Food Programme - Chefs' Choices Number 4: Lemongrass

Raymond Blanc explains how travelling to Thailand and Malaysia led to a culinary love affair with lemongrass, and ambitious plans to grow a south-east Asian garden at Les Manois Aux Quat' Saisons in Oxford. He explains, with the help of chef David Thompson, food writer Roger Owen and herb grower Jekka McVicar, why lemongrass is such a prized ingredient in Asian cooking. It is a herb with many uses; outside the kitchen it is regarded as an important medicinal herb and has even been used by the SAS as a source of moisture in the Malaysian jungle. Raymond Blanc has been using lemongrass for decades to give dishes a light and fragrant flavour. In the programme he prepares two dishes: a fillet of brill on a bed of spinach and, for dessert, a summer berry soup infused with the flavours of lemongrass.