|
The Fat
Duck restaurant, one of the world's finest eateries, was awarded full
marks by a top food guide, recently, six months after having to shut
for two weeks due to a food scare.
The Michelin three-starred
restaurant in Bray, west of London, closed in February after about 40
customers said they had fallen ill after eating there, a figure which
rose roughly tenfold following media coverage.
But the Good Food Guide 2010
delivered good news to the restaurant's owner, celebrity chief Heston
Blumenthal, with a perfect 10 out of 10 rating -- one better than his
high-profile rival, Gordon Ramsay.
"It is the most
extraordinary restaurant in Britain. It is food as theatre, the way
the waiters interact with the table, it is like a performance,"
Good Food Guide editor Elizabeth Carter said of the Fat Duck.
"You are there for four
hours while the meal is almost flown, course-by-course, to you,"
she added.
Self-taught Blumenthal takes a
scientific approach to cooking, researching the molecular compounds
of ingredients. His signature dishes include snail porridge and egg
and bacon ice cream.
Diners have to book months in
advance to secure a table at the restaurant -- named the best in the
world in 2005 by Restaurant magazine -- where the tasting menu costs
130 pounds.
Ramsay, whose self-named flagship
restaurant in London's upmarket Chelsea district scored nine out of
10, and whose international restaurant empire has been hit by the
global recession, paid tribute to his rival.
"We would like to offer
Heston our congratulations, but we can promise him we will be trying
even harder next year to pip him to the top spot," he said.
Super chefs' bad year gets better
Some good news at last for Heston
Blumenthal and Gordon Ramsay - their restaurants are still the best
in the country according to The Good Food Guide 2010, published shortly.*
The super chefs have had their
ups and downs this year: Blumenthal had to close the Fat Duck early
in 2009 due to the norovirus and Ramsay's international business
empire has taken a battering during the economic downturn.
But The Good Food Guide focuses
on the quality of food produced in the kitchen and finds it as
excellent as ever at both the Fat Duck, which manages a perfect ten**
out of ten score for the second year running, and Gordon Ramsay's
flagship restaurant, which scores nine.**
The Fat Duck gets an ecstatic
review, with Heston Blumenthal likened to a modern-day Leonardo da
Vinci. Customers' rapturous enthusiasm is noted: "Some rave
about spectacular oak moss and truffle toast; others drool over the
fabulous roast foie gras 'benzaldehyde.'" Though it's an
expensive restaurant, it's worth it for the "once-in-a-lifetime experience."
Gordon Ramsay also gets a glowing
report. The Good Food Guide says that standards remain impressive and
that Ramsay's flagship restaurant has the presence of a grand
establishment. The cooking at the Royal Hospital Road restaurant is
"as haute as cuisine comes" and you get "labour and
effort, as well as taste and flavour, for your money". The
service is praised as second to none, especially the practice of
catering for those who want to drink inexpensively.
Elizabeth Carter, editor of The
Good Food Guide, says:
"It's been a tough year for
all chefs, but these super chefs are at the top of their game and
producing superlative food. It's difficult to fault the Fat Duck's
impeccable standards and Gordon Ramsay's modern French cooking is
perfectly executed too."
|
