Simple French Cuisine At Celebrity Chef Raymond Blanc's Brasserie Blanc
"I feel as though we're on a vintage train in France in the 30s," my dining companion remarks as we walk into Brasserie Blanc on the South Bank of London. The branch is owned by renowned celebrity Chef Raymond Blanc and is incredibly different to his Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisonshis two Michelin-star restaurant in Oxfordshire.
The Brasserie chain of restaurants is more informal, more relaxed, with the dishes served here simpler than those on offer at his fancy Le Manoir. "I am often asked what a Brasserie Blanc is," Blanc says on the restaurant's website. "Well if the Manoir is a delicate waltz then the Brasseries are the Can Can," he sums up nicely. Blanc's ethos with the brasseries across London is to create a place for "relaxed enjoyment" where diners can experience "simple, high-quality food that comes as close as possible to the meals that my mother prepared for me at home in Besançon". So on a cold night in London, my friend and I are excited to try it out.