Heston Blumenthal.

[Amelie]

Would anyone offof here like to eat at The Fat Duck, or do you reck this guy is a waste of cash. If i were lucky enough to get a table, then i guess it would be silly not to have the Gourmet menu- but i dunno, bacon and egg sorbet just sounds wrong. Don't get me started on the snail and leather shit.

I actually think he is a really great chef, possibly one of the greatest of our gen (is he is classed as a chef, or a scientist?). I badly want to make his Sausage and mash, but 1, its costs about a ten spot just for the gravy, and 2, who the fuck has a pressure cooker in this day and age?

Edited to add:3, there is summat really weird about them sausage machines where you have to put the skins on yourself. I can't work out if they are semi erotic or revolting. What would Freud make of my worries.

 

[Amelie]

I take it thats a deffo 'no' then lol.

 

[lottie]

Would anyone offof here like to eat at The Fat Duck, or do you reck this guy is a waste of cash. If i were lucky enough to get a table, then i guess it would be silly not to have the Gourmet menu- but i dunno, bacon and egg sorbet just sounds wrong. Don't get me started on the snail and leather shit.

I actually think he is a really great chef, possibly one of the greatest of our gen (is he is classed as a chef, or a scientist?). I badly want to make his Sausage and mash, but 1, its costs about a ten spot just for the gravy, and 2, who the fuck has a pressure cooker in this day and age?

Edited to add:3, there is summat really weird about them sausage machines where you have to put the skins on yourself. I can't work out if they are semi erotic or revolting. What would Freud make of my worries.

who???? lol , dont know who he is but i am going with no thankyou after reading snail and leather !!! :S

 

[Jonno]

It's snail porridge which is one of the dishes on the gournet menu, and bacon and egg ice cream and leather sorbet. Don't knock it till you've tried it I say.

The Fat Duck won the best restaurant in the world award last year. It's one of only 3 Michelin 3 star resturants in the country (France have about 50 or something daft).

As for his sausages and oinon gravy - the recipe was unbelievable. He did things like cook pork fat on an open fire for 20 minutes, and soak fully toasted bread in warm water for 20 minutes and then only use the water. Everything had to be kept below 10 degrees when combining the ingredients all the time, so you have to keep stopping and putting it back in the freezer. It was proper ball ache stuff. He'd experimented for 6 months or something daft when making it. He boiled the sausages in the end for 20 minutes and then fried them very quickly to brown them. The gravy was done in a pressure cooker like Amelie says.

I'd fucking love to try the finished product mind!

 

[lottie]

It's snail porridge which is one of the dishes on the gournet menu, and bacon and egg ice cream and leather sorbet. Don't knock it till you've tried it I say.

The Fat Duck won the best restaurant in the world award last year. It's one of only 3 Michelin 3 star resturants in the country (France have about 50 or something daft).

As for his sausages and oinon gravy - the recipe was unbelievable. He did things like cook pork fat on an open fire for 20 minutes, and soak fully toasted bread in warm water for 20 minutes and then only use the water. Everything had to be kept below 10 degrees when combining the ingredients all the time, so you have to keep stopping and putting it back in the freezer. It was proper ball ache stuff. He'd experimented for 6 months or something daft when making it. He boiled the sausages in the end for 20 minutes and then fried them very quickly to brown them. The gravy was done in a pressure cooker like Amelie says.

I'd fucking love to try the finished product mind!

i am one of these annoying people im afraid that say yuk to stuff i havent even tried , its just the thought of stuff like snails turns my stomach , the sausage & onion tho sounds lovely

 

[Ed]

I'd definitely try it. THink its the sort of place you go once to, rather than regularly. And its well expensive.

 

[coggledots]

Could someone please tell me how jonno & amelie find the time to find these fasinating facts inbetween record buying, record cleaning & getting wed

Yes bacon, egg & leather is a change from the norm (chinky, indian, pizza or kebab?) but do you really really wanna try it? Miight sound good but might taste like erm.......chewing .....erm leather.

