Top chef on the beauty of veg

'When I had a vegetarian menu, everyone looked at me like I was weird'

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If anyone can be credited for popularising the idea of a restaurant 'kitchen garden' it's Raymond Blanc. The French chef opened world-famous Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons 41 years ago with expansive grounds-and the concept of 'garden to plate' was born.

Now, with 250 different organic varieties of fruit and veg growing and 27 acres in total, the gardens aren't just crucial for the two-Michelin star Oxfordshire restaurant and hotel, but for him personally too.

"The first thing I do often is to have a lovely walk, try to gather the day together," Blanc says. "I go to the Japanese Tea House Garden [one of 12 individual gardens at Le Manoir] when I'm really highly stressed.

'It's the most tranquil and peaceful part of the gardens,' he writes in his latest cookbook, Simply Raymond Kitchen Garden. It's where he buried his beloved German Shepherd, Prince, and 'it's where I sit when I'm a bit broken'.