Raymond Blanc to star in two new BBC series

Catey lifetime achievement award winner Raymond Blanc is to star in two new BBC commissioned food programmes.

The chef patron of the two-Michelin-starred Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons in Oxfordshire will be involved in two spin-off shows from his BBC2 series The Restaurant.

Step By Step (working title) will show Blanc demonstrating his own recipes and is set to launch in October, to run alongside series three of The Restaurant.

Reality show Plate Expectations (also a working title), which will be screened early next year, will follow last year’s runners-up James Knight-Pacheco and Alasdair Hooper as they launch their own event catering business under guidance of Blanc.

Janice Hadlow, controller at BBC2, said: "The Restaurant is a popular, well-established programme with lots of potential for expansion and these two new shows will complement and enhance the brand."

Last year’s winners of The Restaurant, Michele English and Russell Clement, opened their new property, The Cheerful Soul in the Hare & Hounds, earlier this summer.

The couple took over the Enterprise Inns’ pub in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, and are serving a seasonal menu in a relaxed atmosphere.

Raymond Blanc wins Lifetime Achievement award at 2009 Cateys >>

Last year’s ‘The Restaurant’ winners open new pub >>

Michele English – A Minute on the Clock >>

Blanc’s The Restaurant winners quit after seven months >>

By Kerstin Kühn

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