London hotel to provide a taste of Heston Blumenthal

Originally published on ttglive.com on 17 January 2011.

The mad scientist of the kitchen, Heston Blumenthal, will provide London with its biggest restaurant opening of the year when “Dinner by Heston Blumenthal” opens at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park on January 31.

The three Michelin-starred chef found fame with The Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire, but says his new restaurant will be something totally different.

“I didn’t want to do another Fat Duck and I am never going to do another Fat Duck. The Duck is such a labour of love,” Blumenthal said.

He described Dinner with Heston as a “refined brasserie”, and said that while he had been working on the restaurant for the last two years, the concept behind it started in 2005, shortly after he turned down the chance to open a Fat Duck in Tokyo.
“The menu at Dinner takes inspiration from historic British recipes, from the 14th century to 1940, but does not replicate them – I think people will be surprised and amazed at what we are doing here.
"Britian has got a culinary heritage, but the 50s and 60s killed our reputation for cooking. What has happened in Britain over the past 20 years in terms of cooking – with people being more experimental with what they eat – has been nothing short of miraculous.

Some dishes that will rear their heads on Dinner’s menu include meat fruit - chicken liver parfait that looks like a mandarin – parsley porridge, pigeon with artichokes, bone marrow with anchovy and pickle, and hay smoked mackerel with lemon salad.

Three unusual ketchups will also feature – mushroom, cucumber and cockle – and the introduction of a tasting menu of about five dishes is planned for March, along with afternoon tea – featuring toast sandwiches – from April.

Scallops with cucumber ketchup and peas

Hay smoked mackerel with lemon salad

A set lunch will cost about £25, while a la carte dining will average £50-£55 a head – although the restaurant is fully booked until mid-March.

Asked how he thought restaurants’ relationships with hotels had changed over time, Blumenthal said he thought the stereotype of “dingy, plush restaurants in stuffy, grand hotels” was a thing of the past.

“David Nicholls [Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group’s director of food and beverage] wants me to reflect my style here, in everything down to the dining room,” Blumenthal said.

“The restaurant is grand in that it has big windows and views over Hyde Park, but it is not stuffy. It hasn’t got a dress code – I don’t understand why any restaurant would have a dress code in this day and age – and there are no tablecloths or carpets. I want it to be noisy.”

The restaurant’s executive chef, Ashley Palmer-Watts – who has worked with Blumenthal at The Fat Duck for the past 11 years – said the restaurant would be “professional, slick but fun – very accessible, hustly bustly, with lots of wood and leather, and with uniforms designed to fit the concept”.

Blumenthal said he had chosen to open a restaurant in London because it was “the most exciting place in the world for eating out – along with New York”.

Looking to the future he predictably said he would have to see if Dinner “goes down ok” before thinking more seriously about opening another restaurant in a hotel.

In terms of the future of food, his answer was slightly less predictable.

“In the next 10 years we’ll see more insects being served in the western world. Lots of people are advocating that we do it to help the food chain, and I don’t see why it couldn’t happen at Dinner. I’d have fried mealworms with a beer.”