Review: The Fat Duck 2009 (part 4)

Following on from part one, two and three of our review we now move on to part four.

1. Background and arrival
2. The Menu: part 1
3. The Menu: part 2
4. The Bill plus conclusions

First, an Extra bit…

After reading the last part of the review and then looking at the bill (below) I realised I forgot completely to mention that two of us had the extra Cheese course.  Again, this wasn’t as good as last time.  On our previous visit the waiter had taken time to explain all the cheeses then proceeded to arrange them in taste order round the plate.  The cheese this time was still good but there was little that made it special and for £15 it probably wasn’t worth it.  Having said that though,  ITs Food Jnr LOVES cheese and she thought it was excellent!

The Bill plus conclusions

Yes, it was expensive!  We’re by no means “showing off” and saying “look at us, we can pay a fortune for a meal”.  On the contrary, we aren’t rich but we don’t mind paying for quality and a real foodie experience.  A meal at The Fat Duck is indeed both of those things.

As I was feeling slightly “merry” after drinking most of the wine, Mrs ITs Food paid the bill.  It was the next day when I saw it.

Our Fat Duck had a Fat Bill!

This probably was what I thought it would be if I’m honest with you.  I had in mind £200 a head and with the recent rises in the cost of the tasting menu, £640 seemed about the right level.  I’ve been trying to source some Turley Old Vine Zinfandel in the UK and it seems £75 for a bottle isn’t a massive mark up at all!

Was it worth it?

Hmm…  You’ve probably noticed that I mention quite a lot about how “…it was not as good as last time”.  I keep thinking this over and I think the reasons for this are:

1. Last time it was our first time having the Tasting Menu (or in fact our first time having anything like it ever).  Difficult to match that experience.
2. The menu hadn’t changed much.  Rather than being blown away we ended up comparing each dish to the last time we’d tried it.
3. We were all suffering with minor colds and I fully admit I ended up drinking a little too much (as the other two did not drink as much as they would do normally!)

But I must remember the most important thing.  This visit was for ITs Food Jnr’s 18th birthday.  Did she enjoy it? Yes.  Will she remember it forever? Yes.  Was it worth it?

Yes.

If you get a chance to visit The Fat Duck I wholeheartedly recommend it.  The prices are rising and I hear the “a la carte” menu has been discontinued and replaced with the new tasting menu.  It’s a shame the a la carte has gone as that had the “best course ever” on it.  I hear the a la carte will be served in Heston’s new London venture though.

After this particular visit I remember saying that we probably wouldn’t go again unless the tasting menu changed.  Heston changed the tasting menu a couple of months after we’d been!  Time to start saving again…!

Review: The Fat Duck 2009 (part 3)

Following on from part one and two of our review we now move on to part three.

1. Background and arrival
2. The Menu: part 1
3. The Menu: part 2
4. The Bill plus conclusions

The Menu: part 2

Over the page on the menu we were presented with the following:

The Fat Duck Tasting Menu 2009 Part 2

After a couple of dishes which weren’t my favourites we moved on to the Ballotine of Anjou Pigeon.  Last time we went to The Fat Duck this was one of the stand out courses.  A subtle but beautifully cooked and presented dish.  This time I don’t think it was as good.  The Pigeon was a little too rare for me (and I love most rare meat) and overall the dish was “good” rather than fantastic.  If I’m honest though I think I may be a little too over critical of the dish comparing it with how it tasted 3 years before.

Next we moved on to the “dessert” portion of the meal.  The excellent Hot and Iced Tea was superb as ever.  Hot one side, cold the other treating your mouth and throat to an amazing experience.

<no photo yet, sorry!>

Mrs Marshall’s Margaret Cornet is a tribute dish by Heston.  It is simply some nitro made ice cream in a cornet but… it is probably the best “99″ I’ve ever had.  No Flake in this though…

<no photo yet, sorry!>

The Pine Sherbet Fountain pre-hit is just what it says, something to get your taste buds tingling.  Simple, but very well done.  It certainly brings your mouth alive, you’re probably at least 2 hours into the meal at this point!

