OXFORDSHIRE chef Raymond Blanc is entering the world of reality TV with a new show in which couples compete running their own restaurant.

The Frenchman, who owns Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons in Great Milton, will have a personal stake in the prize - the winners will keep their own establishment, which he will financially back with a six-figure sum.

The show, called The Restaurant, will be broadcast on BBC2 and features nine couples whose dream is to run their own establishment - with each week the worst performing pair being eliminated.

Mr Blanc said: "To set up a business, especially a restaurant business, and make a success of it is one of the hardest things in the world.

"I look forward to sharing my experience and expertise with like-minded people who are eager to enter this crazy but irresistible world and achieve the dream for themselves."

But Blanc's involvement represents something of a U-turn.

He recently wrote of reality shows set in restaurant kitchens: "We have eight million morons watching these programmes. The brains of the British have gone soft."

Blanc stopped short of naming shows such as Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares and Hell's Kitchen, but said: "We need to bring respect to our industry. We are not helped in this respect by certain programmes that do us a great disservice.

"The impression of what happens inside a restaurant is a disaster for us. It strips people of dignity and promotes abuse.

"A kitchen shouldn't sound like a market place or an insane comedy. There should be one voice: the chef's. And he doesn't need to yell."

The winners will be "financially backed and personally supported" by Blanc, chef patron of the two Michelin-starred Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons.

The show, which follows the format of a successful Australian show called My Restaurant Rules hosted by chef Curtis Stone, will be broadcast next year.