GREAT MILTON, England – It’s not unusual for a fine dining restaurant to offer a wine pairing with the various dishes. But is there an alternative if you choose not to drink alcohol – or you simply want something a little different?
“We can also offer a flight of specialty teas from all around the world to match the food,” said executive chef Gary Jones, at Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, which has held two Michelin stars since 1984.
And indeed sommelier Ben Robinson chose six tea varieties to accompany the seven courses of a particular dinner tasting menu one evening – like Gunpowder Green Tea infused with Moroccan Mint and Pu-Erh d’Outre Mer Aged Tea from China’s Yunnan Province.
As well as innovations like the tea flight, Le Manoir’s multiple award-winning founder Raymond Blanc reflects changing attitudes when he tells a visitor: “I have realized that constant interruptions by the restaurant team can reduce the enjoyment of your meal and, as such, I have decided to place a copy of the menu on the table for you to see what each course is, without lengthy explanations.
“Should you wish each course to be announced and described by the restaurant team, then please do let your waiter or waitress know. We will be delighted to do so.”
While guests can stay at Le Manoir, a half-hour drive from Oxford, many people come for the meals in the 90-seat restaurant: breakfasts, lunches or multi-course dinners.
Both the tasting menu and the a la carte dinners include dishes like wild garlic soup with seared scallop, confit of oak-smoked Loch Duart salmon with pickled cucumber, potato and garden mustard seed, and for dessert strawberries with Szechuan pepper, cream cheese, fresh mint and basil gelee.
Depending on the season, much of the food comes from Le Manoir’s own gardens.
“Boasting some of the finest gardens in Oxfordshire, the outdoor spaces add another dimension to a guest’s culinary adventure,” states the website.
“The 100-per-cent organic vegetable garden supplies 90 types of fresh salads and vegetables to the restaurant. These include vegetables indigenous to Southeast Asia to achieve Blanc’s distinct, exotic flavors.”
Some 800 apple and pear trees have recently been planted, fulfilling Blanc’s desire to have orchards full of unusual British species of fruit.
However, Mushroom Valley has been created to acquire knowledge about mushroom propagation, rather than trying to supply the restaurant.
Continuing with the same educational theme, The Raymond Blanc Cookery School, situated at the heart of Le Manoir, “is for everyone who has a passion for food and wishes to have fun preparing it.”
Instructors include Le Manoir’s chef patissier Benoit Blin, also a TV personality since last March, whose passion spills over and fills the cooking school kitchen.
Recently added courses include Wellbeing, Gluten Free and Afternoon Tea.
As a member of the Sustainable Restaurant Association and the Considerate Hotelier Association, Le Manoir is also at the forefront of eco-friendly initiatives.
“I have always pioneered sustainable and environmental issues,” said Blanc. “From the moment we opened in 1984, it has remained one of our core values.”
A 12-page eco-booklet highlights some of these initiatives: A soap-bag for guests to take home the leftover soaps; wine boxes are cut up and used for kindling; coat hangers are sent back to the supplier; all fats and oils are recycled; bio-degradable confetti; coffee grounds are recycled and used for compost and in the mushroom container.
Le Manoir’s guests benefit from Blanc’s vision, his excitement, his passion – all of which had a rather unusual origin.
“I hated studying to become a draughtsman, which is what my parents wanted me to be,” he said.
“Then one day when I went into a restaurant in Besancon where I grew up (near the French-Swiss border), I found that was my passion and talent.
“As a busboy I used to smell the glasses and taste the sauces in the serving dishes when I took them back to the kitchen.”
He also used to tell the chef when the food was too salty, or too sweet.
“One day he got so angry he threw a coffee pot at me, and I ended up in hospital,” said Blanc.
“The owner came to see me and said, ‘You can’t work for me anymore.’ But he helped me find a job as a waiter at a restaurant in England.”
Eventually, at age 28 and with $25,000, Blanc and his wife opened a 35-seat restaurant “on the wrong side of the tracks” in Oxford.
And seven years later, he transformed the nearby honey-coloured 15th century Chiltern manor house into Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, a delightful blend of grand English country estate and French country garden and cuisine which attracts 74,000 guests a year.
After 32 years growing his business, Blanc, 66, shows no sign of slowing down.
He’s as excited now as he was then about his vision to provide guests with more than just a fine dining experience in an English country hotel.
“Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons is the fulfillment of a personal vision, a dream that one day I would create a hotel and restaurant in harmony where my guests would find perfection in food, comfort, service and welcome,” said Blanc.
“Having my 220 employees own this vision with me is how we touch the souls of our guests.”
In 2002 Orient Express (now Belmond), which operates an international chain of luxury trains, cruises and hotels, bought a majority interest in Le Manoir. But Blanc is still “le patron et chef,” with the highest national honours bestowed on him by both England (Order of the British Empire) and France (Chevalier in the Ordre de Legion d’Honneur).
From fine dining in all its forms to the hotel’s hospitality, Blanc’s passionate vision continues to grow. His dreams continue to come true, and his guests continue to “find perfection in food, comfort, service and welcome.”
News money columnist and travel writer Mike Grenby teaches journalism at Bond University on Australia’s Gold Coast: [email protected].
