Raymond Blanc

Tuesday

Raymond Blanc

With Raymond Blanc

40 min listen

In a bumper episode, the legend that is Raymond Blanc joins Olivia Potts and Lara Prendergast. The self-taught chef heads up the double Michelin-starred Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons, has trained chefs from Heston Blumenthal to Marco Pierre White, and received an honorary OBE in 2008. His new book Simply Raymond Kitchen Garden is out now. The chef tells Liv and Lara about his earliest memories of food – from eating worms to easter eggs, how his love of food is connected to the garden and why he owes his existence to General de Gaulle. He explains how he ended up becoming 'exiled' to Great Britain, how he fell in love with Le Manoir and why he would have to choose an English chef to cook his dream meal. Plus: Lara's daughter makes a guest appearance. Produced by Patrick Gibbons.

Thursday

Raymond Blanc

Stavanger

The powerful tournament in Stavanger, Norway, draws to a close at the end of this week. World champion Magnus Carlsen dominated the blitz event which preceded the main competition. Sadly for the home crowd, Carlsen got off to a very bad start in the classical time limits competition that followed, with the energetic American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura seizing the leading role. Here are some key extracts from play.   Aronian–Carlsen: Norway Chess, Stavanger 2017 (see diagram 1)   In this tense situation, where White has a mass of pawns in exchange for a bishop, Carlsen conceives of a plausible defensive plan to resurrect his dormant bishop and ferry it round to the defence of his king. Paradoxically, this logical try turns out to be defective. 31 ...