A Scientist in the Kitchen

The next time you are in London, drop in at The Fat Duck and order the Sound of the Sea. Accompanying your seafood dish is an earphone to hear sounds of seagulls cawing and waves lapping. At Dinner by Heston, Melbourne, the experience includes walking through a tunnel that smells of a bespoke fragrance. That’s how whimsical Chef Blumenthal’s dining experiences are.

As children, we’ve all marvelled at the fantastical world of fairy tales and their unforgettable characters. While most of our favourite characters exist solely in those imaginary worlds, there’s one man who has managed to mirror Alice in Wonderland’s beloved Mad Hatter by translating his wacky culinary ideas into world renowned dishes.

There’s just no two ways about it; the bald, bespectacled Heston Blumenthal—chef-auteur of the fabled The Fat Duck in Bray—is absolutely bonkers, but in the best possible way. The master of epicurean illusion and an ardent believer in the powers of liquid nitrogen, Chef Blumenthal tilts towards the mad in the world of fine dining.

But there’s a method to his madness, pretty obvious in his latest project—Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, Melbourne. Fresh on the heels of his London set-up at the Mandarin Oriental, the Australian outpost is in Melbourne’s Crown Towers Hotel. Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, London is already two Michelin stars proud and ranked seventh on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants List, bypassing even The Fat Duck. Talk about stellar credentials!

Chef Blumenthal, who first opened The Fat Duck in Melbourne, before shutting it and setting up Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, believes Australia has an exciting food scene. “It has seen a huge food explosion. Something like that happened in Spain 15 years ago. Effectively, it was MasterChef that kicked that off five or six years ago. A lot of Australian chefs have done their time in some of the top restaurants in Europe and they are coming back.”

His list of gourmet cities includes, besides Melbourne, New York, London, Paris, Tokyo and Kyoto, “all due to the way the chefs have completely redefined how food is cooked and served.”