Celebrity Chef - Raymond Blanc
You won't find many people willing to argue with Raymond Blanc's reputation as one of the world's top chefs.
The chef and owner of Le Manoir Aux Quat' Saisons is famous for being a restaurateur, hotelier and businessman.
He arrived in the UK from France in 1972 and, since then, he has been credited with not just witnessing a change in the nation's eating habits, but also with actually fostering it and putting the emphasis on flavour.
"I just want to show the beauty of the flavour and texture... even when I peel a carrot, I think how to produce the flavour better," he says. His recipes reveal this emphasis and provide an imaginative and original twist on many French classics.
Raymond, the son of a clockmaker, grew up in Besancon near Dijon. Before he decided to become a chef, at the age of 17 he tried to impress his mother by making a crêpe suzette. Unfortunately, he made the pancakes in a glass dish instead of a frying pan and the result was exploded caramel-covered glass. So, for a while, his desire to cook faded.
After trying different jobs, including factory worker and nurse, he finally discovered that he had a genuine interest in cooking. Raymond explains that when he was 21, he was looking through a restaurant window and saw a chef flambé a sea bass. And that was the beginning. He approached the restaurant owner who gave him a job washing dishes.
While he taught himself about food, he progressed to waiter. He decided the chef's cooking was bad so he told him and ended up having a copper pan thrown at him, plus a broken nose and jaw.
While in hospital, he heard of a job in England at the Rose Revived in Newbridge, Oxford, and he jumped at the chance. After a year, he was promoted to chef. Over the following years, he worked all hours to save for his own restaurant. At the age of 28, his dream was realised with the opening of Les Quat' Saisons in Oxford.
The restaurant was soon granted Michelin stars and a host of other distinctions. Now called Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons, and relocated to a sumptuous small country house in Great Milton, the restaurant is thriving and has a cookery school alongside it. Raymond is reportedly keen to open another restaurant in Bath.
The first series of Raymond's BBC TV series, The Restaurant, in which nine couples competed to win the chance to run a restaurant backed by Blanc, aired in autumn 2007. The second series aired in autumn 2008 on BBC Two.