<no photo yet, sorry!>

The Mango and Douglas Fir Purée was as excellent as last time.  The blackcurrant sorbet is simply divine.  Words cannot express my love for this dish.  I’ve had it 3 times now and each time the mixture of flavours, tastes and textures blows me away.

“Now time for breakfast…” your waiter will probably say.  Parsnip Cereal with parsnip milk.  Hmmm… It’s all very clever and you get a little Fat Duck cereal box but it’s all a bit gimmicky in my book.  It tastes fine and is a bit of fun but falls short on the Wow factor.

<no photo yet, sorry!>

Wow factor is something that is not lacking on the next course.  Along with Snail Porridge the Nitro-scrambled Egg and Bacon ice cream is probably one of the most famous dishes at The Fat Duck.  Your ice cream is cracked from an egg into a copper pan and nitro-scrambled in front of you!  This is pure Heston theatre and each time I’ve experienced it (twice) it’s brought a large foodie smile to my face.  The ice cream is served on some “french toast” which Mrs ITs Food says is too sweet for her.  I personally love it.

As a bonus, the wonderful staff had written Happy Birthday on ITs Food Jnr’s plate.  We were there for her 18th birthday but I had not told them this.  Mrs ITs Food said she must have mentioned it when she confirmed the booking.  A big thank you to The Fat Duck for this subtle and very classy Happy Birthday!

This remarkable dish marked the end of the main dishes and we were left to enjoy a coffee (Nespresso? Really??) and some excellent petit fours.  The Aerated Mandarin Chocolate is the best Orange Aero you will ever taste, I’ve never been a fan of Violet Cream’s but the Tartlet was excellent.  The highlight was the amazing Apple Pie Caramel with edible wrapping.  Stunning!

This just left us to sit back, relax and ponder a wonderful meal… Before The Bill arrived!!

Coming very soon… Part 4 “The Bill plus conclusions”!

New book by Heston: Total Perfection

Now that Heston Blumenthal has moved to Channel 4 it looks like we won’t get any more episodes of In Search of Perfection.  Whilst you can still buy hardback books for series 1 and series 2 it looks like a paperback combining both series has been released.

Total Perfection: In Search of Total Perfection by Heston Blumenthal

Available at time of writing for £8.99 at Amazon.co.uk this looks a good option for those of you who haven’t picked up either of the first two books yet.

Review: The Fat Duck 2009 (part 2)

Following on from part 1 of our review we now move on to part 2 (naturally!).

1. Background and arrival
2. The Menu: part 1
3. The Menu: part 2
4. The Bill plus conclusions

The Menu: part 1

We opened the sealed Fat Duck tasting menu envelope and were presented with this on the first page.

The Fat Duck Tasting Menu 2009 Part 1

The Nitro-poached green tea and line mousse started the meal.  We’ve had this before and I think the recipe has changed.  Rather than the mousse instantly disappearing in your mouth it had a thicker, rather chewy consistancy.  It was okay, but not as nice as I remember.

The Pommery Grain Mustard ice cream with Red Cabbage Gazpacho was unchanged but I must admit, as a “hater” of gazpacho I really liked it this time.  Maybe it was slightly different?

Next came the first change in the menu.  The Jelly of Quail, Langoustine Cream and Parfait of Foie Gras was as before but with it this time was Oak Moss and Truffle Toast.  The Truffle Toast (below left) was amazing!

The Oak moss was one of those small thin wafers that melts instantly on your tounge.  Along with the liquid nitrogen mist (see below) this was supposed to transport you to a woodland.  Now, as I’ve mentioned before, we were all feeling a little “coldy” so I’m afraid the oak moss wafer did nothing for me.  The liquid nitrogen forest mist was WOW though!

Next up was the famous Snail Porridge.  Again, we’ve had this before but I think Heston has changed the recipe.  The snails had an extra “meaty” flavour.  A bit like “Steak and Onion” crisps, but in a very nice way!  It was delicious.

Following Snail Porridge was a new dish (to us anyway).  Roast Foie Gras “Benzaldehyde”.  According to Wikipedia Benzaldehyde “is an important component of the scent of almonds, hence its typical odor”.  This was quite nice.  I think the Foie Gras texture was a little strange, lighter than I thought it would be.  The variousl gel’s and accompaniments were tasty additions which complimented the Foie Gras well.

