Orient-Express Hotels has announced that Raymond Blanc OBE, founder and chef patron of Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons, has joined the company as vice president.

Blanc will have a consultancy role throughout the Orient-Express portfolio of hotels, trains and cruises, working with existing teams to improve and enhance their culinary offerings.

The first such project will be at Orient-Express Hotels' Santa Barbara, California property, El Encanto, due to open in 2012, where Blanc is designing the restaurant and will oversee delivery of the concept.

The appointment is an extension of a partnership between the two in 2002, when the company acquired equity in Blanc's two star Michelin restaurant and 32 room hotel, Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons in Great Milton, Oxfordshire.

Blanc said: "The reason Orient-Express hotel restaurants are successful is because they really aren't hotel dining rooms, but restaurants in the true meaning of the word."

Orient-Epxress currently owns and manages 41 hotels, six tourist trains and the 21 Club stand-alone restaurant in New York City. It also part-owns and manages PeruRail in Peru; the m.v. Road to Mandalay in Burma; and Afloat, which operates luxury péniche-hôtels (barges) on the inland waterways of France.