 

[T.C]

It's snail porridge which is one of the dishes on the gournet menu, and bacon and egg ice cream and leather sorbet. Don't knock it till you've tried it I say.

The Fat Duck won the best restaurant in the world award last year. It's one of only 3 Michelin 3 star resturants in the country (France have about 50 or something daft).

wtf?! the leather sorbet sounds mad as tits on fish

where is the restaurant?

ggod job his bacon n egg ice cream is like a brekkie and dessert in one...couldnt afford to eat there for the two separate meals , lol

cant knock it til you try it I suppose, fair play for being a bit different, im curious for sure, even to just read the menu!!

 

[Jonno]

wtf?! the leather sorbet sounds mad as tits on fish

where is the restaurant?

ggod job his bacon n egg ice cream is like a brekkie and dessert in one...couldnt afford to eat there for the two separate meals , lol

cant knock it til you try it I suppose, fair play for being a bit different, im curious for sure, even to just read the menu!!

His restaurant is in Bray in Berkshire (which also has the Waterside Inn, another 3 star Michelin place, not bad for a little village, the only other 3 star in the whole country is in London - Gordon Ramsey's).

The full menu of the gourmet tasting job is here:

Tasting Menu

He also has a pub in the same village which does normalish pub food. He does things like triple cooked chips (that's the ultimate way of doing them apparently!).

 

[Jonno]

Oh and his programme this week is doing steak and salad.

The steak, get this, starts out as a big joint of forerib which is first browned using a blow torch, then cooked in an oven at 50 degrees C (gas mark a half -pretty fucking low!), using a thermometer to tell when the meat is 50 degrees throughout (which takes 4-8hours!), then cook at that temp for a further 18 hours! Then the meat is sliced in 5cm thick slices and then fried for about 4 mins I think (or it could be 10) turning every 30 seconds.

That's one hell of a fucking wait for a steak - it takes a day to cook!

 

[the_ColaBoy]

I ride past his place in Bray every morning, and my missus would love to go as she is really impressed with "posh nosh". But, I'm not convinced, and too "pie, chips and gravy" at heart. 1/2 rice, 1/2 chips is nouvelle-cuisine pour moi!

I'll reserve judgement until I read Scrimshank's review ;-)

NewsBiscuit: Scrimshanks on Food - November 2006

Bueno estente...

 

[nathan]

deffo worth

I ride past his place in Bray every morning, and my missus would love to go as she is really impressed with "posh nosh". But, I'm not convinced, and too "pie, chips and gravy" at heart. 1/2 rice, 1/2 chips is nouvelle-cuisine pour moi!

I'll reserve judgement until I read Scrimshank's review ;-)

NewsBiscuit: Scrimshanks on Food - November 2006

Bueno estente...

trying a friend of mine has eaten there. I would prefer gordon ramseys though. Or even better el bulli in spain (now the number one restaurant in the world) with a 18 month waiting list the same friend tried to get on the cancellation list and the member of staff just said deadpan. "But sir nobody has ever cancelled"

 

[Jiglo]

I'd say go for it, but I don't think I will at a couple of hundred a head or so (inc wine)

 

[T.C]

I love watching Heston Blumenthals programmes

the ones i've seen have not necessarily been any weird combinations, more the 'in search of perfection' ones where he goes to great lengths to produce perfect versions of 'normal' classic dishes such as steak and salad, black forest gateux, cheeseburgers, chicken tikka, treacle sponge etc...

find it really fascinating to watch all the trouble he goes to and the things he tries along the way to get it right.
Its also good because of the aspect that theres no way you'd go to, or even be able to go to all that hassle yourself

I think he's ace, if a little mad

 

[Duke]

Oh and his programme this week is doing steak and salad.

