ITV Simply Raymond Blanc: Chef’s Net Worth, Stunning Girlfriend, and Getting Beaten with a Pan at the Start of His Job

Raymond Blanc will return to ITV tonight (October 1) to take viewers on another rich culinary tour.

The Frenchman, 71, is one of Europe’s top chefs and owns numerous restaurants across the UK after moving to the country in the 1970s.

He is also the only leader in the world to have received both an OBE from Great Britain and the equivalent of a Returning Knight title in France.

READ MORE: Raymond Blanc: Being fired as a trainee waiter when opening 20 restaurants and staring at Miranda

But it hasn’t always been easy for the chef, who started off from very humble beginnings, including being fired from a job early in his career.

Born in post-war France, Raymond was one of five siblings, which was sometimes very difficult for his parents to support financially.

In the 1970s, he became a trainee waiter in a Michelin-starred French restaurant, Le Palais de la Bière.

However, in 1972, the chef did not take Raymond’s suggestion of how to cook a certain recipe too lightly.

Talk to The mirror, Raymond recalled the unfortunate incident.

He said: “I started in restaurants as a cleaner and no one could beat me.

“I cleaned the 18th century mirrors with paper and vinegar until there was no trace. Then I was the best glass washer, then the best server.

“Then everything went wrong because I told the chef his sauces were too rich.

“He took a large copper pot and smashed it against my face. I lost my job and my ego was badly bruised as well.”

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Raymond now owns over 20 successful restaurants across the UK where people can enjoy an impressive range of sustainable and seasonal French dishes.

As you might expect, having an army of restaurants made him quite a bit of money, with a whopping £ 7million net worth, according to celebrity sites.

And when he’s not working at one of his many restaurants, Raymond is in his lush Oxford estate with his girlfriend Natalie Draxler, 49.

The Russian nutritionist works at one of his cooking schools and the couple have been inseparable since they met in 2002

Simply Raymond Blanc is coming this evening at 8 p.m.

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