Raymond Blanc arrived in Britain in 1972 as a 22 year old unemployed French waiter, with only a shaky grasp of English.

Ten years later he was a chef with two Michelin stars.

While he has been successful in his adopted home, he has never forgotten his first love; the food and wine of France.

Now Raymond is  going back to five of his favourite regions so that he can re-connect with the wonderful food and people that have inspired him... farmers in Burgundy, chefs in Lyon, winemakers in Alsace, good friends in Provence and cheese makers in Franche-Comté.

In each place he will take over a restaurant for one night only and cook a feast inspired by his journey...

...he will be serving a menu that features his versions of each region’s most famous dishes.

Learning from the master in his homeland will be two lucky young  chefs, Katie-Beth and Kush.

Despite 30 years at the top in the UK, for Raymond this will be the very first time he has cooked professionally in France. It’s a daunting, nerve racking and exciting task... but one suited perfectly to Raymond Blanc: The Very Hungry Frenchman.

The programme will be shown on BBC2 at 8pm on the following dates:

• Thursday 02 February
• Thursday 09 February
• Thursday 16 February
• Thursday 23 February
• Thursday 01 March

Recipes from the series will be published on Raymond's website following the broadcast of each episode.

http://raymondblanc.com/Very-Hungry-Frenchman-Recipes-Franche-Comt%C3%A9.aspx