The steak, get this, starts out as a big joint of forerib which is first browned using a blow torch, then cooked in an oven at 50 degrees C (gas mark a half -pretty fucking low!), using a thermometer to tell when the meat is 50 degrees throughout (which takes 4-8hours!), then cook at that temp for a further 18 hours! Then the meat is sliced in 5cm thick slices and then fried for about 4 mins I think (or it could be 10) turning every 30 seconds.

That's one hell of a fucking wait for a steak - it takes a day to cook!

do they keep ya table for you if ya need to go home to bed lol,, give me harvesta anytime ,,, mmmmmmmmmmm salad n blue cheese sauce

 

[li'l Sonz]

Butty was asking if I'd go a bit back. I don't think I'd be able to handle the taste of the backwards food and for the price, I can't imagine paying that much to not like it! lol. If I could go and try it for free then yeah, but like someone else said, I'd prefer Gordon Ramsey's I think!

x

 

[Sheikh Yerbouti]

Top thread

I'm not a fan personally...

I'm all for nice food... but it pisses me off a bit to hear chefs banging on about something being "right"... As if there's a right and a wrong way to prepare and eat a bit of food... Everybody's palate is different, we don't all experience tastes in the same way... it's often a matter of personal, well, taste! That applies to all food whether cooked by Heston B or not, but for me, the lengths and levels of minute detail he goes to when preparing food just seems a bit OTT. After he's arsed about with a blowtorch and lukewarm pigs jizz and frozen & defrosted summat every 2 minutes, It might taste "exactly right" to him, but he's not me. I'm all for chefs creating "their vision" with food, but i just reckon he goes a bit too far.

I'll take me hat off to Heston B though for challenging people's preconceptions (that's never a bad thing IMO) and his lateral thinking and "nothing is sacred" attitude towards food & cooking. There's no doubt it's a refreshing and genuinely innovative approach.

But would i want to eat there? No. I'm not even remotely curious. It's difficult to pin down exactly the reasons why... Partly it's Lottie's point about food having to "sound good" in order to appeal. A lot of Heston's stuff just sounds so outlandish and weird, to the uneducated (like myself) I'd have convinced myself I won't like it before it even arrived. It's a paradox because I like trying new things, but yet when I go for a meal I want to really enjoy it and so quite often play safe a bit with more unusual menus.

It's also partly because of the style of food i like. There's a school of thought in cooking (less so recently thank god) which is all about chefs showing off their flashy skills. Justifying expensive pricetags by fannying about with loads of expensive ingredients and different types of sauces and garnishes. Maddeningly this still seems to be the trend in America, especially New York. The number of times I've ordered what should be a lovely piece of fish only to get it served up overcooked and encrusted and drizzled with all manner of fancy-sounding shite it just doesn't need.

Simpler food is where it's at for me. A few basic but top quality well produced ingredients. Sympathetically combined and cooked, and served with minimal seasoning.


One of Rick Stein's restaraunts in Padstow would be my ideal place to go for dinner. Or Nick Nairn's. Or that kid who did the steak main course on the last "Great British Menu"... now that looked NICE...

Keep meaning to bob down the Savoy Grill as well because of this guy

 

[Kate.S]

The full menu of the gourmet tasting job is here:

Tasting Menu

Wow! That's some menu! I would defo go if I could afford it, I absolutely love trying any new foods and I think that menu would be an experience you'd never forget.

Can't say that I've ever been to a particularly top notch or well renowned restaurant but am definately looking forward to some fine dining as I get older

Oh and his programme this week is doing steak and salad.

What time and what chanel is his programme on? He sounds like a really interesting guy would love to check him out.

 

[T.C]

What time and what chanel is his programme on? He sounds like a really interesting guy would love to check him out.

if you've got Sky then check out the 'UK Food' channel, he's bound to appear sooner or later, his programmes get repeated on there quite a lot

 

[Kate.S]

if you've got Sky then check out the 'UK Food' channel, he's bound to appear sooner or later, his programmes get repeated on there quite a lot

Cheers for that matey will defo be keeping my eye out for him, what's the programme called or should I just look for his name?