Chef Raymond Blanc has stirred up a cookery teacher by claiming aspiring kitchen stars do not recognise fine food.

M Blanc, whose restaurant, Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons, in Great Milton, has two Michelin stars, said trainee chefs arriving at his restaurant had to be retrained in basic skills.

He said: "Too many young chefs have lost the connection with what is really good, where the food has come from, whether it is local or seasonal.

"Too often young chefs measure quality by aethestics."

The chef has sparked outrage with his comments at one of the county's colleges.

Peter Brattan, who teaches cooking at Oxford and Cherwell Valley College, dismissed Mr Blanc's comments and suggested a face-off between his pupils and Le Manoir trainees.

Mr Brattan said a lot of his pupils were top notch.

He said: "We churn out good chefs every single year and last year, three students went to an international competition at the Hotel Olympia in London and came back with two silver medals and a bronze medal."

But Mr Blanc added: "We are spending a great deal of our time educating young people about taste and the ability to select not what looks the best, but what tastes the best."

He suggested there was a lot of work to be done to retrain his new recruits about taste and ingredients and what makes a great meal.

The kitchen maestro has kept his Michelin stars at Le Manoir for 22 years and has trained more than 20 Michelin starred chefs.

Mr Brattan offered to pit three students from the college against some of M Blanc's trainees at Le Manoir and see how they compared.

He added: "All of our students use fresh foods - we don't deal with any convenience food whatsoever and they do learn how to recognise quality food and how to season, although it's not something you can learn in a week. It takes time.

"Some of our students will never be high-flyers but there are two or three who, if they worked at it, could end up in the same place as Gary Rhodes or even Raymond Blanc."

Chef Mike North, who was awarded a Michelin star at 25 when he worked at The Goose, in Britwell Salome - and now owns The Nut Tree in Murcott - believed there was a lack of knowledge about food and quality in some young people entering the industry.

Mr North, 28, who has been working in the trade for 13 years, said: "I think it is probably a fair comment but there are exceptions.

"I think it's quite a generalisation really.

"It's like saying anybody from a council estate uses junk and steals cars for fun, or that all Scottish people wear kilts."

He added: "As long as the general public don't know what they are eating and prefer to eat an inferior product, it's going to be very difficult for young chefs to learn."