Restaurant Review: The Fat Duck - pure theatre and a wonderful eating experience

For Christmas this year my partner and myself bought each other a trip to one the food Mecca's in the world, Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck in Bray.

There are only 4 restaurants in Britain with the top Michelin rating of 3 stars and this is the one which I really wanted to go to, and what better way to start the year off than with a 13 course extravaganza? Personally I can't think of one.

I was expecting something a bit special, as you would hope for somewhere where the set menu is 180 quid, but I didn't bank on the thought and preparation which had gone into all of the courses. I should also say that rather than order a bottle or two of wine, which was an option, we chose to splash out on the matching wine selection (mainly because this is likely to be a once in a lifetime thing and I think that I would forever kick myself had we not done so). Now my Mum always used to tell me off for playing with my food, but thankfully Heston appears never to have been constrained in this way, and the culinary world is a lot better place for that.

To clear the palette you get a choice of nitrogen forged "meringues" which were egg whites mixed with either, Gin and Tonic (Which I had), Vodka and Lime (which my partner tried) and Campari and Soda. The idea of these was not just to break down any fat on your tongue but also to use the citrus element to start you salivating. They were bloody cold but definitely very tasty and as with many of the courses the serving was part of the spectacle, with liquid nitrogen spilling out of the bowl as each of the egg whites was poached, right by the table.

Our first wine was a 2009 Fumé blanc from Turkey, which was to accompany the first two courses, When tried on its own after the appetiser it was a touch sharp with citrus notes, but after we started the red cabbage gazpacho and mustard ice cream it became very clear why it had been chosen, the taste was stunning and complimented the crisp freshness of the dish perfectly. The second dish it was eaten with was another that used liquid nitrogen (see the picture on the right) this time to bring out the smell of the forest (the nitrogen was poured into a moss to bring out the smell of damp earth) the idea being that it would enhance the flavour of the truffle toast but smelling like it's natural habitat. This was served with a Chicken liver parfait, crayfish cream, Quail jelly and pea puree. As you can imagine, this was quite rich but luckily the wine cut through this perfectly, complimenting the richness perfectly.

Next was one of the signature dishes, and if I am honest the one that I had feared that I may not like, Snail Porridge. The first thing I should mention was that this porridge was accompanied by my girlfriends favourite wine of the experience, a 2009 Costers Del Segre from Spain which is an 80% chardonnay blended with some of the local grapes. It is lightly oaked and has a rich buttery taste.

The porridge itself was that good I meant to try a little but ate half before I realised that I had forgotten to take a picture!!! It was rich and tasty with the fennel providing a nice counter point to the snails. I am still undecided on where the green colour on the porridge came from although the more I think about it the more I believe that this was from peas.

Following snail porridge is always going to be a tough job, but the Roast Foie Gras that was served next was very much up to the task. Adorned with exquisite crab biscuits, which were sweet and crunchy, and a barberry sauce, which was slightly savoury it was heaven. Last year we had all sorts of accompaniments to Foie Gras, ranging from sticky dessert wines to Champagne, the pairing in this case was a Pinot Gris from the Alsace which was light and fruity and was a pretty good accompaniment for something which sommelier's at various restaurant we have been to recently seems to have been struggling with.

The Foie Gras was followed by a mock turtle soup, which was another spectacular dish to look at, a steamed beef dumpling and some kind of egg served with a gold pocket watch which dissolved into fish stock when dipped into water.The whole dish has a very Japanese feel and was incredibly tasty.

Finally before moving onto the main courses we had a course called "the sound of the sea" which was as much about looks and your other senses as it was about taste. It was primarily a fish course but was served with a sea shell with headphones, which you put on while you were eating it and which had the sound of the ocean playing in them.

The dish itself looked like very much like you were sitting at the seaside with several different sorts of fish sitting under the spray like foam. From a taste point of view this was probably my least favourite of all of the dishes, although from a concept point of view it was amazing with the sand on the left of the picture and the sea and flotsam on the right. This was served with Saki which, for some tastes (my girlfriends included) was a little bit harsh, but I quite enjoyed the sensation, especially with the fish the foam concealed.

This lead us nicely onto the fish course, which was Salmon poached in a liquorice gel, served with trout roe, artichokes and a vanilla mayonnaise. This, unusually for a fish course was served with a red wine, a 1997 Rosso Del Veronese from Veneto, which was quite similar in taste an depth to a pinot noire. I struggled to pick up much of the taste of liquorice, although my girlfriend claim that it was pretty strong, obviously it looked beautiful, although it wasn't as hot as I would have liked it when it was served.

Finally we got onto the main course, a saddle of Venison, which as you would expect was beautifully cooked and incredibly tasty. This  was served with a rich risotto of spelt (wheat) and Umbles (Offal, the origin of Humble pie if some people are to be believed). The had a side of Beetroot Soubise to break up some of the richness from the fayre. Obviously the taste was stunning and it was complimented by a very nice 2009 VdP de l'Hérault from the languedoc in france, whose richness and deep flavour was the perfect compliment to the gamey taste of venison.

The segue between main course and dessert was something which was described as "Hot and cold Tea" a drink that was both frozen lemony tea in some kind of gel and a hot tea in the same glass, the sensation when drinking this was a little bit magical (and left us wondering, like all good magic, how it had been done),

The first dessert course was a Tafferty Tart, a beautiful looking apple and rose petal dish which was a nice light prelude to the main dessert, not too rich but very fruity, this was served with a very nice 2009 Passito Di Pantelleria, a quite sweet and lemony Muscat like dessert wine which fitted very nicely with the apple and fennel flavours in the dessert.

Which brings us to the final real dessert, I had a beautifully rich and chocolaty black forest gateau, which was very much cherrys and dark chocolate, it was very rich and was complimented nicely by a 2009 Alella from Spain whose cherry undertones really enhanced the dessert and made sure that it didn't get too rich.

The final two courses were sweets, the first was a set of whiskey gums (think win gums) which dissolved on your tongue to give the taste of different single malt scotches (and Jack Daniels) and finally there was a visually impressive sweet shop course, which included a queen of hearts playing card made out of white chocolate and filled with raspberry jam sponge and a beautiful Mandarin flavoured chocolate.

In summary I have to say that I really wasn't sure about spending this much on one meal before hand, however I think that having tried it I would recommend this to anyone who is thinking about it. I was asked if it was more worth while than the weekend trip to Venice I did last week (a restaurant review to follow this week) and I have to say that it definitely was, as a once in a life time thing, and one of the most interesting food experiences I have ever encountered. I think the most interesting thing that I took out of it was how much your other senses influence your enjoyment of a meal, this definitely played to them all in a way that no other restaurant I have been to does. You may think that it sounds a bit gimmicky, but coupled with the quality of all of the dishes and the wine matching I think that it was anything but. I suppose I am going to have to start saving up so that I can go back again!