It's Heston!

"I'm Heston and I don't do food in a normal way" (Cheers and rounds of

applause). That pretty much sums up Heston Blumenthal's approach to food. Even though I wasn't familiar with Heston's approach to food, I was curious because he has a multisensory approach to food.

"True eating is a multisensory experience. In other words, it involves all the senses, depending on the surrounding weather and environment. For example, going to the French countryside and having a Mascadet". I could recall how tasting Malaysian dishes tasted better while I was holidaying in Malaysia with the humidity, spices, and of course, eating together as a family.

Interestingly, he comments on food back in his time when he was growing

up. "The 70s was the worst decade for food. Britain had the worst kind of food second to Finland...Olive oil was something to be purchased in the chemist, not in the supermarket". That made me feel grateful that we now have stuff that can be easily purchased from the supermarkets. I especially don't know where we would be without olive oil. We have come a long way in terms of food thanks to immigration.

Just thought I'd highlight some dishes which caught my eye and would love to try when I head to his Fat Duck restaurant.

Heston Blumenthal's mock turtle soup
I was impressed with how this dish reflects on Heston's fascination

with fairytales like Alice in Wonderland and historical receipes. Heston goes on about how the Mad Hatter in Alice dips his fob watch into his tea. At the Fat Duck, he made a fob watch from freeze-dried and concentrated stock and wrapped it in gold feck. When you pour hot water into the teapot, it dissolves into a beautiful brown liquid. This is served with mock turtle soup. So food can be quite theatrical.

Sounds of the sea
The idea of serving seafood with an ipod recording of the crashing waves

just blew me away. I was even more amazed at the ingredients he uses for make it look like sand, like tapioca, fried breadcrumbs, shrimps, oysters, etc. A clear example of how food is multisensory and that sound and eating can be combined.