The “Sound of the Sea” was next.  This was the dish I was looking forward to most.  The sheer theatre of eating a meal whilst listening to “sounds of the sea” through an iPod hidden in a conch shell is classic Heston!

The sand was tapioca and deep fried eel apparently.  There was a “sea foam” plus various preserved fish.  I was… disappointed.  First of all I work on at the coast so seagulls and crashing waves mean WORK to me so the iPod sounds were a distraction.  The “sand” was very tasty, a little too sweet maybe?  The preserved fish was VERY fishy.  I’m a fan of fish but the picked herring (in the middle) was a little too much.  This dish was probably the biggest disappointment of the evening.  I had been expecting another WOW but ended up just feeling a little queasy.

The final dish on page 1 of the tasting menu was Salmon Poached  in Liquorice Gel, another dish we had previously had before.

This was never my favourite and I must say it hasn’t changed much.  On top of the mixture of salmon and liquorice (meh!) I personally thought the vanilla mayonnaise didn’t work.  Mrs ITs Food on the other hand LOVES this dish though, it has some of her favourite flavours in it.

I think this is a key point.  There are some amazing dishes on The Fat Duck tasting menu but everyone likes different things.  That’s what I love about food and wine, the sheer variety of flavours, textures and tastes.

I realise that this part of the review has been a little negative.  I think I was maybe a little extra critical as I was comparing it to my previous visit so am being a little extra “picky”.  Next we’ll move on to the second page of the Tasting Menu.  Did things improve?  Find out soon…

Review: The Fat Duck 2009 (part 1)

It’s finally (!) here.  Our review of our recent (return) visit to Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck.  We’re going to split the review up into four parts.

1. Background and arrival
2. The Menu: part 1
3. The Menu: part 2
4. The Bill plus conclusions

We’ll liberally scatter photo’s from the night into the review but you can see them all on our flickr photostream.

Background and arrival

We returned to The Fat Duck in April 2009 as a treat for ITs Food Jnr’s 18th birthday.  We were all looking forward to trying the new dishes and some old favourites as well.  We ended up sitting down at around 19:30 and, as usual, were offered a drink from the Champagne “trolley”.  Now, mindful of the price increases and the £20 per glass Champagne from last time we passed the opportunity.

It’s strange, I think the staff automatically assume you have a drink from the Champagne trolley.  We were sat for quite a long time before being offered menus.  People who arrived afterwards (and had Champagne) ordered well before us.  Not a major worry though, we eventually ordered three tasting menus and a couple of bottles of wine.

I chose Cakebread Sauvignon Blanc 2006 for the white ( a recommendation from my brother) and picked a bottle of Turley Old Vine Zinfandel 2002 for the red on my own instinct.  The Cakebread was very good, it tasted as an aged Sauvignon Blanc should, in my simplistic terms halfway between a good Sauvignon Blanc and a good Chardonnay.  The red was excellent.  Probably one of the nicest wines I’ve ever had.  Turley are world renowned for their Zinfandel but I’m struggling to find a UK supplier.  Can anyone help me out?  Post a comment if you can.

*Edit: Yes, as someone pointed out, both wines were from the USA.  I’m a real Oz and NZ wine fan but American wines are fast becoming a real favourite.  The New World wines rock!

One thing I noticed this time was the AMAZING decanters they use.  From what I can tell they are all Riedel (the wine glass kings) and included my favourite decanter, the Amadeo.

Amadeo Decanter by Riedel

What a beautiful decanter.  They aren’t cheap, but I think I’m going to have to get one.

When you choose the Tasting Menu you get a copy of the menu in a wax sealed envelope.  We waited with a mixture of excitement and anticipation.  A meal at The Fat Duck is a leisurely affair, it’s not rushed!  The excellent bread they serve kept us going until it was time for the first part of the Tasting Menu to arrive…

In Part 2 of our review…

• The first page of the Tasting Menu…
• …plus pictures!
• How was the Snail Porridge?
• Was “Sound of the Sea” a worthy edition?
• How much liquid nitrogen would be used?