Schön! alive | happiness on a plate

Raymond Blance OBE.
and Rebecca Boast
Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons.
Church Rd, Great Milton
Oxford, United Kingdom
belmond.com

Once upon a time, a young and ambitious chef was flicking through the pages of a magazine. Inside, he spotted an advertisement for an Oxfordshire manor house with extensive grounds. Although he had no means to buy it, he drove there all the same and knocked on the door.

Fast forward forty years, and the once-dilapidated country pile is now Belmond Le Manoir Aux Quat’Saisons, an exquisite 5-star hotel housing a world-class restaurant. But how did this come to pass? To learn, Schön! alive must once again turn back the clock.

Once upon a time, a young boy lived in the French countryside with his parents and four siblings. As it was not long after World War II, resources were limited for humble folk like them, but this family was resourceful. The boy’s father taught him how to grow fruit, vegetables and herbs and how to forage and hunt in the local woods, sketching for him a treasure map of where to locate the best ingredients. The boy’s mother showed him how to cook using this produce and every day, they ate delicious, healthy food.

When the boy was a teenager, he went for a walk and, while contemplating his future, happened to pass by the fine dining restaurant of a local hotel. He was instantly mesmerised by the fluid dance of the waiters as they flambéed Crêpes Suzette. In this moment, he decided that this was where he belonged. He secured a job as a cleaner, graduating to the dishwasher and then waiter, excelling in each role – but his suggestions for the chef resulted in his dismissal, a smack in the face with a copper pan and a broken jaw.

Undeterred, he thought he’d try his luck in Oxfordshire, where, despite speaking next to no English, he found work in a pub. When the chef quit, the young man stepped in and cooked up a storm, relying on the recipes he’d learnt from Maman Blanc all those years ago.

Before long, he had married the landlord’s daughter, and together they opened Quat’Saisons, a modest restaurant with a statue of a cockerel outside, painted in red, white and blue stripes, just in case customers missed that the cuisine was French. It quickly went on to win two Michelin stars, be voted Best Restaurant in England, and wow the locals, including Lady Cromwell, the owner of an Oxfordshire manor house with extensive grounds that happened to be up for sale.

clockwise
Students select ingredients
from the grounds of Le Manoir.
photography. Mark Bassett
photography. Jason Ingram
photography. David Griffen

Unlike the burly chef who broke his jaw, Raymond Blanc has been generous sharing his skills and has trained scores of protégés who have gone on to gain their own Michelin stars, including Marco Pierre White, Michael Caines MBE, Heston Blumenthal and Bruno Loubet. He spotted Luke Selby, Le Manoir’s Executive Head Chef, when he was just 17 years old. Like Blanc, Selby is self-taught, tenacious and grew up foraging and hunting with his father. He continues the sustainable ethos of his Chef Patron and long-term mentor.

You, too, can benefit from a touch of this mentoring magic. In 1991, Blanc, who says he “always wanted to share my passion for food”, opened the Raymond Blanc Cookery School in Le Manoir’s grounds, not to train chefs, but everyday cooks like us. It’s forgivable to think that this level of cooking is above your pay grade. Sure, the restaurant at Le Manoir has two Michelin stars (as well as a Michelin green star). In fact, it’s the only hotel restaurant to have consistently maintained two Michelin stars for four decades. However, Blanc stresses that the school is suitable for all levels and “welcomes everyone, from the complete novice to an enthusiastic chef”.

There are numerous courses, including garden to plate, vegetarian and vegan options and differing levels from basic breadmaking to advanced patisserie and even courses for children. “There is nothing I like more than getting the children to cook,” Blanc tells us. We are spoilt for choice and wonder aloud where to start. “It’s a tough question. I enjoy all the courses as we have worked hard to have a good selection available,” Blanc muses. “I love bread, so our bread course is a favourite of mine. Also, the seasonal dinner party courses are excellent as guests learn to make a three-course meal using the best ingredients, and they then have a great repertoire to entertain family and friends.”

After much deliberation, we finally decide on ‘Blanc Vite’. Back in 1998, when the celebrated chef published his best-selling book ‘Blanc Vite: Fast Fresh Food from Raymond Blanc’, making quick and easy – and yet healthy and delicious – recipes at home was something of a novelty, at least in the UK. This was the era when supermarket shelves became dominated by microwave-ready meals and prepared salads that had sat in plastic bags for who knows how long, with questionable credentials when it came to sustainability and fairtrade.

