Enthralled by Heston Blumenthal

May 4th, 2012

Ovens & Cooking

On Tuesday night I was lucky enough to catch Heston Blumenthal’s live show in Sydney.

Heston, for the uninitiated, is a celebrity chef whose restaurant The Fat Duck (in Bray, England) is one of only four restaurants in the UK to be awarded a three-star Michelin Guide rating.

In addition to this, his new London restaurant Dinner was yesterday declared as the 9th best restaurant in the world by Restaurant Magazine.

You might also recognise Heston from one of his many TV shows:

In last night’s sold-out performance at the State Theatre, Heston delighted and surprised his audience, sharing anecdotes about his early days at the Fat Duck (and a close encounter with an exploding gas oven), and even overcoming a recent shoulder operation to whip up some delights such as dry ice ice-cream and a perfectly cooked steak (using an induction cooktop).

It’s Heston’s relentlessly inquisitive mind that has driven him to push culinary boundaries to new (and often quite bizarre) heights.

Understanding the science of cooking has inspired Heston to create immersive sensory experiences for his dinner guests, incorporating not just taste but sight, smell, texture and even sound into his dishes. For example: research shows that the flavour of oysters is enhanced when you eat them while listening to ocean sounds. This is why his Fat Duck ‘Sound of the Sea’ dish is served alongside an iPod encased in a seashell that plays ocean sounds while you eat:

Sound of the Sea

Similarly, Heston’s ‘Like a Kid in a Sweet Shop’ dessert is not only served in an old-fashioned lolly bag, it comes with a vial of scented water that, when sprayed, infuses the senses with the smell of liquorice, jelly beans, sherbet, gob-stoppers and more – instantly transporting you back to the days of your childhood:

Like a Kid in a Sweet Shop

But it’s not all bells and whistles (or should we say, iPods and nasal sprays) with Heston – he would never have risen to become one of the world’s most highly respected chefs without also being, at the end of the day, a very good cook.

Heston points to his lack of formal training as (ironically) one of the secrets to his success – because without having traditional methods of cooking drummed into him, he was free to question all the supposed ‘tried and tested’ techniques.

He shared with us some of his secret tricks for perfecting ordinary make-at-home dishes such as poached eggs:

And steak:

There are rumours that Heston is planning to open a restaurant in Sydney – which is something we’d be very excited to see!

…Although considering the fact that his Fat Duck restaurant in England receives approximately 30,000 phone calls per day, don’t hold your breath for a dinner reservation too soon – you could be waiting a while.

(In the meantime there’s Jamie’s Italian in Sydney, which a certain Appliances Online blogger, whose birthday it might be, will be sampling tonight! YUM. BO.)

And let’s not forget that MasterChef Australia starts again on Sunday! Bring it!!