The fantastic world of Heston Blumenthal

A small trolley is wheeled to the side of the table. it carries a gueridon (table top cooker) and a box of eggs. With great ceremony the maitre d’ breaks two of the eggs, squirts over some liquid nitrogen and proceeds to ‘scramble’ them in a copper pan. Within seconds he has a smoked bacon and egg ice cream which he lays alongside a slice of caramelised pain perdu toast and a cup of ‘hot and cold’ tea - a jellied mixture that is warm on one side of the cup and cool on the other.

We are, of course, in the legendary Fat Duck home to the fantastic (in every sense of the word) cooking of chef-owner Heston Blumenthal. It’s a typical Blumenthal dish - playful, delicious and wildly ingenious. The eggs are not ordinary eggs at all. The contents have been sucked out, the shells sterilised and they have been filled with a custard mixture that has already been scrambled and pureed. When the mixture hits the pan the liquid nitrogen makes them sizzle. It illustrates what Blumenthal calls ‘the importance of context’ - when we see the pan we expect the eggs to cook.

Blumenthal is as excited as a small boy about the invention - or rather reinvention. This is a dish that has been on the menu for several years but which he is constantly seeking to perfect. Maybe a dinner of the wine world’s great and the good gathered to celebrate the launch of the wildly expensive new Dom Perignon rose 1998 is not quite the occasion to do it but Blumenthal obviously can’t resist the opportunity to show it off. At the same meal we have a trial of a new dish which involves smelling and tasting vanilla and cinnamon one after the other. When you smell the cinnamon the vanilla taste is stronger and vice versa.

In last few years the self-taught Blumenthal has become one of most famous chefs in the world with 3 Michelin stars and a rating of 19 in Gault Millau. His website averages 75,000 hits a day. When the 3 stars were announced it went up to 300,000. Anything he does or says makes the main news pages rather than the food sections of the newspapers. “Monica (his PR) told me that would happen I but didn’t believe her” he says, looking slightly bemused. “At the end of the day I think I’m quite a normal bloke.”

So where does wine fit into all of this? Blumenthal doesn’t see himself as an expert but is fascinated by the way and the context in which a wine is served can affect our perceptions. “Think of a wonderful bottle of Muscadet sipped by the banks of the Loire on a sunny day tucking into a platter of plump fresh oysters. The same wine brought back to England doesn’t taste the same.”

The problem for him is that the majority of his diners have certain expectations of the quality of the wine that is served at a three star restaurant that may not be the best solution for the food. He admits that his list has been upgraded to accommodate more ‘big hitters’. His sommelier Isa recently offered a 265 selection of wines by the glass with the tasting menu that included Latour and Yquem. There were plenty of takers but with a menu that can easily take in 15 or more courses were they appreciated to the full? Blumenthal is non-commital simply pointing out the complicated logistics of the exercise. “With 8 different wines and water you can easily have 40-60 glasses on the table during service.”

Even at wine dinners, which happen quite frequently at the restaurant, the wines have to accommodate the food rather than vice versa. “Obviously we don’t have time to invent an entirely new range of dishes. We try to pick the ones that will show the wines at their best even if we have to jump around a bit rather than start with the lightest wine first.” Inevitably that leads to a few matches misfiring. At the recent Dom Perignon dinner, for example, the combination of the 1990 in magnum with Blumenthal’s famous snail porridge and the ‘78 with salmon poached in liquorice were sublime while the oyster and passionfruit jelly didn’t do the ‘96 any favours at all. Blumenthal abandoned the struggle altogether with a sardine on toast sorbet, sensibly opting for a sake.

In any case, Blumenthal points out, he and the winemaker are likely to be approaching any event from different starting points. “I’m a chef not a wine taster. Talking to Richard (Geoffroy - winemaker of Dom Perignon) I’m going to have different views on what the wine’s features are and how it fits in with what I’ve created. If you have a really toasty champagne you might think of partnering it with a caramelised brioche so that you pick up on the toasty note during the pairing. But that might not be the element that the winemaker wants to emphasise.”