“This book was very ahead of its time,” Blanc recalls. “I felt that people were not connecting their food with their health often enough, and this book really demonstrates the power of that.” If you hadn’t already guessed it from the name, seasonality is core to the menus at Belmond Le Manoir Aux Quat’Saisons, and this also applies to the cookery school. What you will make will depend entirely on what’s growing in the grounds. The last of the summer’s heritage tomatoes form the base for a fondue served with poached eggs for a tasty breakfast. Our tutor, chef Rebecca Boast, ditches the standard advice for poaching and shows us a method that involves far less fuss.

Cookery School Director Mark Peregrine
demonstrates how to work with spun sugar.
photography. Mark Bassett

In fact, throughout the day, Boast answers questions, offers ideas for adapting the recipes and additional tips, such as how best to freeze herbs and a quick tour of different grades of olive oil. The atmosphere is informal and convivial and, even though the emphasis here is on fast cooking, the pace feels unpressured. As a bonus, we get to eat everything we cook, accompanied with sommelier-selected wine at lunch. The tour of the grounds includes the organic gardens and greenhouses – there is also a gardening school on site – and even the falconry, where we meet the birds who keep pests at bay naturally, eliminating the need for traps and poisons.

But back to the food. The summer menu continues with a watercress soup and Maman Blanc’s heritage tomato salad, a dish in essence so simple and ubiquitous, but elevated by good quality produce and some easy, but highly effective, techniques. We decorate the salad with flowers from the garden and, voila – you have a dish that’s as pretty as a picture. We are shown how to make a pistou, a French sauce similar to pesto without the parmesan and pine nuts, but also how to prepare it so that the basil retains its vibrancy, which is not as complicated as you might think.

In fact, even though this is food that you can cook every day at home, presentation is never secondary: everything is delectable and attractive enough to serve to guests. The pan-fried salmon with champagne sauce and basil is dinner party-worthy, but in the spirit of Le Manoir’s waste reduction policies, Boast explains that we use leftover champagne, and, if that’s not something you often have to hand, well, it’s easy enough to freeze flat champagne from a party in ice cube trays and use it when you need it.

Next, Steak ‘Maman Blanc’ requires nothing but the cut itself, butter, salt and pepper and water but, my goodness, it’s superb. We round off with roast figs with blackberries and port, another impressive looking dish that requires next to no effort, which is served with possibly one of the best vanilla ice creams we’ve tasted, made from scratch in the restaurant kitchen.

Summer is long gone, but the Blanc Vite menu for the winter months might include a Hunters Breakfast of fricassee of wild mushrooms on grilled sourdough with poached eggs, or a pan-fried Loch Duart salmon with watercress and wasabi sauce. There is a Poule au Pot and a seasonal fruit crumble, but Steak ‘Maman Blanc’ also makes a welcome reappearance.

Is the course suitable for beginners? Well, it helps to have some basic cooking skills and an interest in gastronomy to best benefit from the training, but the youngest person in our group was only 14 years old and not a child protégé. She simply enjoyed cooking at home with her family. So no, you do not need to be ‘MasterChef’ level to take a lot away from this.

Presentation is never secondary at the
Raymond Blanc Cookery School.
photograhy. David Griffen.

The cookery courses are open to non-residents, but if you have the opportunity, a stay at Belmond Le Manoir Aux Quat’Saisons is not to be missed.

Today, the Grade II listed house and its 27.5-acre grounds accommodate guests in 32 rooms and suites, all completely unique in their design, so the ambience remains boutique and intimate. We stayed in the Lavender Suite, inspired by the fragrant paths outside.

Here, attention to detail is ramped up a notch. Guests are greeted at check in with a glass of Veuve Clicquot, the pillow menu includes organic wool and vegan options, your shoes are shined if required and the hairdryer is a Dyson of course. As well as a vintage bottle of Veuve, a glorious fruit plate from the gardens and orchards and some truly divine chocolates, there was a freshly baked lemon cake in our suite. On departure, we were presented with a goodie bag for the journey home that included handmade cookies and a jar of Le Manoir’s honey.

But it’s the continued efforts towards sustainability – in contrast to hotels that make claims that are clearly just greenwashing – that impressed us most. There are no tiny plastic packets. A little linen bag in the bathroom encourages you to take the sumptuous soap with you: a great idea because, otherwise, it just ends up in a bin. There are even take away boxes so that the gorgeous cake and fruit need not go to waste.

This ethos directly stems from Raymond Blanc’s upbringing. “Without doubt, my parents have been my greatest influence,” he confirms. “They taught us the importance of the garden and how and what to grow. My father would show us how to plant, nurture; and we worked hard. We would forage in the woods also. Then we would take what we have to Maman in the kitchen, and she would work her magic. I watched her, I listened to her; she never wasted anything.”

