From clean water activists to Nessie hunters and Chrissie Hynde to Phoebe Bridgers: the best original photographs from the Observer commissioned in August 2023
August 2022
No 46 to Le Manoir: Raymond Blanc funds local bus service to restaurant
The hourly bus route serves local villages and brings staff to the Michelin-starred restaurant
July 2020
Top chefs back Tom Kerridge for calling no-show diners 'disgraceful'
Concerns raised about high landlord rents and fewer customers due to social distancing
October 2018
Kitchen revolution: how Nigella Lawson changed food writing
Funny, literary and irreverent, How to Eat reinvented the cookbook. Twenty years on, Bee Wilson explores how Nigella Lawson’s evocative, appetite-driven food writing influenced a generation
August 2018
The cook's cook
Raymond Blanc: three books that taught me how to cook
The chef arrived in Britain 45 years ago with no English and no idea how to cook. But he quickly learned both – thanks to these greats ...
June 2018
Living well
Raymond Blanc: ‘A head chef threw a copper pan in my face and broke my jaw’
The chef, 68, on his favourite park, relaxing around a table and how he knew he’d make it
November 2016
Michel Roux Jr's failure to pay chefs minimum wage 'not acceptable'
Sustainable Restaurant Association, headed by Raymond Blanc, says Le Gavroche owner scored ‘massive own goal’
October 2016
A taste of home
A farmhouse souffle recipe from Raymond Blanc
A taste of Home: A staple on the family table in his working-class childhood in the Franche-Comté region, this simple cheesy souffle remains Raymond Blanc’s taste of home
February 2016
Word of Mouth blog
An idiot’s guide to working with chocolate at home
I know nothing about making chocolate. So why was I asked to create a chocolatey masterpiece alongside Marcus Wareing and Ramond Blanc – and how did I fare?
September 2015
My last supper
A country childhood: Raymond Blanc’s final meal
Last Bites: The veteran chef would spend his final moments in the garden at his beloved Le Manoir, surrounded by friends and family
August 2015
This much I know
Raymond Blanc: ‘Eating should be about joy, celebration, arguments’
The best cookbooks of all time, as chosen by the experts
March 2015
Why I love …
Chef Raymond Blanc on Besançon, France
As a child, the famous chef used to catch and sell frogs to make enough money to eat out at one of his home town’s excellent restaurants, triggering an enduring love affair with Besançon and its cuisine
May 2014
From plot to plate: chefs' kitchen garden secrets
Terence Conran grows much of the food for Albion at his house in Hampshire. Ruth Rogers grows hers on the terrace of the River Cafe. Five chefs and their growers spill the beans on their kitchen gardens
April 2014
Channel 4 cooks up an advertiser-funded food show with Michel Roux
Weekend Kitchen with Waitrose on Saturday mornings will also feature John Torode, Raymond Blanc and Heston Blumenthal. By Tara Conlan
October 2013
Peter Preston on press and broadcasting
Bake Off coverage draws a Blanc
Peter Preston
Peter Preston: if there are any lessons to be drawn from the Great British Bake Off's success, they are that spin-off stories were hopeless – and that Ruby Tandoh is a smart cookie
Great British Bake Off: Ruby and Raymond in right royale row
Ruby Tandoh trades jibes with renowned chef Raymond Blanc as social media frenzy heats up ahead of final
Raymond Blanc called an idiot by Bake Off finalist Ruby Tandoh
TV chef apologises after suggesting Tandoh has already won competition and that she is too thin to appreciate good food
August 2013
Best iPhone and iPad apps
20 best iPhone and iPad apps this week
Henri Le Worm, Asphalt 8: Airborne, Smosh, Fluid Football Versus, Sky Sports Pub Challenge, Heat Magazine, Xing, Ben 10 Slammers, Nook Video, Smash Bandits and more. By Stuart Dredge
March 2013
Me and you
Chef Raymond Blanc and seed expert Bob Sherman on their relationship
How the illustrious French chef and his friend horticultural expert Bob Sherman bonded over seeds
