The Dali of Gastronomy?

Friday 8th July 2005:

Heston Blumenthal has been called recently the Dali of gastronomy and the Frankenstein of food. The Salvador Dali reference seems more favourable than the other analogy. Heston certainly is creating masterpieces of unique style. However, there is a price. I not only refer here to the monetary value of dining at the Fat Duck, but the preparation and ingredients involved. You could not find a more contrasting restaurant tot eh ethos of Raymond Blanc anywhere, despite Blumenthal’s frequent reference to Blanc’s influence.

This week, I began to note the source of many of our ingredients- I note only a few which included, fresh almonds from Spain, Braeburn apples from New Zealand, pigeons from France and fresh asparagus from Peru! It seems unfortunate that so much of the produce used here, which is of a superb quality, is often imported from all over the globe. I recently authored a paper on obesity and part of this study recognised the removal of seasonality in foods, particularly due to the increased use of imports. This forces greater pressure of local farmers and agriculture, as well as other more complicated implications, including public health. Blumenthal is offering an amazing array of dishes, using some of the very best ingredients, but very few of these are native to British soils. This seems a terrible shame, added by the Fat Duck’s location in an idealic English village setting. Later, I will continue to discuss this topic, as I have yet made no mention to the artificial flavourings and chemicals, Blumenthal incorporates in to many of his dishes.

What I should make clear here, is that many of these ingredients are also naturally present, they are artificial, in the sense that they have been researched, studied and re-created by human efforts. By chemicals, I am not referring to pesticides or harmful substances (athough this may be debated), rather I am making reference to various powders and solutions that are used in the cooking or preparation process.