On Sunday myself, my wife and two close friends made the 45 minute train ride outside of London to the small town of Brey to have lunch at The Fat Duck. The restaurant is owned by chef Heston Blumenthal. As I’m sure a lot of you know, with 3 Michelin stars and countless best this and that lists, The Fat Duck is often mentioned with elBulli as one of the top food destinations in the world. Like elBulli, the use of molecular gastronomy is a big part of the experience.

The goal here is to play with your mind and your senses and that starts when you walk in the front door to find what looks to be a small old country house, which is in such stark contrast to the modern preparation of the food being served. There is only one choice, a 13 course tasting menu that you are given to look through just to work out any food allergies. Then the show begins!

The liquid nitrogen wastes no time appearing in the first course which was a foam of egg whites flavored with green tea and lime that is dropped in the nitrogen tableside to form a crunchy, meringue type texture on the outside that quickly turns to liquid in the mouth. Cool presentation and a tasty palate cleanser to set up the rest of the menu.

Up next was a red cabbage gazpacho with a grain mustard ice cream. The texture of the mustard ice cream was great and the slightly spicy finish of the mustard was a nice contrast to the cool gazpacho.

Third course was a jelly of quail, crayfish cream and a chicken liver parfait with truffle toast. Great flavor combination here and another fun presentation with a forest floor and smoke that filled the table.

Foie gras course was up next and it turned out to be my second favorite course of the day. No bells or whistles here, just a perfect piece of foie, with crispy seaweed for texture and a sweet plum puree to cut through the fat. Amazing.

The next course was probably the most daring as it was a play on an ancient recipe as well as Alice in Wonderland, Turtle Soup. The dish started with a “Mad Hatter Tea” which was a gold leaf tea bag in a cup that dissolved when the waiter poured the hot water. This “tea” turned into the soup broth that we poured over the turtle and other items to make the soup. The broth was really nice as well as the other bits in the soup, but the turtle itself had a ham type taste that was just ok. Fun course though.

Sixth course was called “sound of the sea”. This has been on the menu for years and is one of their signature dishes. The presentation is stunning with a bed of dried tapioca that looks like sand along with 3 different types of fish over seaweed and some foam to represent the waves hitting the shore. A seashell is also brought to the table that has an ipod inside that you put on so you can listen to sounds of the beach while you are eating the course. That last part is as silly as it sounds. It was the only thing that felt overly gimmicky and unnecessary the entire meal. As for the actual dish, the 3 bites of mackerel, halibut and yellowtail were all melt in the mouth excellent and worked well with the seaweed and even the tapioca sand as it provided a nice texture to the delicate fish. A wonderful dish minus the ipod.

Next was salmon poached in a liquorice liquor with trout roe, artichokes and a vanilla mayonnaise. This was the only dish I did not really care for. I usually find cooked salmon boring and this didn’t change my mind. The texture was nice and the trout roe almost saved it, but the vanilla mayonnaise was an odd flavor combo that just did not work for me. Can’t win them all.

Two years ago I thought I didn’t like Pigeon, well it turned out I just never had it prepared correctly. Now I seek it out on menus and was excited to see it here. Perfectly cooked with a classic pan sauce and the side of black pudding only added to the wonderful richness of the dish. My favorite course of the night.

The first dessert course was a wonderful taffy tart with caramelized apple, fennel, rose and candied lemon. Beautiful to look at and eat.

Next course was back to fun and games with more tableside liquid nitrogen. The server cracks what looks to be a real egg (but is really a custard of some kind) into the nitro and stirs it around like she is making scrambled eggs. Another server puts down your plate with what looks like toast and a strip of bacon and then the scrambled eggs get plated on top. From a few feet away, it really does look like bacon and eggs and well it pretty much tastes like it too. Its bacon ice cream which sounds weird, but it does work somehow and there was enough sweetness to let you know you are eating dessert. The best part was the English breakfast tea that is served on the side. Its tastes just like your typical English tea, but in each sip you get the sensation of hot and cold at the same time. It was really trippy, but somehow there is hot and cold liquid in the same glass and it pours out in even quantities as you drink it. Probably the coolest sensory adventure of the lunch.

After that were two more small dessert courses that were a bit more standard, and the lunch ended with some fun candies that don’t need much explanation.

For wine, we had the options of doing wine parings but nothing really grabbed us so we chose a glass of champagne to start and a bottle of 2005 Dagueneau Pur Sang for the first part of the menu and the 1999 Beaucastel CDP for the middle. As you can tell, it’s a tough menu to pair wines with but the Pur Sang acted as a great palate cleanser and worked really well with the sound of the sea course. The 99 Beau was magic with the rustic pigeon course.

Overall we loved the unique experience and appreciated the creativity and the science involved in creating such a playful menu. This is not a restaurant for everyone as there are plenty of critics with this type of cooking, but I like having options like this that challenge the way we look at food. I should mention that the service was impeccable and the pace of dishes coming in and out of the kitchen was impressive. So in summary, if you want to try something different and have an open mind when it comes to cooking, this is a must visit if you are in the area.

Great read, thanks Glenn.

You ARE becoming quite the restaurant/food reviewer, GlennK.
Am I smelling a blog site in your future?

Nice review!

Sounds fascinating. What's the damage? And how hard was it to get a table?

Great review. I'm sure it was one of those once in a lifetime experiences.

quote:

Originally posted by Dave Tong BBP:
Sounds fascinating. What's the damage? And how hard was it to get a table?

We have been trying to get a reservation on and off for over a year. Our friends actually got this reservation by getting on the wait list for any weekend opening in the month of October. Somebody must have canceled because we got a call only a couple days ahead that a table was free. The dining room is pretty small though so that is part of the limitation.

The tasting is 130 GBP’s which we thought was a bargain considering everyone we received. Most of the wine prices were on the high side, but not nearly as bad as some the other high end restaurants we have been to in the area.