The gourmet paradise opens its gates. Are you ready to taste oatmeal with snails, caviar with white chocolate, veal head and smoked bacon soups, combined with sweet ice cream? No, no, you do not need to be scared and think about the prospects of poisoning. This is not a herring with milk.
Every dish, however incredible it may seem, is prepared in accordance with the principles of molecular cuisine. The owner of the restaurant Fat duck Heston Blumenthal is an ardent supporter of this direction of culinary. The Scientific Revolution has made its way to kitchens. The most modern chefs now pay attention to the physicochemical processes that occur in food during cooking. As one of the founding physicists said: "The trouble with our civilization is that we are able to measure the temperature of the atmosphere of Venus, but we have no idea what is going on inside the soufflé on our table." A fair saying, I also can't imagine what processes are going on inside dumplings or a can of canned food, but I know for sure that you won't be full of the atmosphere of Venus.
But enough science, because this is not a lecture at a culinary college, but an essay about a famous restaurant. Fat Duck or The Fat Duck is one of the best restaurants in the world. I had hoped to visit it on my current trip to England, but it didn't work out. Fatty duck from the category of catering establishments where you have to book a table several months before the visit. In this respect, absolutely everyone is equal, that is, those people who can afford to dine with the local dishes. Although, in fairness, I note that the prices in the Fat Duck, although impressive, but the British from the middle class can easily afford to spend an evening here with his beloved.
The Fat Duck has been awarded three Michelin stars, I'm not a great expert, but this level indicates the fact that Bershire is worth visiting, if only for the sake of visiting this restaurant. It is also important for a gourmet to visit it, as a tourist who comes to the UK for the first time, to visit the Tower.
This time, I failed to hit the Fat Duck. Two months of waiting for a table. Oh, in two months I will be able to be on the territory of Great Britain only if I am kidnapped by the special services of Her Majesty, or my non-existent billionaire uncle leaves the world in one of the Scottish castles. But I visited the Fat Duck a few years ago, after the infamous case of the simultaneous poisoning of five dozen visitors. This event took place in 2009 and was a serious blow to the reputation of the institution. It was closed for a short time in order to understand the reasons. As a result, stale shellfish and a faulty cooling system were blamed for everything. Although I would not be surprised if the real reason turned out to be experiments in the field of molecular cuisine - some swallow nests in gravy, stuffed with fertilized trepangs in gravy made from pupae of a silkworm caterpillar.
The Fat Duck restaurant even has its own laboratory, where alchemists' chefs invent the pills of immortality and the most incredible dishes. Experiments are paying off. Unlike most expensive restaurants, going to the Fat Duck, you know for sure that for your money you will get something tasty, unusual and beautiful. Each dish is a masterpiece, an edible analogue of the Mona Lisa. It's not a shame to pay £ 100 for a dish that can only be tasted in one place in the world.
By the way, that time I got into the Fat Duck only because the restaurant had just opened after a sad incident with shellfish and the former excitement was temporarily absent. But now the situation has already leveled off.
In general, if you are a gourmet, then you definitely need to visit the Fat Duck, if you are not a gourmet, then you should still visit the Fat Duck, as it is worth it. Please note that the restaurant is closed on Sundays and Mondays and must be booked in advance. So I forgot to do this and remained hungry. But never mind, hunger can be good too.
November 25, 2008 I happened to visit the world famous British restaurant « Fat Duck ", which translated from English sounds like "Fat duck"... The restaurant is located in the town of Bray, which is seven minutes' drive from Windsor. The restaurant's owner and chef is the unrivaled culinary alchemist Heston Blumenthal. Heston Blumenthal's laboratory of taste is located next to the restaurant. From this laboratory, the chef broadcasts to the whole world the recipes of his cuisine, and also talks about the "alchemy" of certain culinary products.
At the restaurant, I ordered a 20-course test menu. All this pleasure cost me about 140 English pounds including wine and excellent Chinese oolong. The spectacle turned out to be unforgettable, and the whole action was most likely like a show. I have not felt such emotions and pleasure from everything that happened for a long time. Next to me were the Chelsea football players, representatives of the English show business and simply culinary gourmets, probably Michelin scouts.
The restaurant seats about 37 people. It looks like a house of the Victorian era, nothing superfluous and everything is as functional and rational as possible. It is necessary to reserve seats in advance. I booked a place 2 months in advance.
At the end of the "meal", as a token of gratitude for the culinary fairy tale, I presented Mr. Blumenthal with a nesting doll of the author's work, which I had bought the day before in one of the shops on the Arbat. In response, the chef presented me with his new autographed book.