Dining here is, unsurprisingly, truly a treat, but guests are first invited to enjoy an aperitif in the lounge. Once seated in the restaurant, it’s tempting to gorge yourself on the impressive selection of freshly baked breads, but hold back, because you simply must leave room for what’s next. We won’t go into detail. With seasonality being key, the menu is constantly changing, but this restaurant is renowned for good reason. 

Maman Blanc lived to the ripe old age of 97, so was able to savour the successes of her son. In the gardens, amongst other sculptures, you will find a statue of the diminutive but formidable woman who taught one of the greatest chefs in the world how to cook and whose energy resulted in the fond family nickname of ‘Mother Teresa on Acid’. You might not necessarily meet him there, and he doesn’t conduct the cooking classes himself, but Monsieur Blanc is frequently at the hotel and will personally welcome guests and students when he can.

If you’re lucky, you might also be greeted by Bilbao, AKA ‘Cat Saisons’, a local kitty who has decided this esteemed establishment is a suitable home for his feline fancies. Bilbao visits the reception desk twice a day for fuss and cuddles. The breakfast and dinner services are the most likely times to encounter him.

Hyacinth Bathroom.
photography. Mattia Aquila
Botticelli Room.
photography. Mattia Aquila
Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons.
photography. Paul Wilkinson

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words. Huma Humayun
images. Courtesy of Belmond Le Manoir Aux Quat’Saisons

Emile van der Staak.
chef and owner of De Nieuwe Winkel
De Nieuwe Winkel
Gebroeders van Limburgplein 7,
Nijmegen, The Netherlands
denieuwewinkel.com
photography. Wim Demessemaeke

Food has long been a mirror of society; every era can be defined by what was on the minds and the plates of its people. While labels like ‘eco’ and ‘sustainable’ are becoming ubiquitous, the movement is yet to have a strong hold on the gastronomic world. However, as we learned for the first edition of Schön! alive, some early innovators are pioneering a farm-to-table approach. Since its 2020 launch, at least 400 restaurants from around the world have received a Michelin green star, which awards impeccable food with a commitment to sustainability. Three chefs paving the way in Europe reveal why centring the environment is essential and suggest why other Michelin restaurateurs are yet to follow suit.

“Over the years, chefs have continued to cook 18th Century recipes,” says Emile van der Staak, owner of plant-based restaurant De Nieuwe Winkel, located in a 14th Century building on a Dutch farm in Nijmegen. “Shifting to a plant-based approach in fine dining is like charting a new course, a reimagining of what ‘luxury’ can mean on the plate.”

Van der Staak champions botanical gastronomy by transforming the “plant kingdom” into novel flavours that challenge the palettes of his guests. He says that pushing the boundaries of taste was essential to De Nieuwe Winkel’s success. “Running this restaurant is like walking a path with both great rewards and constant challenges. Perhaps one of our greatest challenges has been perception. Early on, many guests simply wouldn’t accept a meal without a big piece of meat at the centre of their plate. Changing these perceptions wasn’t easy,” he shares.

Sunflower Seed Risotto with
mustard seed and wild garlic.
photography. Wim Demessemaeke

Taking the path of most resistance was a worthwhile risk when you consider how a plant-based food supply fits into the wider picture of food production. Meat and dairy consumption make up 14.5% of global greenhouse emissions, estimates the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization. “Sustainable gastronomy for me is about creating delicious food that helps us move away from our addiction to meat and dairy, which have the heaviest environmental footprint,” says van der Staak. An industry-wide shift away from menus reliant on animal products could grow in popularity the more restaurants get on board.

Van der Staak took a hands-on approach to the issue by creating a food forest to harvest produce for his restaurant. “It’s a system of agriculture based on perennial plants that mimic a natural forest,” he explains. “Unlike traditional farming, where fields are left empty after harvest, the food forest is self-sustaining and produces more and more food every year without artificial inputs. In this way, agriculture and nature are no longer at odds with each other.”

KLE
Zweierstrasse 114, Zürich, Switzerland
restaurantkle.com
photography. Erna Drion

It’s one thing to produce your own food on a farm, but inner-city restaurants face a few extra limitations. Waste management company Biffa found that over a third of hospitality businesses in the UK said that they’d like to be more sustainable, but factors like a lack of time, infrastructure and financial incentives, as well as the cost, were barriers. Despite this, vibrant city restaurants like KLE in Zurich prove that it’s still possible. KLE’s seasonal menu is filled with local produce that reimagines guests’ expectations of plant-based food.

