The Fat Duck is a

fine dining Fine may refer to: Characters * Sylvia Fine (''The Nanny''), Fran's mother on ''The Nanny'' * Officer Fine, a character in ''Tales from the Crypt'', played by Vincent Spano Legal terms * Fine (penalty), money to be paid as punishment for an of ...

restaurant in

Bray, Berkshire Bray, occasionally Bray on Thames, is a large suburban village and civil parish in the English county of Berkshire. It sits on the banks of the River Thames, to the southeast of Maidenhead of which it is a suburb. The village is mentioned in th ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It is run by

celebrity chef A celebrity chef is a kitchen chef who has become a celebrity. Today, chefs often become celebrities by presenting cookery advice and demonstrations, usually through the media of television and radio, or in printed publications. While television ...

proprietor

Heston Blumenthal Heston Marc Blumenthal (; born 27 May 1966) is a British celebrity chef, TV personality and food writer. Blumenthal is regarded as a pioneer of multi-sensory cooking, food pairing and flavour encapsulation. He came to public attention with u ...

. Housed in a 16th-century building that had previously been the site of the Bell pub, the Fat Duck opened on 16 August 1995. Although it originally served food similar to that of a French

bistro A bistro or bistrot , is, in its original Parisian incarnation, a small restaurant, serving moderately priced simple meals in a modest setting. Bistros are defined mostly by the foods they serve. French home-style cooking, and slow-cooked foods ...

, it soon acquired a reputation for precision and invention, and has been at the forefront of many modern culinary developments, such as food pairing, flavour encapsulation and multi-sensory cooking. The number of staff in the kitchen has increased from four when it first opened to 42, resulting in a ratio of one kitchen staff member per customer. The restaurant gained its first Michelin star in 1999, its second in 2002 and its third in 2004, making it one of three in the United Kingdom to earn three

Michelin stars The Michelin Guides ( ) are a series of guide books that have been published by the French tyre company Michelin since 1900. The Guide awards up to three Michelin stars for excellence to a select few establishments. The acquisition or loss of a ...

. It lost its status as a three-starred restaurant in the 2016 guide due to renovation preventing it from being open for assessment. The restaurant regained three stars in the following year's Michelin guide. The restaurant is known for its fourteen-course tasting menu featuring dishes such as

nitro Nitro may refer to: Chemistry *Nitrogen, a chemical element and a gas except at very low temperatures, with which many compounds are formed: **Nitro compound, an organic compound containing one or more nitro functional groups, -NO2 **Nitroalkene, ...

-scrambled egg and bacon ice cream, an '' Alice in Wonderland''-inspired

mock turtle soup Mock turtle soup is an English soup that was created in the mid-18th century as an imitation of green turtle soup. It often uses brains and organ meats such as calf's head to duplicate the texture and flavour of the original's turtle meat aft ...

involving a

bouillon Bouillon can refer to: Food * Bouillon (broth), a simple broth ** Court-bouillon, a quick broth * Bouillon (soup), a Haitian soup * Bouillon (restaurant), a traditional type of French restaurant **Bouillon Chartier, a bouillon restaurant foun ...

packet made up to look like a

fob watch A pocket watch (or pocketwatch) is a watch that is made to be carried in a pocket, as opposed to a wristwatch, which is strapped to the wrist. They were the most common type of watch from their development in the 16th century until wristwatc ...

dissolved in tea, and a dish called Sound of the Sea which includes an audio element. The restaurant has an associated laboratory where Blumenthal and his team develop new dish concepts. In 2009, the restaurant suffered from the largest

norovirus Norovirus, sometimes referred to as the winter vomiting disease, is the most common cause of gastroenteritis. Infection is characterized by non-bloody diarrhea, vomiting, and stomach pain. Fever or headaches may also occur. Symptoms usually devel ...

outbreak ever documented at a restaurant with over 400 diners falling ill.

Description

The Fat Duck is located in Bray in the High Street. Chef proprietor

has owned the premises since it opened at the location in 1995. It is not the only Michelin three-star restaurant in Bray, the other being

Michel Roux Michel Roux, OBE (; 19 April 1941 – 11 March 2020), also known as Michel Roux Snr., was a French chef and restaurateur working in Britain. Along with his brother Albert, he opened Le Gavroche, later to become the first three Michelin starr ...