For my readers, I want to tell a little about Mr. Blumenthal, about his "Fat Duck" and about culinary "alchemy". In the Clinaria section I will post a few recipes from Chef Heston Blumenthal. "
In a nightmare, the parents of the Englishman Heston Blumenthal could not imagine that their son would earn money on oatmeal from snails. In general, he was not supposed to become a cook - he became. And one of the most learned chefs in the world.
If not for one trip to France, Heston would be a normal bank clerk. But when he turned sixteen, his parents took him to Provence, and there they somehow booked a table at a two-star Michelin-starred restaurant. Lobster sauce on a soufflé, a leg of lamb with aromatic herbs ... An elderly sommelier with an oiled mustache ... Heston was shocked. He decided that from that day on, this is his life too.
Now, if Blumenthal is told that English cuisine is the most terrible in the world (after Finnish, as noted by the French ex-President Chirac), he is not offended, because he understands where this performance came from. When he was a kid, in the 70s, she really was terrible. In Britain at that time it was almost impossible to buy good olive oil - you had to go to a pharmacy for a bottle of Italian exrta virgine! The British bought bread immediately for the whole week.
It was customary to bake the meat only for Sunday lunch, and so it would take a long and tedious way to cook. In stores, except for spaghetti, there were no other types of pasta ... In just some ten years, the situation has changed so much that now it’s even hard to believe in all this. And on this new British "scene" Blumenthal's "Fat Duck", voted the best restaurant in the world in 2005 and awarded three Michelin stars by the Michelin guide, was able to appear.
For the past five years, Heston has been occupied with one major question: how does the brain interpret the signals sent to it by different senses? Why does one person love the same food and another hate it? Why is the same person often perceived the same taste differently? His favorite example of how much atmosphere can influence taste is as follows. You come to France, travel to the castles of the Loire, and there, in the sun, on the banks of the river, you dine in a small restaurant with oysters, washed down with white Muscade wine. And this is the best Muscade you have ever tasted! You buy a box right away, come back, invite your friends to your cramped apartment, pour wine ... and it is disgusting! But the point is not at all about wine - it was the same in the Loire Valley. You just didn't bring with you the freshest oysters, the sun and the splash of the waves ...
In his restaurant, Heston tries to create a special atmosphere. If his customers order the Sound of the Sea seafood platter, he will be served an iPod with seagulls screaming in headphones and waves lapping. The dish itself looks like a box with a glass top, inside which you can see sand with shells. It is not really sand, but a mixture of tapioca and fried bread crumbs, ground with fried baby eels, seasoned with cod liver oil and langoustine; with abalone, mussels, shrimps, oysters and three types of seaweed.
Dessert is followed by coffee and a silver rosebush with edible petals flavored with apples, lychee, coriander and raspberries; and as a digestif - 18-year-old whiskey-flavored gum. Compared to such a menu, Blumenthal's famous snail porridge looks boring and outdated.
Blumenthal is a born explorer. For example, he would not mind buying a time machine - his interest in old British cuisine is so great. Two of his friends - historians studying the kitchen of the Hampton Court Palace (once the residence of the English monarchs) (by the way, I was in this palace too, though in the summer, and somehow I will tell about him and about the "Tudor kitchen"), showed letters and recipe books to Blumenthal , from which he made an unequivocal conclusion: in the 18th century Britain was one of the dominant powers not only at sea, but also in the kitchen.
The cooks then tried to cook everything that came into their hands. Some of the recipes were extreme - for example, a pheasant dish: the poultry was skinned, the carcass was fried, and the skin and feathers were then put back on, and with the help of a mechanical device the bird was set in motion right on the table. The recipe, which Blumenthal likes much less, talks about how to roast a goose alive ... No, he does not have the slightest desire to repeat this process - but how the chefs were “creative” at that time, he would have looked.
How Heston Blumenthal himself is creative is anyone's guess. He says he can be inspired by anything from a new product to bad weather. Let's say he came up with a hot chocolate drink with red wine when he got caught in the rain and froze as hell.
If you book a table at Fat Duck online, you will immediately be taken to the site, which is a sweet shop - a small but very rich interactive world. You wander between the shelves, choose "sweets" - and they tell you about the menu and the philosophy of the restaurant. After dinner, on the way out, you will receive a bag of sweets, which you "clicked" on in the process of Internet acquaintance - quite real. Great candy with apple pie flavor.
(Information is published based on materials obtained from various sources on the Internet).
Such gastronomic masterpieces as "Edible Snow", lollipops from the wine "Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh", "Christmas Tree" are not only original and tasty, but also meet the highest quality requirements. However, the composition and technology of their preparation is kept secret. For example, a New Year's Eve dinner, which includes these unusual dishes, costs about $ 480.