“Running a sustainability-focused restaurant brings challenges from sourcing ingredients to shifting traditional mindsets,” explains Head Chef Zineb Hattab. “Classic gastronomy with its focus on animal-based dishes remains as the status quo, and change takes time.” She says that serving plant-based dishes has greatly reduced the restaurant’s environmental impact and that normalising rather than novelising plant-based gastronomy is the key to shifting the mindset of the fine dining industry. “While there’s a growing shift towards plant-based dining, there is still a lot of stigma or prejudice around it…By creating awareness and showcasing what’s possible with plantbased cuisine, I believe we’ll see more Michelin starred plant-based restaurants emerge in the future.”

Douglas McMaster.
Silo chef and owner
image. Courtesy of Silo

Even establishments that welcome meat on their menu are revolutionising what it means to run an eco-conscious restaurant. Nowhere is this more thoroughly done than Silo in Hackney, London. It is the world’s first zero-waste Michelin-star restaurant. From the material of the tables to the fruit used in the wine, Silo runs on resourcefulness and every part of the dining experience is funnelled through the lens of useability. “Owning a restaurant is a big undertaking and, when you take away the bin, the challenge doubles,” says Silo owner Douglas McMaster. “But I also think this struggle is what gives birth to creativity.”

The restaurant is chic and minimalist, bringing an elevated luxury to what is still uncharted territory in haute cuisine. “We fine tune the food to make sure every morsel tastes as good – if not better – than what our competitors are serving without the same confinements as us,” explains McMaster. Each year, British restaurants generate one million tonnes of waste, costing the industry £682 million, research suggests. Developing new ways to utilise waste could revolutionise dining as we know it. “The earth has finite resources and there is no future of food without finding sustainable food waste systems,” McMaster tells us. “We’re trying to redesign the infrastructure of gastronomy to demonstrate that you can make delicious food by upcycling waste.”

A great example of Silo’s experimentation lies in the use of excess waste to create what it calls “liquid gold”: ferments and garums that act as flavour boosters in the dishes. McMaster believes that his regenerative approach is not as widespread because chefs are loyal to tradition. “Waste is a symptom of a broken system, and this is particularly relevant in fine dining where so many chefs are stuck in their ways and don’t want to look at the bigger picture,” he says. Innovation grows from the few who are willing to experiment with new ways of presenting familiarity. Throwing the status quo to the wayside proves that there are endless ways to deliver Michelin-level cuisine that adapts to the present and makes way for the future.

left
Tropea Onion, cuttlefish garum, alium oil.
right
Siloaf ice cream sandwich
Silo
Unit 7 Queens Yard, White Post Lane,
London, United Kingdom
silolondon.com
images. Courtesy of Silo

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words. Shama Nasinde

A grandious fine-dining Michelin experience. “Tastes of Discovery” menu 2025. Dishes by Hans Neuner, at Ocean Restaurant, Restaurante Ocean

Some meals satisfy, others impress — and then there’s Ocean. Overlooking the Atlantic in Portugal’s Algarve, Ocean Restaurant isn’t just a place to eat; it’s a carefully crafted experience that stays with you.

Run by Austrian chef Hans Neuner, Ocean has earned two Michelin stars and three Repsol suns — clear recognition of its high standards. Neuner is known for his precise technique, bold flavours, and deep respect for Portuguese culinary traditions. Each dish offers a modern take on the country’s food culture, made with fresh seafood and local ingredients.

But Ocean isn’t about luxury for its own sake. Every part of the evening is thoughtfully planned. The service is smooth and attentive without being overbearing. Dishes are timed perfectly, wine pairings are introduced with care, and the atmosphere is calm and deliberate. It’s not just about eating — it’s about being present in the moment.

And then there’s the food. Each course is presented with artistic care, offering a visual surprise before pleasing the palate. A touch of seafoam here, a sculpted vegetable there with textures, temperatures, and colours come together to stimulate the senses. The dishes are seasonal, often highlighting seafood and marine plants, and showcase both creativity and technical skill.

The restaurant’s interior reflects this approach: intimate and refined, with panoramic views of the ocean. The décor features subtle, natural tones that allow both the scenery and the food to stand out. The calm ambiance, along with thoughtful details like custom tableware and gentle lighting, enhances the overall experience.

A dinner at Ocean is more than just a meal. The tasting menu unfolds like a story, and the wine pairings complement the flavours perfectly. The attentive staff guide you through the meal with warmth, making the behind-the-scenes complexity feel effortless. In a fast-paced world, Ocean offers a chance to slow down, savour, and reflect. It’s a dining experience that leaves a lasting impression.

Taste the journey of Ocean for yourself at restauranteocean.com.

words. Raoul Keil