From Besçanson to Oxford.
There is much to love about this book.
The beautiful photographs, the mouth-watering recipes and the warmth of Chef Blanc that leaps off the page and makes you want board a plane or train to Oxford. No longer will that name evoke Britsh films and Inspector Morse, but rather Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons, located in Great Milton, Oxford, one of the finest hotel-restaurants in the world. This is a chance to step within the walls for legendary chef Raymond Blanc's personal tour, season by season.
He reveals how every element of the place—from the Japanese garden to the Citronelle bedroom--was brought to life, and leads you into the kitchen to show you the culinary secrets of this double Michelin-starred restaurant-an honour Chef blanc has sustained, uninterrupted for over 30 years.
Chef Blanc's pen is as wonderful and evocative as his cuisine:
Once upon a time...is how this book should begin because it is a fairy tale and that is how these magical stories always begin.
And in this excerpt he reveals the child within the man who loves welcoming guests into his home.
Many of the old manor's fables, myths and tales concern a little Frenchman. He can be seen crafting away in the maze of kitchens, and he can be spotted in the extensive grounds, inspecting the plants in his beloved gardens. He crouches to see how they are developing and growing. He is ecsatic to see on that crisp morning in May for instance, the fresh asparagus stems pushing their green heads through te dark earth. That sight takes him back to happy, tender years when, as an excited child aged seven or eight, he gathered asparagus in the pine-scented forests of Franche-Comté. C'est moi!
-Raymond Blanc