FACED with the choice of a chat with top chef Raymond Blanc and a tour of his gardens or a 14-hour shift in his multi-award winning Oxfordshire restaurant Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons Beaminster TV Masterchef winner Mat Follas chose the hard graft.

As well as being amazed they let him cook all day and he was surprised at how much he actually liked the food.

Mr Follas said: “The thing that really impressed me was that I went to Raymond’s expecting it to be extremely French – but they were cooking with so many wild flowers and things it was amazing.

“I was really quite shocked at how much I personally liked the food rather than just being impressed.

“It was brilliant, we had long discussions about it. We have been doing lots of research about where to get plants from, particularly wild plants.”

Although Mr Follas was there to learn as much as he could, the exchange went both ways.

“As well as having great conversations on where to find wild plants I took some wild garlic that we had cultivated and they were very interested in that because they haven’t got any of their own and it is very difficult to get in a restaurant unless you have got your own land – harvesting it legally can be a quite difficult.”

As well as the wild garlic – which is Mr Follas’s signature plant and will be the name of his new restaurant in Beaminster Square – he took up clods of soil with wood sorrell from a friend’s wood.

“We had some really good discussions about that and it was really good to be able to discuss that as equals if you like.”

Although appreciating talking as an equal on wild food Mr Follas was certain he was there to learn as much as he could – which is why he chose to forgo the pleasure of spending much time with the master chef himself.

“I didn’t see much of Raymond because I was given the choice of spending some time with him and seeing the gardens or staying the kitchens, so I chose the kitchens. I was there to learn as much as I could. It was brilliant.

“I expected to be politely taken off after a couple of plates but I was on all day and for the evening service as well. I also did lots of prep work in between the service. I was thrown in at the deep end, although they obviously kept an eye on me and they were extremely helpful.

“I still think of myself as an amateur cook about to take that step into the professional world but I wasn’t treated like that at all.”

Raymond Blanc and Mat Follas have something more in common than a love of wild ingredients. Both are self-taught and Mr Follas believes it is one of the reasons why the Oxfordshire restaurant has such extensive kitchens.

“The kitchens are bigger than Buckingham Palace – they are the most amazing kitchens that I have seen and he has a huge amount of staff which is why it is not cheap – and the food reflects that. It is something else.”

Although Mr Follas is not sure he plans to aim for a Michelin rating for his own restaurant he did learn lessons at Le Manoir.

“You take elements of it – how they lay out their plates, how they use their sauces, all of those things.

“I don’t just want to do steak and chips – it is about taking elements from it although I am not sure I’d even want to aim for Michelin but there is so much to learn from it.”

Next Mr Follas has his sights set on a spell under the wing of Heston Blumenthal after meeting his head chef Ashley Palmer-Watts at Sunday’s Cattistock Knob Throwing competition.

Mr Palmer-Watts is head chef at the three-Michelin-starred Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire.

“They have kind of offered me time there but now it is a question of organising it. If I can do it before we open The Wild Garlic in June I will,” said Mr Follas.