's restaurant

the Waterside Inn The Waterside Inn, located in Bray, Berkshire, England, is a restaurant founded by the brothers Michel and Albert Roux after the success of Le Gavroche. It is currently run by Michel's son, Alain. The restaurant has three Michelin stars, and i ...

. As of 2022, it is one of only eight restaurants in the entire United Kingdom with three Michelin stars. The restaurant has fourteen tables, and can seat 42 diners. It has a very high proportion of chefs working at the restaurant, 42, equating to one chef per diner. Much of the menu is developed by experimentation: for example, the egg and bacon ice cream came about following Blumenthal investigating the principles of "flavour encapsulation". A research laboratory where Blumenthal and his team develop dishes is two doors away opposite the Hinds Head pub, which is also owned by the chef. It was where the majority of the laboratory scenes for the television series ''Heston Blumenthal: In Search of Perfection'' were filmed. The lab equipment includes a

centrifuge A centrifuge is a device that uses centrifugal force to separate various components of a fluid. This is achieved by spinning the fluid at high speed within a container, thereby separating fluids of different densities (e.g. cream from milk) or ...

which is used to make chocolate wine, and a

vacuum oven A vacuum furnace is a type of furnace in which the product in the furnace is surrounded by a vacuum during processing. The absence of air or other gases prevents oxidation, heat loss from the product through convection, and removes a source of co ...

. The restaurant takes reservations up to two months in advance, and it was receiving some 30,000 calls for reservations per day, although that figure also included people who couldn't get through and were redialling.

. McGee's work in particular led him to question traditional cooking techniques and approaches which resulted in combinations which may at first appear unusual. Blumenthal incorporates psychology and the perception of diners into his dishes, explaining, "For example, eat sardine on toast sorbet for the first time, confusion will reign as the brain will be trying to tell the palate to expect a dessert and you will therefore be tasting more sweetness than actually exists." The restaurant serves a fourteen-course

tasting menu A tasting menu is a collection of several dishes in small portions, served by a restaurant as a single meal. The French name for a tasting menu is ''menu dégustation''. Some restaurants and chefs specialize in tasting menus, while in other cases ...

. Dishes served include palate cleansers made of vodka and green tea, frozen in liquid nitrogen, a snail porridge that was described by one food critic as "infamous", and ice creams of both crab, and egg and bacon, each of which resulted in increased media attention for the restaurant. The

has an '' Alice in Wonderland'' theme, where a

formed of freeze-dried beef stock covered with gold leaf is dropped into a tea cup by a waiter, who pours a beef stock "tea" poured over it that dissolves the gold and the watch. A plate of ox tongue and vegetables is served alongside it to place into the soup. Toast sandwiches are served as a

side dish A side dish, sometimes referred to as a side order, side item, or simply a side, is a food item that accompanies the entrée or main course at a meal. It had been developed for an appearance on '' Heston's Feasts'', and was afterwards added to the menu at the restaurant. Dishes are served with additional sensory inputs, such as "Sounds of the Sea", a plate of seafood served with a seafood foam on top of a "beach" of

tapioca Tapioca (; ) is a starch extracted from the storage roots of the cassava plant (''Manihot esculenta,'' also known as manioc), a species native to the North and Northeast regions of Brazil, but whose use is now spread throughout South America ...

, breadcrumbs and eel. Alongside the dish, diners are given an iPod to listen to crashing waves whilst they eat. Other additional sensory components include "the smell of the

Black Forest The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is t ...

" that accompanies a

kirsch Kirschwasser (, ; , German for "cherry water") or kirsch is a clear, colorless brandy traditionally made from double distillation of morello cherries, a dark-colored cultivar of the sour cherry. It is now also made from other kinds of cherrie ...

ice cream.