This restaurant is located in Berkshire in the village of Bray, not far from Windsor Castle - the residence of the English kings. Despite the remoteness from London, its regular visitors are real connoisseurs of the exquisite table - the most famous aristocratic families of England and the richest businessmen.
The Fat Duck restaurant is known for its culinary experiments, as its dishes are prepared in a "molecular kitchen" that looks more like a scientific laboratory.
A fair saying of one of the physicists:
"The trouble with our civilization is that we are able to measure the temperature of the atmosphere of Venus, but we have no idea what is going on inside the souffle on our table."
Therefore, here they experiment with taste, based on the most complex chemical formulas and processes that occur in food during cooking. And experiments meet the expectations of visitors. Each dish is a culinary masterpiece.
Such unusual, extravagant dishes as snail porridge, crab biscuit, sardine sorbet, partridge jelly, cucumber ice cream, fish, bacon and eggs will pleasantly surprise you.
By the way, in the 19th century, during the era of Queen Victoria, ice cream was prepared with a spicy taste. For example, cucumber ice cream served with thinly sliced fresh cucumbers, Parmesan or crab ice cream served at the end of the meal.
But there were black days in this restaurant, after the mass poisoning of customers in 2009. Then 529 people were poisoned by spoiled oysters. The owner explained this by malfunctions of the cooling system and some deviations from the rules of hygiene by the staff. The institution had to be closed for 3 weeks. But after the opening of the English restaurant "Fat Duck" again began to delight its visitors with high-quality and original dishes, which has been doing with great success for over 60 years.
On a note: The Fat Duck Restaurant is open all days except Sunday and Monday. The table should be booked 2-3 months before the visit.
Not far from London, in the village of Bray, there is The Fat Duck restaurant, which in 2005 was recognized as the best restaurant in the world by Restaurant magazine ratings.
An English hinterland, a modest building, an unremarkable interior and ... a table reservation in three or four weeks. That's really amazing. What is the restaurant famous for, from where it is so popular among not only locals, but also guests.
This is a relatively young establishment. The Fat Duck was founded in 1995. And almost immediately gained fame among the population. His profile is the so-called "molecular gastronomy", although the chef prefers not to use this term, which is not clear to everyone, and therefore frightening. First of all, The Fat Duck is famous for its unusual, extravagant dishes. Sardine sorbet, snail oatmeal or crab biscuit are not available every day. Heston Blumenthal, the restaurant's chef, experiments with dishes based on chemical processes and complex formulas. In 2005, several episodes of the "Kitchen Chemistry with Heston Blumenthal" program were even filmed and shown on Discovery. The main idea of the restaurant's cuisine is to combine what is customary to share. It is unlikely that caviar with white chocolate or ice cream with bacon will be served anywhere else.
Waiters love to surprise visitors with visual trickery. So, for example, when serving orange and red jelly, it is recommended to try beet jelly first, and then orange jelly. The visitor, putting a red slice in his mouth, realizes that this jelly is orange, and orange is beet.
One of the most popular dishes in the restaurant is a skinless pigeon with pistachio sauce. The special cooking method allows the use of ingredients - pigeon and pistachios - which tastes are considered incompatible in cooking. The secret lies in the panacetta - Italian bacon - that the pigeon is wrapped in during cooking. Thus, "connecting threads" appear between two products that are incompatible by definition.
A true gourmet simply must visit The Fat Duck at least once in his life to personally appreciate the uniqueness of dishes and flavor combinations.
The Fat Duck Restaurant - PHOTOS
Maria Ivanova
PR manager of "Fat Duck"
We are a truly honest one-food restaurant. Our menu contains duck dishes from all over the world. There is also a traditional Chinese Peking duck, and Italian bruschetta, and duck stew with a French motive, and a rich soup with meatballs in the Russian way.
We will also serve you a decoy if you order whole baked duck!
Interior
The spacious hall for 50 seats is designed according to the sketches of Moscow architects in the best traditions of European family restaurants. Brickwork, an abundance of wood finishes, restrained pastel colors, upholstered furniture, delicate lighting and a little vegetation - everything is extremely laconic, unobtrusive and pleasant. At the same time, the eye has something to catch on: funny portraits of aristocratic cats hang on the walls, and charming handmade knitted ducks are scattered throughout the restaurant.
Menu
The menu includes dishes of European, Asian and Russian cuisine made from duck. An absolute hit - of course, Peking Duck. Here it is prepared as authentically as possible according to a traditional Chinese recipe.
Among the really unusual offerings are duck crème brлеlée as an appetizer or a real spring roll with a bird.
And also, if you can't stand the duck for some unknown reason, he still comes to the restaurant, he can be offered several fish, vegetable or meat dishes... The same steaks, for example.
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