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