History

The Fat Duck is located in a 16th-century cottage that was further modified in the 19th and 20th centuries. Prior to the restaurant opening in the location, it was a public house called the Ringers. The building was Grade II listed by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

on 2 May 1989. When the restaurant opened in 1995, the kitchen was staffed by owner Heston Blumenthal and one other employee. At the time the restaurant was serving meals in the style of a French

, such as lemon tarts, and steak and chips. Blumenthal later said that science had already begun to influence the cooking at this early stage, as already on the menu were his triple-cooked chips, which were developed to stop the potato from going soft. The restaurant came close to going bankrupt, and Blumenthal sold his house, his car and many of his possessions in order to keep the restaurant afloat. After four years, the restaurant was awarded its first Michelin star in the 1999 list. Blumenthal worked with Professor

Peter Barham Peter Barham (born 1950) is emeritus professor of physics at the University of Bristol. He was visiting professor of Molecular Gastronomy at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Early life Peter Barham was born in 1950. He received his BSc fro ...

of the

University of Bristol , mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'') , established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter , type ...

, and developed a menu of dishes through experimentation such as slow-cooked lamb which avoids shocking the fibres in the meat and causing them to seize. By 2000, techniques were being used such as cooking vegetables in mineral water after discovering that the levels of calcium in tap water causes their discolouration, and freezing cuttlefish to break down the molecules in them in order to increase their tenderness. In 2001 it was awarded a second Michelin star, and was also named Restaurant of the Year by

The Automobile Association AA Limited, trading as The AA (formerly The Automobile Association), is a British motoring association. Founded in 1905, it provides vehicle insurance, driving lessons, breakdown cover, loans, motoring advice, road maps and other services. T ...

. Heston Blumenthal, chef proprietor of the Fat Duck In 2004, the restaurant was awarded three Michelin stars, becoming one of three restaurants in the United Kingdom to hold that level of recognition alongside the Waterside Inn, also in Bray, and Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in London. It was the fastest that a restaurant had gone from one to three stars in the UK. During the same year, the restaurant was ranked second in the world behind

the French Laundry The French Laundry is a three-Michelin star French and Californian cuisine restaurant located in Yountville, California, in the Napa Valley. Sally Schmitt opened The French Laundry in 1978 and designed her menus around local, seasonal ingredie ...

The World's 50 Best Restaurants The World's Best 50 Restaurants is a list produced by UK media company William Reed, which originally appeared in the British magazine ''Restaurant'' in 2002. The list and awards however are no longer directly related to ''Restaurant'' magazine ...

. The restaurant also received the title of Square Meal BMW Best UK Restaurant 2004. The following year the listing ranked the Fat Duck as the best restaurant in the world, At the first Front of House Awards in 2007, the restaurant won the awards for Overall Service and Front Desk of the Year. In 2008, Blumenthal published ''The Big Fat Duck Cookbook'', following his BBC series 'Heston Blumenthal: In Search of Perfection.' On 19 November 2012, British citizen Ivan Aranto Herrera Jorge and Swede

Carl Magnus Lindgren Carl Magnus Lindgren (April 4, 1982 – November 19, 2012) was a Swedish chef. Lindgren was a senior chef at celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal’s flagship restaurant The Fat Duck, the Michelin-starred restaurant in Bray, Berkshire. Death Li ...

, two senior members of the Fat Duck restaurant, were killed on Chai Wan Road,

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

in a traffic accident when their taxi was hit by two buses. They died along with the taxi driver, Wong Kim-chung. A further 56 people were injured in the accident. Blumenthal had been in Hong Kong and was travelling in a separate cab at the time of the crash. On 31 March 2014, Blumenthal announced he would be closing the restaurant for renovations for six months and temporarily relocating it with its entire team to

Crown Towers Crown Towers is a hotel skyscraper located in the Southbank precinct of Melbourne, Australia. Built in 1997, the hotel is one of three hotels at the Crown Casino and Entertainment Complex, the others being: Crown Promenade (2003) and Crown Met ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, Australia. During the six months, the restaurant was named the Fat Duck, after which it was renamed Dinner by Heston Blumenthal. This was the second restaurant with that name, and Blumenthal's first restaurant outside of Britain (and his sixth in total). This temporary closure of the Bray location caused the restaurant to become ineligible for assessment for the 2016 Michelin Guide, thus losing its three-starred status, which it regained the following year.

