After spending two hours on the phone on hold and exactly two months of building anticipation, I finally boarded the 12:30pm train from Paddington for a long lunch at The Fat Duck – the second best restaurant in the world (the first being El Bulli in Spain, which isn’t taking bookings for 2010 yet – I’m working on it).
The outside of The Fat Duck is actually quite non-descript – it sits on a small street and could be any white-washed gastropub in England. Entering the small entryway, the dining room is surprisingly low-beamed and understated for such a temple to molecular gastronomy.
“We were presented with a conch shell nestling an iPod tuned to the sound of the sea…”
Bursting with excitement, we flicked through the wine tome the size of a Renaissance bible, and settled on the cheapest bottle of white wine. As it was, we were going to be shelling out £120 (approx. $240) for the 18(!) course ‘multi-modal’ degustation of foam, liquid nitrogen, films and jellies.
Here are our highlights:
Dish 1. Nitro green tea and lime mousse. A palate cleanser consisting of a ball of mousse was dashed into a pot of liquid nitrogen, turning it into a cold meringue, then decorated with a puff of green tea powder on top. To finish off, a lemon scent was spritzed over our heads. I couldn’t get a picture of this as I was ordered by our scary Eastern European waitress to eat it NOW.
Dish 5: Oak moss and truffle toast. Truffles are grown at the base of oak trees and will absorb the flavours of oak moss. So to fully appreciate the taste of truffles, a whole procedure needed to take place. First, an oak moss flavoured film on the tongue. Then liquid nitrogen poured onto a bed of oak moss to release the aroma as it smoked its way over the whole table. Only then could we eat the heady and rich truffle toast. Spectacular.
Dish 6: Snail porridge. Heston’s signature dish of snails, oats, smoked ham, shaved fennel and green stuff. It tasted much better than it sounds.
Dish 8: Sound of the sea. We were presented with a conch shell nestling an iPod tuned to the sound of the sea plus a glass panel topped with a construction of ’sand’, scallops, seaweed and foam which looked like the sea. I was transported to the beach…so much so that when I removed my headphones the noise of the restaurant was quite jarring.
“…Our waitress cracked special Fat Duck eggs to pour out a bacon and egg infused custard…”
Dish 11: Hot and ice tea. A single shot glass of tea with the left side hot and the right side cold, and nothing separating the two sides. The chemistry behind it led to much speculation at the table. I’m still trying to figure that one out.
Dish 12: Mrs Marshall’s Cornet. A mini ice cream cone homage to Mrs Marshall, an unsung culinary hero in the sphere of ices and ice creams (according to the two-page pamphlet accompanying the dish). Yummy and educational.
Dish 15: Parsnip cereal with parsnip milk. The dish was contained in cute little Fat Duck cereal boxes but I was completely confused by it. Guess I’ve never had cereal other than for breakfast before. I felt like Alice in Wonderland – everything backwards, breakfast for dessert, curiouser and curioser…
Dish 16: Nitro-scrambled egg and bacon ice cream. With a theatrical flourish, our waitress cracked special Fat Duck eggs to pour out a bacon and egg infused custard, quickly scrambled it in liquid nitrogen to turn it into ice cream, then scooped it onto french toast with tomato jam and caramelised bacon. On the side, some tea jelly which looked like an egg yolk inside a shell. Beats a Bacon and Egg McMuffin any day.
Dish 17: Whiskey wine gums. The only dish I didn’t like, but what presentation! A silver photo frame with a map of whiskey producing regions around the world. One by one, you peeled off a wine gum and let it dissolve in your mouth.
Four satisfied hours later, the jury passed its verdict. Yes, our lunch cost each of us the price of a small couch, but was it worth it? – YES! Each dish was exciting, unexpected, astounding and memorable. Thank you Heston Blumenthal.
Image credit
Great piece Joyce!
I’ve always wanted to eat at the Fat Duck, but couldn’t afford the crater it’d leave in my pocket. Now I feel like some things are worth it. I knew that his dishes would be interesting, but I didn’t think it would be so theatrical. Heston Blumenthal is a genius.
Thanks for sharing!
Heston is exciting the most with his modern theatrical cuisine, but he does also some great job when he cooks more classical dishes (he manages to make them fun)