Up until recently, Benoit served as Chef Pâtissier at the renowned Michelin-starred restaurant Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons in Oxfordshire. During his time there, he worked closely with Raymond Blanc OBE for over 30 years. Now an author and international pastry consultant, he is also one of the two judges on the Channel 4 TV series Bake Off: The Professionals.
Benoit grew up in a small town in Normandy, France, with a bakery at each end of his street. From an early age, he spent time in these bakeries alongside the bakers’ sons, playing among the flour sacks and later waiting to sample the pastries. It was only natural that he began his career with an apprenticeship at one of them.
This marked the beginning of a remarkable journey, which included a second apprenticeship as a pâtissier, a year of National Service as a naval chef, and a position at the Normandy Hotel in Deauville. In 1991, he secured the role of Senior Sous Chef (Pastry) at the world-renowned Hotel Ritz in Paris. There, he trained alongside some of France’s finest chefs, including Meilleurs Ouvriers de France (MOF), further refining his artistic and technical skills. In 1995, Raymond Blanc persuaded him to move to the UK to join Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons.
Benoit is highly respected in the world of pastry competitions. He served as Team President of the UK Pastry Team for the 2011 Pastry World Cup and later became Chairman of the UK Pastry Club, a role he held until 2023. Through this position, he played a key role in developing and promoting pastry skills across the UK. He has also mentored and coached teams to success at both national and international levels, with some achieving the prestigious title of Master of Culinary Arts and winning awards at the Pastry World Cup.
Competing at the highest level himself, Benoit was awarded the Master of Culinary Arts (MCA) in 2005—one of the industry’s highest honours, granted only every four years to the UK’s top pastry chefs. The award demands exceptional technical skill, creativity, and discipline, culminating in over 20 hours of rigorous semi-final and final assessments judged by industry peers. He also holds a French Master’s degree in pastry and was named Pastry Chef of the Year in 2009. Additionally, he is a longstanding member of the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts.
Over the years, Benoit has served as a judge for numerous prestigious competitions in the UK and internationally, including the UK Pastry Open, the UK and European Sugar Championships, National Chef of the Year, the British Culinary Federation Chef Competition, and the esteemed Master of Culinary Arts finals.