Food scare, closure, and reopening

On 27 February 2009, Blumenthal closed his restaurant temporarily after a number of customers reported feeling unwell at different times.AFP
/ref> By 3 March the source of the outbreak was still unclear but sabotage had been ruled out. A spokesman for the restaurant said "All this leads us to believe that it he health scarehas not come from the restaurant and we expect to be given the all clear." On 6 March it was reported that 400 people had stated they had felt unwell after eating at the restaurant. The restaurant reopened on 12 March 2009. The cause of the illness was later given by the

Health Protection Agency The Health Protection Agency (HPA) was a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom. It was an organisation that was set up by the UK government in 2003 to protect the public from threats to their health from infectious diseases and envi ...

, which was thought to originate from oysters which had been harvested from beds contaminated with sewage. The virus was spread further after being contracted by staff members. The restaurant was criticised for its cleaning methods and its slow response to the incident. Complaints of illness from customers totalled 529. The Fat Duck had received negative publicity regarding health standards before, when food and safety officers in 2004 found "borderline" levels of listeria in the foie gras and expressed concern that "no core temperatures of the meat are taken".

Reception

Fodor's Fodor's is a publisher of English language travel and tourism information. Fodor's Travel and Fodors.com are divisions of Internet Brands. History Founder Eugene Fodor was a keen traveler, but felt that the guidebooks of his time were borin ...

'' describes the restaurant as "extraordinary" and "one of the best restaurants in the country". ''

Frommer's Frommer's is a travel guide book series created by Arthur Frommer in 1957. Frommer's has since expanded to include more than 350 guidebooks in 14 series, as well as other media including an eponymous radio show and a website. In 2017, the compan ...

'' gives the restaurant three stars, grading it as "exceptional". In September 1996, Ben Rogers ate at the restaurant for ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'' before it had gained any Michelin stars or the awards it has today and while it was still using something close to its original menu. Even so, he discovered that Blumenthal was cooking

foie gras Foie gras (, ; ) is a specialty food product made of the liver of a duck or goose. According to French law, foie gras is defined as the liver of a duck or goose fattened by gavage (force feeding). Foie gras is a popular and well-known delica ...

in sherry in order to give it a nutty flavour, although Rogers was not sure if the nutty flavour was warranted in the dish itself. He did think that a

jambonneau Jambonneau is a French culinary term for the knuckle end of a leg of pork or ham. It is consumed fresh, salted or smoked. In addition, after braising or poaching, jambonneau is traditionally served with sauerkraut or used in soups. The same ...

of duck was worth praising, describing it as "delicious", but also thought that another dish of

monkfish Members of the genus ''Lophius'', also sometimes called monkfish, fishing-frogs, frog-fish, and sea-devils, are various species of lophiid anglerfishes found in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. ''Lophius'' is known as the "monk" or "monkfish" ...

was rubbery in texture. He described the menu itself as "awkwardly written, badly punctuated, and at points quite impenetrable". Following the first Michelin star, David Fingleton visited the restaurant for ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...

'', and said that the experience was "beyond reproach; unsullied pleasure from start to finish". In 2001, Terry Durack reviewed the restaurant for ''The Independent''. He was initially hesitant as he expected tricks straight away and was surprised to find a bowl of normal green olives on the table as he arrived. He didn't think much of a mustard ice cream in a red cabbage

gazpacho Gazpacho (; ) or Gaspacho (), also called Andalusian gazpacho, is a cold soup and drink made of raw, blended vegetables. It originated in the southern regions of the Iberian peninsula and spread into other areas. Gazpacho is widely eaten in Sp ...

soup, but described the restaurant as "great" and gave it a score of seventeen out of twenty. Following the third Michelin star, Jan Moir of ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'' visited the restaurant but disliked it, saying that "while many of the flavours are politely interesting, the relentless pappy textures of mousses and foams and creams and poached meats really begins to grate". She also thought the restaurant was overpriced, calling it "The Fat Profit".

