant’, a BBC 2 series hosted by Raymond where nine couples compete to win their own restaurant.
Blanc is the author of several books, including Cooking for Friends and Foolproof French Cookery. He is also one of the patrons on the Children's Food Festival, which was held on the Northmoor Trust Estate in south Oxfordshire in June 2009. In 2013, Blanc made a guest appearance on the BBC sitcom Miranda in Episode 5 of Series 3.

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