The joys of seasonal eating

Raymond Blanc explains how everyone thought he was 'weird' when he introduced a vegetarian menu 40 years ago, and why he still loves veg

- By LAUREN TAYLOR

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.'

'The garden plays a huge role at Le Manoir — and in my life'.

King Charles even once spent 'three hours in the battering rain' walking around the grounds of the 15th-century manor house, after Blanc had joked to the then Prince during a visit to his Highgrove estate that the royal gardens were 'not quite as magnificent' as Le Manoir's.

The prolific chef, who has been a mainstay on cooking and food shows during his career, has always championed the humble veg. Even when it opened in 1984, Le Manoir had a vegetarian menu, which seemed almost outrageous at the time - 'Everyone was looking at me as if I was weird', Blanc says.

'Vegetables can produce the most extra ordinary dishes, which are tasty, which are healthy as well,' the 75-year-old says. 'The health factor is important, as we know we are the nation who has diabetes, strokes, heart attacks and so on.'

Importantly, 'vegetables are mostly inexpensive, unless you buy truffles', he quips. But seasonality is everything, and it's taken very seriously by Blanc. The sheer volume of food the UK imports 'is quite incredible and sad', he notes.