Two Of The World’s Most Famous Chefs To Host One-Off Dinner

With an impressive 15 Michelin stars awarded to his restaurants around the globe, Yannick Alléno is one of the world’s most decorated chefs. Raymond Blanc, meanwhile, is a culinary legend, best known for his five-star gastronomic Oxford hotel, Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons. They’re two of the biggest names in French cuisine today, and this April Londoners will have the chance to see them cooking together at a rare collaboration dinner.

Raymond Blanc And Yannick Alléno To Host Collaboration Dinner

Taking place at Pavyllon London, Alléno’s restaurant at Four Seasons Hotel London at Park Lane in Mayfair, London, the event will see the pair joining forces on a special dining extravaganza. Guests are invited to take a seat at the restaurant’s famed kitchen counter and watch the chefs in action as they whizz up a six-course feast, with Alléno showcasing his extraction techniques and Blanc demonstrating his signature style of seasonal, ingredient-led cooking. 

The dinner will kick off with Alléno’s king crab dish, served with nori seaweed broth and Andean sage vinegar, ahead of Blanc’s morels filled with chicken mousse, paired with a white asparagus. Next up: Blanc’s confit of salmon with cucumber ribbons and cauliflower horseradish, followed by Alléno’s Japanese wagyu millefeuille with beetroot fermentation and Boston lettuce. 

Pavyllon Restaurant

Then it will be onto the sweet stuff: first an exotic fruit ravioli with coconut, lime and kaffir from Blanc, ahead of Alléno’s Piemontais dessert featuring hazelnut biscotti, lemon confit and praline ice cream. To finish: Alléno’s sugar-free candied fruit and chocolates. All this can be enjoyed alongside a sommelier-selected wine pairing.

The event is part of Pavyllon’s Counter-Culture series, which sees Alléno and the restaurant’s head chef Benjamin Ferra Y Castell inviting some of the UK’s top chefs to cook with them – part of the hotel’s wider 55th anniversary celebrations. 

Alléno was immersed in the culinary world from a young age, learning to cook from his grandmother. He honed his craft in the kitchens of esteemed French restaurants like Le Royal Monceau and Sofitel Porte de Sèvres, going on to work at Le Meurice in Paris before launching the Yannick Alléno Group in 2008. This includes restaurants all over the world in glamorous locations like Courchevel, Monaco and Dubai, as well as his Michelin-starred restaurant in London, where the event is being held.

Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons

Born near Besançon in France, Blanc is a self-taught chef who fell in love with gastronomy while working as a waiter at the Michelin-starred restaurant Le Palais de la Bière. He moved to the UK in the 1970s, landing a job at a country inn called The Rose Revived in Oxford and honing his craft in local restaurants before opening Le Quat’ Saisons in the city centre – which went on to secure two Michelin stars. Then, in 1984, he launched Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons, a five-star hotel renowned for its food offering. Alongside this, he runs a chain of restaurants called Brasserie Blanc, appears on TV shows, and advocates for sustainability within the food industry (Le Manoir has a prestigious Green Michelin Star).

Together, they’ll no doubt cook up a feast to remember.

BOOK IT:

16 April, £350pp, pavyllonlondon.com