One of the very top world chefs, but rarely Kosher
Heston Blumenthal (c) Getty Images
Heston Marc Blumenthal OBE HonFRSC; born 27 May 1966) is an English celebrity chef, TV personality and food writer. Blumenthal is regarded as a pioneer of multi-sensory cooking, food pairing and flavour encapsulation.
He came to public attention with unusual recipes, such as bacon-and-egg ice cream and snail porridge (He’s not a chef for Kosher food!).
His recipes for triple-cooked chips and soft-centred Scotch eggs have been widely imitated. He has advocated a scientific approach to cooking, for which he has been awarded honorary degrees from the universities of Reading, Bristol and London and made an honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Blumenthal's public profile has been increased by a number of television series, most notably for Channel 4, as well as a product range for the Waitrose supermarket chain introduced in 2010. He is the proprietor of the Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire, a three-Michelin-star restaurant which is widely regarded as one of the best in the world. Blumenthal also owns Dinner, a two-Michelin-star restaurant in London, and a pub in Bray, the Hind's Head, with one Michelin star.
Early life
Heston Marc Blumenthal was born in Shepherd's Bush, London, on 27 May 1966, to a Jewish father born in Southern Rhodesia and an English mother who converted to Judaism. His surname comes from a great-grandfather from Latvia and means 'flowered valley' (or 'bloom-dale'), in German.
Blumenthal was raised in Paddington, and attended Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith; St John's Church of England School in Lacey Green, Buckinghamshire; and John Hampden Grammar School, High Wycombe.
His interest in cooking began at the age of sixteen on a family holiday to Provence, France, when he was taken to the 3-Michelin-starred restaurant L'Oustau de Baumanière. He was inspired by the quality of the food and "the whole multi-sensory experience: the sound of fountains and cicadas, the heady smell of lavender, the sight of the waiters carving lamb at the table". When he learned to cook, he was influenced by the cookbook series Les recettes originales, with French chefs such as Alain Chapel.
When he left school at eighteen, Blumenthal began an apprenticeship at Raymond Blanc's Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons but left after a week's probation. Over the next ten years he worked in a "relatively undemanding series of jobs – credit controller, repo man" during the day, teaching himself the French classical repertoire in the evenings. A pivotal moment came when reading On Food and Cooking: the Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee in the mid-1980s. This challenged kitchen practices such as searing meat to seal in the juices, and it encouraged Heston to "adopt a totally different attitude towards cuisine that at its most basic boiled down to: question everything".
Career
In 1995, Blumenthal bought a run-down pub in Bray, Berkshire, the Ringers, and re-opened it as the Fat Duck. It was initially staffed only by Blumenthal and a dishwasher.
It served meals in the style of a French bistro, such as lemon tarts and steak and chips. Blumenthal later said that science had already begun to influence the cooking at this stage, as already on the menu were his triple-cooked chips, which were developed to stop the potato from going soft. The Fat Duck came close to going bankrupt, and Blumenthal sold his house, his car and many of his possessions to keep it open.
After four years, the Fat Duck was awarded its first Michelin star in 1999. In 2001, the Fat Duck was awarded a second Michelin star and was named restaurant of the year by the Automobile Association. In 2004, the Fat Duck became the third restaurant in the UK to receive three Michelin stars, after the Waterside Inn, also in Bray, and Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in London. At the time he received his third star, Blumenthal said it was the closest he had been to bankruptcy, with enough money only to cover the following week's staff wages.
Blumenthal acquired the Hind's Head, also in Bray, in 2004. The building was a 15th-century tavern;it now serves traditional seasonal cuisine and historic British dishes. In 2011, it was named the Michelin Pub Guide's "Pub of the Year".
In January 2011, Blumenthal opened his first restaurant outside Bray, Dinner, at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, London. Historians helped to develop the restaurant's dishes from historic British recipes. Dinner was awarded its first Michelin star in 2012. It was voted the 7th best restaurant in the world in 2013. It received a second Michelin Star in the 2014 Michelin Guide.
In June 2014, Blumenthal announced a new restaurant, the Perfectionists' Cafe, in Heathrow Airport. In 2015, the Fat Duck was temporarily relocated to Melbourne, Australia, while the Bray restaurant was refurbished. Upon reaching the end of its temporary opening, the restaurant became a permanent Melbourne-based Dinner although not owned by him.