Matthew Fort Matthew Fort (born 29 January 1947) is a British food writer and critic. Matthew Fort is the son of the Conservative MP Richard Fort, who died when he was 12. His brother is the writer Tom Fort. He attended Eton College, and later Lancaster Un ...

reviewed the restaurant for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' in 2005, he said that "there is no doubt that the Fat Duck is a great restaurant and Heston Blumenthal the most original and remarkable chef this country has ever produced". A. A. Gill for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'' recommended that people should "eat here at least once to find out what is really going on in your mouth". Also in 2005, German food critic

Wolfram Siebeck Wolfram Siebeck (19 September 1928 – 7 July 2016) was a German journalist, author and food critic. With his satirical style of writing he used to criticise fast food, TV dinners, subsidised agriculture and intensive animal farming. Biography ...

visited the restaurant and complained of the delays in service and of several of the dishes, described the mustard ice cream in a red cabbage gazpacho soup as a "fart of nothingness", while chef Nico Ladenis said of the restaurant, "Someone who makes egg and bacon ice cream is hailed a genius. If you vomit and make ice cream out of it, are you a star?" Tony Naylor of ''

'' enjoyed his trip to the restaurant in 2008, and afterwards criticised those who thought that spending £323.13 on a meal for two at lunchtime was too much. In 2005, the restaurant was ranked 1st on the list of

the World's 50 Best Restaurants The World's Best 50 Restaurants is a list produced by UK media company William Reed, which originally appeared in the British magazine ''Restaurant'' in 2002. The list and awards however are no longer directly related to ''Restaurant'' magazine ...

. After spending 11 years on the list, it has dropped down to 73rd in the top 100. It has been ranked second best on numerous occasions, first behind

and then behind

El Bulli El Bulli () was a restaurant near the town of Roses, Catalonia, Spain, run by chef Ferran Adrià and driven by the culinary ideas of Albert Adrià. The restaurant overlooked Cala Montjoi, a bay on Catalonia's Costa Brava. It held three Michelin st ...

. In 2012, it was ranked in thirteenth place. In 2010, it was named the Best UK Restaurant in the Quintessentially Awards, a scheme run by the

Quintessentially Group Quintessentially Group is a British concierge company founded in 2000 by Aaron Simpson (entrepreneur), Aaron Simpson, Ben Elliot and Paul Drummond. The company is headquartered in London and operates 60 offices worldwide. Quintessentially is a ...

. In 2009, it was the only restaurant to be given a top score of ten out of ten in the ''

Good Food Guide ''The Good Food Guide'' has been reviewing the best restaurants, pubs and cafés in Great Britain since 1951. In October 2021, Adam Hyman purchased ''The Good Food Guide'' for an undisclosed sum from Waitrose & Partners. The ''Guide'' is being r ...

''. The editor of the guide, Elizabeth Carter, explained the reason for the score, "It's extremely rare that a restaurant cooks perfectly on a consistent basis, but we've had so many superlative reports that we're delighted to recognise the Fat Duck as the best restaurant in Britain." It retained that top score through to the 2013 edition of the guide.

Gallery of dishes

File:Salmon in Licorice Gel.jpg, Salmon poached in liquorice gel served with an artichoke vanilla mayonnaise File:Mango_and_Douglas_Fir_Puree.jpg, Bavarois of lychee and mango File:Violet_Tartlet_Apple_Pie_Caramel.jpg, Violet tartlets and apple-pie toffee wrapped in edible sweet-paper File:Truffle_Toast.jpg, Truffle toast with parsley and radish File:Oyster_and_Passion_Fruit_Jelly.jpg, Oyster and passion-fruit jelly on lavender, served in an oyster shell File:Hot_and_Cold_Icetea.jpg, Hot and cold iced tea File:Carrot_and_Orange_Lolly.jpg, Carrot and orange lolly

References

External links

*
Food Scientist Rachel Edwards Stuart investigates the molecular make up of flavours for Heston Blumenthal
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fat Duck 1995 establishments in England Restaurants in Berkshire Michelin Guide starred restaurants in the United Kingdom Buildings and structures in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Bray, Berkshire Molecular gastronomy Restaurants established in 1995 Former pubs in England