What he tries to do is to find some element in the dish that will link to the drink. That may be a flavour link like the liquorice in the salmon dish or creating a psychological context for the match like the presentation of the bacon and egg ice cream. People’s appreciation of wine, he believes, is influenced by power of suggestion. “Someone says ‘this wine reminds me of wet bra straps’ and you say ‘ah yes’.’’

A problem is that people experience things in different ways. “Up until a couple of years ago it was considered that we had 600 taste receptors. Now they reckon we have 400 but not necessarily the same 400” explains Blumenthal. “Someone will pick up a glass of wine and smell banana but someone else may detect something different - maybe a particular banana their grandma used to keep in her fruit bowl that was very ripe.”

So far he has not yet gone down the road of analysing the composition of, say, a cabernet sauvignon and finding an ingredient which has a similar chemical composition as he did with his famous white chocolate and caviar combination though he’s started experimenting in that direction. “There’s something in Laphroaig whisky in certain concentrations that gives the leather notes you find in ripe olives. By combining the two you can enhance the characteristics of both the drink and the food.”

Increasingly Blumenthal is preoccupied with the psychological aspects of the eating experience. “Having a meal is like watching a film. You know when you get the jumpy bits you feel even more scared because the bit before has been so serene. What I’ve been thinking is that if you create comfort zones during a meal - moments when you can relax - then the more challenging dishes have more impact. It’s a bit like being on a roller coaster. When you’ve done it you have a real sense of achievement.”

Wine is obviously something that falls into the comfort zone for him. “I’m a real creature of habit. With Sunday dinner I usually open a bottle of white burgundy depending on how flush I’m feeling. I recently splashed out on an Auxey-Duresses from d’Auvenay - too young but fantastic - then I might follow it with half a bottle of shiraz. We’ve spent quite a few holidays in the Languedoc so I’ve developed a taste for the big reds from down there like Grange des Peres and Hommage a Max from Clos des Truffiers.

Fame has been a two edged sword for Blumenthal, bringing a measure of security but also an insatiable level of demand on his time. Much of the past two years since his third star was awarded have been spent setting up the expensive infrastructure for a three star restaurant which resulted in recent reports that the business was in the red. “In fact turnover is up by 40%” he points out indignantly but we’ve spend nearly a quarter of a million on the business, taking on more staff (there are now 55, including stagires (unpaid work placements) for just 42 covers) and setting up a lab and research team. He’s also had to take time off over the last few months to sort out a long standing back problem which was threatening to cripple him. “I’d get to the end of service and I literally couldn’t stand.”

Blumenthal is set to become an even bigger star when a new BBC TV series called Perfection is screened later this summer. It analyses how to perfect everyday dishes such as roast chicken, fish and chips and sausage and mash. it’s clearly been as stimulating for him as anything that goes on between the walls of the Fat Duck. “We’ve got a very exciting pizza recipe. We went over to Naples and analysed the tomatoes, the parmesan, the flour and the water. We found that they were getting their ovens up to 500 C which is way beyond any domestic oven. I even tried putting coal from the fire in a roasting tray in the oven at home - you can imagine how pleased my wife was about that. But we’ve got the recipe down to a 2 minute cook which is pretty good.” The recipe is one of only 8 in the book that accompanies the series. “A recipe book with just 8 recipes - that’s a first” says Blumenthal, grinning broadly at the thought.

Being a culinary superstar obviously sits lighty on the modest Blumenthal. “What it’s really about is enjoying myself. I get really excited about what I do. I want people coming trhough the door rubbing their hands. The problem is once you get 3 stars you get put on a pedestal . . .” He looks momentarily downcast. “Still, the time for experimentation and creativity will come back.” I don’t think many people thought it had gone away.

The Fat Duck is at 1 High Street Bray, 01628 580333 www.fatduck.co.uk

A shorter version of this feature appeared in the June issue of Decanter

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