Television
In 2002, Heston made a series of six half-hour television programmes, Kitchen Chemistry with Heston Blumenthal, which was transmitted on Discovery Science along with a book Kitchen Chemistry, published by the Royal Society of Chemistry.[citation needed] During 2004–07, he presented two BBC series called Heston Blumenthal: In Search of Perfection and Heston Blumenthal: Further Adventures In Search of Perfection.
Blumenthal moved from the BBC to Channel 4 in March 2008, joining the channel's group of celebrity chefs which already included Jamie Oliver, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Gordon Ramsay. In January 2009, a three-part series of television programmes on Channel 4 covered his efforts to revamp the struggling Little Chef roadside restaurant chain, using a trial location on the A303 road at Popham.
Little Chef extended Blumenthal's menu to 12 branches, but removed them in 2013.
In March 2009 Blumenthal began a short series of programmes, called Heston's Feasts, showing themed dinner banquets. A second series of this was commissioned and began in 2010. From 22 February 2011, Channel 4 began airing Heston's Mission Impossible, in which Heston targets lacklustre food served in various industries and aims to upgrade the food to meals that people enjoy to eat. In January 2012, How To Cook Like Heston, aired on Channel 4. The programme was aimed at home cooks and featured some of the more approachable techniques employed by Blumenthal.
In November 2012, Blumenthal fronted a television programme for Channel 4 entitled Heston's Fantastical Food and has also been part of a new 2014 series of Heston's Great British Food, again commissioned by Channel 4.[32] In 2020, Blumenthal appeared as a judge in the Channel 4 series 'Crazy Delicious' hosted by British comedian and TV presenter Jayde Adams, alongside chefs Niklas Ekstedt and Carla Hall. In 2021, he participated as a judge in the French version of Top Chef, proposing a food pairing test. In July 2022, Blumenthal appeared as a guest judge on the final episode of the Australian version of Masterchef.
Waitrose
In 2010, Blumenthal entered a partnership to create products for the supermarket chain Waitrose.
Blumenthal's initial products were unsuccessful, but his Christmas pudding with an embedded orange, released in 2010, sold out quickly and the puddings were soon being sold on eBay for hundreds of pounds. His other products included a bloody Mary prawn cocktail, sherry-and-balsamic vinegar Christmas pudding, and puff pastry mince pies with pine sugar dusting.
The range inspired unusual products from other supermarkets, such as a Christmas pudding with popping candy and chilli chocolate sauce from Aldi. In 2023, Waitrose ended the contract with Blumenthal, seeking to focus on its in-house range. A source from Waitrose described Blumenthal as "unpredictable".
Cooking methods
He has experimented with foodpairing, in which recipes are created by identifying molecular similarities between different ingredients and bringing these together in a dish. One of the first such was Blumenthal's white chocolate with caviar. He created unusual combinations, including Roast Foie Gras "Benzaldehyde" and salmon poached in a liquorice gel accompanied by asparagus. While many of these unexpected combinations have been critically well received, Blumenthal himself has pointed out the limitations of such an approach, insisting that although foodpairing is a good tool for creativity, it is still no substitute for the chef's culinary intuition. ‘The molecular profile of a single ingredient is so complex that even if it has several compounds in common with another, there are still as many reasons why they won't work together as reasons why they will.’
Personal awards
In 2004, Blumenthal won the Chef Award at The Catey Awards, joining the likes of Gordon Ramsay, Phil Howard and Raymond Blanc.
In January 2006, Blumenthal was appointed an OBE in the New Years Honours List for his services to British Gastronomy.
He has been awarded honorary degrees for his scientific approach to cooking. In July 2006, Blumenthal was presented with an honorary Doctor of Science degree by Reading University in recognition of his unique scientific approach to food and long-standing relationship with the University's School of Food Biosciences. Also in July 2006, Blumenthal was the first chef to be awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the Royal Society of Chemistry. Blumenthal received an honorary Master of Science from Bristol University in 2007. In December 2013, Blumenthal was presented with an honorary Doctor of Science degree by the University of London, recognising his pioneering research and achievements in his field.
In June 2013, the College of Arms granted Blumenthal a personal coat of arms.