Raymond Blanc’s secret ingredient

It’s Brasserie Blanc’s fifth birthday and the joint is jumping down at Victoria Mill. There’s a proper party atmosphere with balloons, music and people dressed as central casting French folk. Lunchtime service is busy with the usual mix of diners; business types breaking off every five minutes to clamp iPhones to their ears, immaculately coiffured lunching ladies, couples and a gaggle of giggling girls celebrating a birthday of their own.

I’m aware of a flutter at the far end of the restaurant and glancing across see the immaculate, diminutive form of Raymond Blanc posing for a photo with one of the aforesaid ladies. The good people of Leeds had no idea their lunch was going to be so special and that their Toulouse sausages would come with a side order of world-famous chef.

Invited to the birthday celebrations are a bunch of school kids from Crossgates all got up in striped jerseys, berets and painted-on comedy ‘tashes and having a whale of a time. The Man Himself moves amongst them and despite most of them having no idea who he is, he smiles, dares them to eat snails and generally fools around. For a moment it’s a leap to imagine that this goofy guy is Raymond Blanc, OBE. Star of a number of well-received TV programmes (most recently The Hungry Frenchman) and winner of several mantelpieces full of awards. Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons in Oxfordshire is Blanc’s mothership; he’s held two Michelin stars there for a staggering 28 years.

As ‘RB’ is whisked away to Radio Leeds I spot the man I’ve really come to talk to. Standing quietly at the back of the room keeping his hawk eye on service is a smiling Clive Fretwell, RB’s right hand man for the last 27 years.

Formerly head chef at Le Manoir, he’s now executive chef in charge of the 20 (soon to be 22) Brasserie Blancs up and down the country and oversees every aspect of the kitchen operations. The 
Blanc Empire runs like a well-oiled machine, and Fretwell’s driving it.

He’s an exile in Oxfordshire but was born and raised in Bierley, Bradford. He left school in 1977. “There was mass unemployment and it was mum who said why don’t you go to catering college? She was a fabulous cook, everything was home made including fresh bread on the table, big joints of meat – and she did outside catering for friends and family. Still does,” he says.

Fretwell put two years in at Bradford catering college and found his métier. When it came to graduation he’d won six out of seven of the student awards. “My mum went mad because I didn’t tell her, but I didn’t know! I was just enjoying myself. For me it’s a natural thing to do.

“I worked in a few hotels up and down the country after college but wanted to work at a higher level than straight hotel food. I looked through the top food guides and wrote to Raymond asking for a job. He wrote back to me. ‘Go abroad and learn your trade, I don’t want any green Englishmen in my kitchen!’”

Fretwell followed his advice and got a job in Geneva but after a few months spotted Blanc’s advert in The Caterer looking for chefs to work at Le Manoir. He sent an application and Blanc’s reply to his original letter and was thrilled to be invited for an interview.

“We sat in a room together and he said,’Tell me what you’ve done’ and every single day I’d written down every recipe and made a drawing of every dish I’d made. For 45 minutes he just sifted through all these scraps of paper. He handed the scrapbook back to me and said, ‘You’ve got the job but you will never do this in my kitchen’. Turns out I was the only commis to start there without having to do a practical test.”

What was working at Le Manoir like in those early, heady days?

“Fantastic. When I started in 1984 we had a team of seven people and during the opening weeks we worked through the night. It was an amazing kitchen. We had the best possible ingredients coming in to work with, and they changed every day. It was a wonderful environment to be in, a big family.

“Raymond is an extraordinary teacher. I’ve been with him 27 years and he can still put that little twist on something that is just breathtaking. Why didn’t I think of that? His knowledge of food is second to none.”

When Le Manoir opened in 1984 there were eight chefs in the kitchen. By the time Fretwell left in 1997 there were around 42. What’s the most important thing he learned there?

“Precision. Which is exactly what we teach all the chefs today. I need to know that the dishes in each of the Brasseries are consistently high quality, that none of our diners is disappointed by being served something they weren’t expecting. This is what we base our reputation on.”

Fretwell describes Blanc as a father figure. But kitchens, Michelin-starred or otherwise are notoriously theatrical, and down the years there must have been some disagreements in such a highly-charged environment?

“Of course. He’s always thinking Le Manoir, but in the Brasserie I’m working on a much smaller scale so I have to bring him back to earth. I temper his excesses; he always wants perfection, to push the brand higher and higher. And I’m thinking of delivery from a small kitchen.

“The only time he’s been really angry with me was in the early days when he bought some white truffles. They cost £3,000 a kilo. It was my job to sterilise them, and for whatever reason it didn’t work, and they were just fizzing in the jar, ruined. That was not a good day. The business was new, he’d borrowed – I don’t know, a million pounds – and it’s all on your head to repay that. It’s lucky he’s so small. I’m twice his size so he was never going to take me on.”

It’s clear that Fretwell fosters loyalty within his large team. How does he achieve it in such a high octane and fickle business?

“With professionalism. We work at a very high standard and we don’t abuse anyone. There are no tantrums in the kitchen. I want people who enjoy what they do.”

Blanc bounces in from his radio interview, grabs an espresso and joins us.  He’s cheeky, quick to laugh, warm and funny – and intensely serious as soon as he talks about food. What did he see in Clive when he first came to Le Manoir?

“A willing young man but green. I wanted to show him some French culture so he could really understand the meaning of terroir, regions, produce, seasonality – all the most important parts of what gastronomy should be. I could see that he was dedicated, willing to learn and didn’t need constant management.

“It was a tough kitchen in Le Manoir in the early days. It was crazy, crazy. But I could see in him as a young commis, someone who could rise through the ranks – and fast. I was seeing my head chef shape up, which was incredible because in my kitchen I had some top boys.”

“Top boys” is something of an understatement. Marco Pierre White, Michael Caines, Paul Heathcote and Alan Murchison are Le Manoir protégés. Altogether, 27 Michelin star chefs have emerged in the last 35 years. Did Blanc foresee a similar career path for Fretwell?

“I’m going to be controversial here. I might have seen more raw talent, but what Clive had, nobody else had; organisational skills, leadership, he was protective of his team and ran a tight ship. He created a good ambience in the kitchen.

“It’s my name over the door but I trust him to do the work. There’s a huge amount of communication between us. I know I can delegate to him, which is saying something for a control freak like me!”

Every so often Blanc breaks off to have a hushed conversation with Clive about an idea he’s had for a new Brasserie dish. The creative process never lets up and the chemistry between them is palpable.

Does Blanc recognise any particularly Yorkshire qualities Fretwell brings to the job? He throws back his head and laughs.

“If you’re a girl he’ll kiss you on the mouth not the cheek and call you ‘duckie’ His approach to food is rooted here. There’s a huge culture of food in Yorkshire, I would say probably the best in the country. With suppliers and growers like Lishmans in Ilkley, and our lovely rhubarb from Oldroyds we have some great producers.”

Blanc pauses to have yet another photo taken with a star-struck diner. Clive smiles benignly. “I’m very happy for Raymond to be the face, front of house. I’ll quietly get on with my job. We complement one another – that’s why our relationship has lasted this long.”