Archives for posts with tag: Heston Blumenthal

The new Fat Duck tasting menu- The Itinerary

By winkypedia
December 28, 2015 //
2

The Fat Duck has been closed for 10 months when the team moved to Australia to allow for refurbishment on its restaurant and kitchen in Bray, UK. I was super excited to try out its new tasting menu again, revamped as ”The Itinerary”.

As it is a ”trip”, the ”ticket” needs to be purchased in advance just like one would do when you book a holiday. Yup, paying for the whole meal (£255 a head) in full before you can eat a thing. I do not know of any restaurant would dare to ask diners to do that. But it is Heston Blumenthal afterall- he makes his own rules. And to be fair, he does not ask diners to pay for the service beforehand as in UK, service charge is discretionary. At the time of booking, and 10 days prior to our reservation, we were also asked many questions related to our childhood memories, general and food related. We were curious how this would get incorporated into the food.

Upon arrival, we were greeted by a lovely lady outside the entrance and led into a small, dark glass box. It felt futuristic and mysterious. Another lady gave us an ”itinerary” (which was like a map) and a magnifying glass. She then opened a smooth sliding door, revealing the dining area.

Itinerary The Map

Read the rest of this entry »

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Categories Food & Drink, my good book, review

Heston Blumenthal’s ice-cream taste off: Chocolate & Rosemary Vs Salted Caramel Popcorn

By winkypedia
July 20, 2011 //
9

Heston Blumenthal's Chocolate and Rosemary ice-cream and Salted Caramel Popcorn ice-cream
Just in time for summer, Heston Blumenthal, chef of Fat Duck ( the 3 Michelin starred restaurant and one of the top 3 restaurants in the world) and Dinner (which explores ancient British recipes) collaborated with high- end supermarket Waitrose to create two special ice-creams- Chocolate & Rosemary and Salted Caramel Popcorn (photo above). I decided to have a taste off – really just an excuse to have 2 tubs of ice-cream at the same time! So which one is better? Continue reading >>

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Categories Food & Drink, my good book

Heston Blumenthal’s Lapsang Souchong tea smoked salmon

By winkypedia
February 24, 2011 //
4

Heston Blumenthal's Lapsang Souchong tea smoked salmon
Heston Blumenthal, chef of Fat Duck ( the 3 Michelin starred restaurant and one of the top 3 in the world) and Dinner (his new restaurant which explores ancient British recipes) collaborated with high- end supermarket Waitrose to create a range of food products from condiments to pies. I have already reviewed his coriander and rose salt, Vanilla mayonnaise and steak, ale & kombu pie. Is his latest product Lapsang Souchong tea smoked salmon any good?

The Scottish salmon was actually smoked by both oak and Lapsang Souchong tea, is a black tea originally from the Wuyi region of the Chinese province of Fujian. Upon opening of the pack, there was a strong smoky aroma. Even though it did not smell like tea, it was very pleasant and appetising. According to Heston, the Lapsang Souchong tea leaves are ‘traditionally smoked over pinewood fire Continue reading >>

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Categories Food & Drink, my good book

Geoduck – an underrated shellfish

By winkypedia
February 9, 2011 //
10

Geoduck is not a duck. It is a salt water clam. In Chinese it is called 象拔蚌- ‘elephant trunk clam’ as it has a long and chunky siphon, which looks just like an elephant trunk. It looks a little ugly but it is yummy! I am surprised Heston Blumenthal, chef of Fat Duck ( 3 Michelin starred restaurant and one of the top 3 restaurants in the world) and Dinner (his new popular venture in Mandarin Oriental, London) have not used them for his quirky Fishy Feast already!

geoduck
The best way to cook geoducks is to have them steamed with garlic, spring onion and glass noodles. It is tender and the fresh garlic complements very well the natural sweetness of the geoducks. The glass noodles enhance the texture in the mouth. 

steamed geoduck with garlic, spring onion and glass noodles
Alternatively, geoducks can be enjoyed as  thinly sliced  sashimi. They are naturally sweet. The texture is a little similar to Continue reading about Geoducks >>

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Categories Food & Drink, my good book

Dinner by Heston Blumenthal- ancient British cuisine with a magical modern touch

By winkypedia
February 2, 2011 //
31


{Post last updated on 7th June, 2011}
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal is Heston’s first London restaurant. We had our Chinese New Year Eve’s meal there, before any restaurant critics wrote their review. We decided to do so solely based on Heston‘s reputation (as the chef of Fat Duck, the 3 Michelin starred restaurant, one of the top 3 restaurants in the world), and that of the Mandarin Oriental. We then went back twice more to try out the menu and shared our experience with friends!

Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
Beef Royal at Dinner By Heston
Meat Fruit (c.13th to 15th century) was my favourite starter as it was fun and playful. We were happy to see the mandarin as in Chinese, it has the same pronunciation as ‘gold’ which is what we like having for Chinese New Year! What looked like a perfect mandarin was actually a chicken liver parfait enclosed in a thin layer of mandarin ‘gel’. The parfait was smooth and it was perfect with the subtle mandarin gel. What you see is not what you eat is also the signature of Fat Duck. Does that mean Dinner is a twin of Fat Duck?

Meat Fruit at Dinner by Heston
Not quite.
The dishes at Dinner have much stronger historical references than those of Fat Duck. They were so proud of their source of inspiration, that they actually told you at the back of their menu where they got the idea from for each dish and from what time period the dish is from. Continue reading about Dinner by Heston Blumenthal >>

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Categories Food & Drink, my good book

Heston Blumenthal’s steak, ale & kombu pie

By winkypedia
January 18, 2011 //
4

Heston Blumenthal's steak, ale and kombu pie
Heston Blumenthal, chef of Fat Duck ( the 3 Michelin starred restaurant and one of the top 3 in the world) and Dinner (which explores ancient British receipes) collaborated with high- end supermarket Waitrose to create a range of food products from condiments to pies. I have already reviewed his coriander and rose salt , Vanilla mayonnaise and Lapsang Souchong tea smoked salmon . The next one to try is steak, ale and kombu pie.

Kombu is a natural source of Umami, and is one of Heston’s favourite natural flavour enhancers. It is added to this otherwise traditional English pie in an attempt to create a twist. Did it work? Continue reading to find out >>

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Categories Food & Drink, My Bad Book

Taste no.5 Umami paste- a glamourised tomato paste

By winkypedia
December 9, 2010 //
2

In his TV programme, Heston Blumenthal, chef of Fat Duck, the 3 Michelin starred restaurant, one of the top 3 restaurants in the world, proudly stated that he uses Kombu in his cooking because of Umami. The term Umami became trendy and attractive.

Umami is a Japanese word that means ‘good flavour’. This flavour is generated due to the detection of  glutamate. It was first identified by Kikunae Ikeda of the Tokyo Imperial University while researching the strong flavour in seaweed broth.

Recently, I discovered a new product called Taste No. 5 Umami paste. First impression was that it tried to sound like Chanel No. 5, the perfume . It contains tomato puree, garlic, anchovy paste, black olive, balsamic vinegar, porcini mushrooms, parmesan cheese, olive oil, vinegar, sugar and salt. Ironically, no seaweed extract which was the original ingredient that inspired the use of the word Umami! Tomatoes, porchini mushrooms, parmesan cheese naturally contain glutamate. I had high hope that this little tube would enhance the flavour of my meal. Continue reading >>

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Categories Food & Drink, My Bad Book

Heston Blumenthal’s vanilla mayonnaise

By winkypedia
December 2, 2010 //
8

Heston Blumenthal, chef of Fat Duck ( the 3 Michelin starred restaurant and one of the top 3 restaurants in the world) and Dinner  (which explores ancient British recipes) collaborated with high- end supermarket Waitrose to create a range of food products from condiments to pies. I have already reviewed his coriander and rose salt, steak, ale & kombu pie and Lapsang Souchong tea smoked salmon. The next one to try is Vanilla mayonnaise.

Heston Blumenthal's vanilla mayonnaise

Upon opening the cap of the bottle, I could smell immediately a strong aroma of vanilla. The bottle was easy to squeeze and the mayonnaise came out smoothly and neatly. Fresh vanilla pods has been used and the little seeds look beautiful in the mayonnaise.  It also has good consistency. I used it to make sweetcorn and tuna mayonnaise jacket potatoes. It was light and refreshing. Read the rest of this entry »

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Categories Food & Drink, my food experiments, my good book

Heston Blumenthal’s coriander and rose salt

By winkypedia
November 21, 2010 //
1

Heston Blumenthal, chef of Fat Duck ( the 3 Michelin starred restaurant and one of the top 3 in the world) and Dinner (which explores ancient British receipes) collaborated with high- end supermarket Waitrose to create a range of food products from condiments to pies. Has he done a Marco Pierre White, who endorsed poor quality product for profit or has he really added colour to our meals at home? I have reviewed the Vanilla mayonnaise, steak, ale and kombu pie and Lapsang Souchong tea smoked salmon, here is the review of the coriander and rose salt.

This salt is officially the most expensive salt I have ever bought- £4.99 for 45g! It beat my last record of £4.49 for 250g for the Halen Mon sea salt. They are both from the Welsh Isle of Anglesy. The latter is plain salt. Heston’s one is mixed with ground coriander, rose petals, ground coriander leaf, ground ginger and green tea. The recipe is said to be inspired by a trip to the medina in Morocco. Continue reading >>

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Categories Food & Drink, my food experiments