A couple weeks ago was my birthday and as a present for myself I decided to book a table at one of the world’s best restaurants and three Michelin stars The Fat Duck. Finally I was going to be able to try the creativity and vanguard cuisine of Heston Blumenthal. Not an easy task to get the table, a rolling reservation with three months in advance (now it’s only two) and it becomes sold out as far as they open the bookings at 10am each day.
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| Champagne to celebrate |
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| Heston time |
An amazing 12 course journey playing with sounds, smells, and taste. The Fat Duck is molecular gastronomy at its best. I won’t go into much details but it’s simply a superb experience.
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| Me and the Bible (Wine List) |
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| Italian wine for the meal |
Amouse bouche a beetroot and horseradish delicacy, excellent great start.
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| Beetroot time |
We moved to nitro-poached aperitifs, straight forward I have had those nitro combinations before for dessert but for aperitif was genius. Gin and Tonic the classic British just great.
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| The cocktail master |
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| Bit of fire |
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| Gin and Tonic |
The next dish was red cabbage gazpacho. I simply love gazpacho and this one was one of the best I have had. It was an explosion of flavours popping into the mouth, great texture, the raw onions giving crunchiness, really nice.
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| Gazpacho |
Moving on we got jelly of quail and crayfish cream, a great show and the flavours spot on. I loved the details in the presentation.
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| A Kind of Magic |
One of Heston’s classics snail porridge, incredible the combination of iberico bellota ham with shave fennel and the snail superb.
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| Snail Porridge |
Roast foie gras, really good the crab biscuit and the rhubarb nice dish.
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| Foie |
The next dish we got was the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, again the show, the magic on the presentation, the golden tea bag that was a pocket watch and dissolved in the hot water to create a mock turtle soup, unbelievable.
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| Tea time |
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| More magic |
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| Afternoon tea |
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| Mock turtle soup |
Next one was another classic of the restaurant Sounds of the Sea. You don’t realise the noise of the place until you put the headphones and transport yourself into a paradise in a Caribbean beach. The beach sound you hear it’s taken from Los Roques in Venezuela. Otto Romel who is senior development Chef in the place and also Venezuelan recorded it in one of his trips back home. Fresh, light, great-accomplished dish, the sand is edible and it’s a mix for sardines and seaweed.
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| Soundtrack |
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| Sashimi time |
Salmon poached in a liquorice gel. Great flavour, the vanilla mayo and the trout roe was perfect.
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| Salmon time |
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| Close up |
Then we got our meat, saddle of venison with beetroot soubise and risotto of spelt and Umbles. It is the best truffle risotto I have had, and the lean venison was cooked to perfection.
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| Venison |
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| Risotto |
The next dish was hot & iced tea, simply surreal, the perfectly divided temperatures on the left and right of the liquid. Standing ovation for creativeness.
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| Hot & Iced Tea |
Galette of Rhubard and for Marisol the classic bacon and eggs ice cream. Both amazing the bacon and eggs pure magic.
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| Fat Duck egg |
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| Breakfast time? |
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| Bacon & Eggs ice cream |
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| Rhubarb |
Black forest gateau, good, nice flavours, but probably the least succesfull of the night, the weakest link, though nice sweet and sour notes.
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| BFG |
Then a trip to Scotland with the Whiskey Gums you go back when you were a kid playing with the flavours of the gums.
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| Gums |
To end the journey and keep you in a kid state of mind we got Like a Kid in a Sweet Shop. Superb combination of playful sweets, including a mandarin jelly, coconut baccy in the form of tobacco, apple pie caramel with an edible wrapper, and finally the a tart in the form Queen of Hearts.
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| Coconut Tobacco |
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| Here comes the Queen |
One of the best culinary experiences of my life. I sincerely recommend the place, the service is perfect, the food another level, creative, clever, and most of all tasty
Fat reminds me the Seinfeld episode “The Non-Fat Yoghurt”
Elaine: Hurry, Jerry! Hurry!
Jerry: How's it doing?
Elaine: Not so good
Kramer: Well, you can't have this tested now. It's melting
Jerry: So what
Kramer: It changes the molecules
Jerry: Oh, you don't know what you're talking about
Kramer: Hey, fatso! I got a 90 in biology
Jerry: You call me fatso one more time; you're going to be walking back
The Fat Duck
T: 016 2858 0333
Molecular Gastronomy
Approx Damage: £330pp
Area: Bray
UK
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2 comments:
Is that a raw egg in the mock turtle soup? Egad!!!
He makes you believe it was an egg but it wasn't... if I remember well the egg was made of turnip puree
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