BBC Series: Kitchen Secrets
Raymond Blanc is returning to our screens with Kitchen Secrets. His new series sees the self-taught Michelin-starred chef and star of The Restaurant return to his first love… cooking.
Raymond is both a cook and a chef. He served his apprenticeship in Maman Blanc’s kitchen, so he really does know how to cook simple and wholesome food. He is also the inspiration behind Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, which is one of the world’s best kitchens.
Airing over eight weeks, Raymond Blanc will demystify the tricks of haute cuisine, revealing the secret techniques needed to create show-stopping food, using his passion for cooking and enthusiastic approach to encourage viewers to cast off their inhibitions and be creative.
Raymond Blanc – Kitchen Secrets is filmed against the dynamic backdrop of Raymond’s working kitchen at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons. This unique and natural setting will allow viewers to experience the real life environment of a Michelin starred kitchen; as deliveries arrive, Raymond shows how to pick the best produce and shares his knowledge with young chefs.
However this is not a series about complicated fine dining and time consuming chemistry. As Raymond puts it, “something that appears difficult is just a combination of simple elements. This series is about using some of the techniques I use in my professional life to make simple food the best it can be. Most of these dishes are the kind of cooking I do when I’m at home.”
Within each programme, Raymond will share his passion and knowledge in order to select the best produce and he will focus on a different ingredient, from tomatoes and eggs to game and fish, and demonstrate four different dishes each week incorporating this ingredient, from a quick meal to prepare after work, to weekend dinner parties. The finale of each episode will be a signature recipe from Raymond’s restaurant, such as the Café Crème. As Raymond says, “it took me six months to perfect this dessert and I will share this recipe with you. You can make it as simple as you want to, as each technique can create dozens of simple desserts.”
The theme of the first programme on 15th February is a subject dear to the hearts of many – chocolate. Raymond visits William Curley, an award winning chocolatier and one of his protégé’s, who now runs a chocolate shop in Richmond, Surrey. Raymond will then return to the kitchen to demonstrate Maman Blanc’s Chocolate Mousse, a wonderful classic dish with just three ingredients takes only 10 minutes to prepare - 70% chocolate, egg whites, lemon and a little sugar ... no cream, no butter ... just extraordinary simplicity in only 10 minutes ... served hot or cold.
Viewers will enter the real world of cooking. The fluid and real life style of the series means that when things go wrong, they are included. Raymond is a Frenchman who has learned to smile about himself ... which is very rare. As every cook learns from making mistakes; we learn from his. “We all make mistakes from time to time – a sauce splits or a soufflé collapses. While occasionally it’s best to start again, sometimes you can recover your dish if you know how. In this series, I will share my solutions to some of the more common problems, as well as debunking a few myths.”
The series begins on Monday 15 February, at 8.30pm on BBC2.
Click here to go to the chocolate recipes from Episode One or to watch again.
We hope you will watch the series, and let RB know what you think, either via the website Contact page (click here) or via Raymond's Twitter (click here).