Self-taught chef Heston Blumenthal’s restaurant was named The Best in the UK 2009… so what’s his secret?
Snail porridge, anyone? Followed by egg and bacon ice cream and rounded off with a touch of oyster and passion fruit jelly with lavender?
Conventional Heston’s recipes might not be, but his innovative, scientific approach to food has earned him countless awards at his Berkshire restaurant, The Fat Duck. Heston also scooped a third Michelin star faster and younger than anyone in history, took the prestigious Best Restaurant in the World title in 2005, and was awarded an OBE for his contribution to British gastronomy in 2006. So how did he get to be so on top of his game?
Born in High Wycombe in 1966 – he is now 43 – Heston says he didn’t learn his craft from his family. ‘Although my mother was a very good cook, my childhood memories were not woven with gastronomic experiences. I didn’t spend hours beside her, stoning cherries or peeling potatoes,’ he told The Guardian.
What did set him on his foodie journey was a visit to a Michelin three-star restaurant L’Ousteau de Baumaniere during a French holiday with his parents and sister, when he was aged 16. It was his first visit abroad. ‘I was totally knocked out by it – not just the fabulous food but the whole multi sensory experience: the sound of fountains and cicadas, the heady smell of lavender, the sight of waiters carving lamb at the table or pouring lobster sauce into soufflés. I knew at once I wanted to be part of it.’
On his return, Heston tried to gain a position in a London restaurant but his lack of experience and young age thwarted his attempts. So instead, he spent the next 10 years doing his own research into the basics of French cuisine. As well as reading up on the subject, Heston spent time in France, working in various jobs to fund his trips including as a photocopier salesman and debt collector. But on his days off he visited restaurants, vineyards, cheese makers, butchers and producers in his quest for French culinary knowledge.
Heston’s only experience in a professional kitchen was a week’s work experience at Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir Aux Quat’Saisons. ‘I took part and examined every aspect of French cuisine, trying to perfect the kind of experience I’d had in France,’ Heston says in his book In Search of Total Perfection (£14.99, BBC). ‘As the results of cooking got better and my confidence grew, I began to explore how I might create dishes that matched up to my own ideals of perfection. I sought to capture that hedonistic effect in the dishes I created and this has become a crucial part of how I approach the creation of a recipe.’
Plump birds
In 1995, the time was right for Heston to put his theory into practice and he opened the now world-renowned restaurant, The Fat Duck in the Berkshire village of Bray. At first, Heston cooked simple French brasserie classics such as steak and chips, salmon rillettes and lemon tart. But they were all cooked to such perfection that he attracted a quiet following among his fellow chefs, including Marco Pierre White and Gordon Ramsay.
After reading Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee (£24, Scribner) Heston became fascinated with the science of food. So together with two scientists from Bristol University, he set about investigating why green beans lose their colour during cooking and discovered it was down to the calcium content in the water. From this discovery, Heston’s curiosity led him to research the science behind a whole host of cooking methods.
The small screen
Heston’s small screen debut was Heston Blumenthal: In Search of Perfection, aired on BBC2 in 2006. It was Heston’s take on how to make traditional British dishes absolutely, well… perfect. While Heston claimed we could create these dishes at home, most of us just watched in awe at his incredible attention to detail. He traipsed to Delhi during his chicken tikka masala episode, for example, and made an MRI scan of the marinated chicken. Takeaway anyone?
Last year, Heston spent many happy hours at a failing Little Chef near Winchester for his programme Big Chef Meets Little Chef, trying to spur on staff to stop frying and get cooking. He came up with a workable menu, within budget, as well as a revamped interior despite constant battling with staff who were unwilling to make any changes to their working day. But it all paid off – the restaurant saw a 500% increase in sales immediately after the programme and is now consistently up 150% year on year. It also received two stars in the Good Food Guide 2010.
Heston’s Feasts, screened in March 2009, was a look into recipes of the past, which according to Heston is the key to the future of cooking. His mission was to recreate famous period dishes for the ultimate 21st century banquet. His quest took him through Victorian Britain and Tudor England to the Medieval era and Ancient Rome.
Daring dishes on the menu included an entirely edible garden with insects, 24 blackbirds baked in a pie, a Trojan hog with edible intestines and an unusual ‘ejaculating’ cake. His feasts were then served up to as a banquet for celebrity diners. Delicious.
What next?
Heston has a had a rocky year – in February 2009 he had to shut The Fat Duck for three weeks when over 500 diners fell ill with norovirus, which causes vomiting and diarrhoea, after eating there. It turned out the outbreak was down to contaminated oysters and razor clams, and the whole debacle cost the business around £500,000. The chef can rest assured that it hasn’t put off diners though – there is still a huge waiting list for a table at The Fat Duck.
Heston co-owns The Hinds Head, also in Bray, which offers traditional British classics and historical dishes, along the lines of Heston’s Feasts. And he is opening a new restaurant in the Mandarin Oriental hotel in London next year. The menu is set to feature Heston’s ‘inimitable style of culinary alchemy, influenced by his research into historic British gastronomy,’ according to a spokesperson.
Photographs: Heston Blumenthal in Heston’s feasts, photography by Adam Lawrence
