The French chef Raymond Blanc will be honoured by a host of former protégés for a one-off dinner in London next month.
Blanc opened his two Michelin-star Oxfordshire restaurant and hotel Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons 40 years ago, mentoring scores of chefs who have since gone onto win accolades themselves.
In all, 34 chefs who have worked under Blanc have gone onto win one star — or more — themselves.
The six-course dinner celebrating Blanc’s legacy is to take place at Darby’s, the Irish chef Robin Gill’s lavish restaurant in Nine Elms, opposite the American Embassy. Blanc himself will be in attendance.
Gill will orchestrate an evening during which dishes will be cooked by the likes of Luke Selby, now executive chef at Le Manoir, Agnar Sverrisson, executive chef at Michelin-starred Moss in Iceland, and Eric Chavot, who most famously held two stars at the Capital Hotel.
The experience, an announcement said, will be inspired by the “lessons learnt and memories made” while working under Blanc, bringing together a cohort of chefs, sommeliers, and front of house professionals.
Blanc said that after decades of cooking, his greatest pride is his pupils, and added that passing knowledge onto the next generation of talent has always been a priority.
“As a self-taught chef, this is something I am truly most proud of,” he said.
“To have nurtured so many successful chefs through our kitchens at Le Manoir and to have helped create a network of incredible talent across the world... there is nothing greater.”
