No big deal: just baking an exploding chocolate cake.
Although many of Chef Heston Blumenthal's culinary concoctions may sound strange on a menu—superspam anyone?—the British owner of The Fat Duck of Berkshire, England, is accustomed only to culinary success. Since the restaurant's opening in 1995, The Fat Duck has been awarded three stars by Michelin, named the best restaurant in the world by Restaurant magazine, and pleased the palates of adventurous eaters from around the world.
But the chef that made dishes like bacon-and-egg ice cream and salmon poached with licorice didn't stop there. In March 2009, Blumenthal began a series on the U.K.'s Channel 4 called "Heston's Feasts," in which he tackled challengingly themed dinners (such as "Wonka Feast," "Fairly Tale Feast," and "Seventies Feast," among many others) while the cameras rolled.
But come October 5, those feasts will be preserved in Blumenthal's most ambitious cookbook yet. The 320-page hardcover tome Heston's Fantasical Feasts (Bloomsbury, $45) is more than a recipe book—it's a delicious (and sometimes stomach-turning) chronicle of each feast's journey from conception to creation.
From replicating Wonka's lickable wallpaper to fashioning edible icebergs for his "Titanic Feast" out of white chocolate, ice cream, alcohol, and dry ice, Blumenthal is a master of molecular gastronomy. Yet Feasts reads like any accessible (albeit culinary) adventure story, and his dishes range from the delightfully saccharine (Hansel and Gretel's candy house) to the somewhat strange (tomato basil savory slush puppies) to a gourmet version of Fear Factor (chicken testicle jelly beans).
So join Blumenthal for the adventure, or try his recipes if you dare—although getting your hands on some food-grade titanium oxide or oak moss essential oil may prove to be only the beginning of the challenge.
Movable Feast last talked with Heston Blumenthal in November 2009 when he was touring with The Fat Duck Cookbook
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