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The Fat Duck

Address:	1 High Street, Bray Berks SL6 2AQ
Tel	01628 580333
Website:	Visit The Fat Duck website
Price: £113.00	Wine: £30.00	Champagne: £47.00
Opening Hours:	Tue-Sat 12N-2pm 7-9.30pm (Fri-Sat 10pm) Sun 12N-3pm

Square Meal review of The Fat Duck:

For a three-Michelin-starred restaurant, The Fat Duck is an unassuming-looking place & its discreet entrance & simply furnished dining room give no hint of the dazzling nature of the cooking. Chef-proprietor Heston Blumenthal is the UK’s most famous practitioner of molecular gastronomy (though he prefers simply to call it ‘a scientific approach’) & his tasting menu is well worth its £115 price tag for the rollercoaster ride of sensation it delivers. Every one of the 18 dishes is fascinating, from the first palate-cleansing mouthful of nitro-poached green tea & lime mousse to the last bite of a wafer-thin carrot & orange lollipop. In between, there are extraordinary flavour combinations such as grain mustard ice-cream with red cabbage gazpacho, sardine on toast sorbet & a new dish that sets out to evoke the essence of autumn: diners are asked to place a tiny, oak-flavoured film on the tongue & to alternate between mouthfuls of truffle & oak-buttered toast & parfait of foie gras & matsutake (pine mushroom) puree: utterly delicious. It may all sound daunting but helpful staff explain everything & time the gaps between dishes to perfection. What’s more, if you don’t fancy the idea of snail porridge, a classically inspired a la carte menu offers the likes of ballotine of foie gras & sole Veronique. On the drinks front, wine matches are suggested for each course or there’s an extensive global list that includes big hitters as well as lesser-known labels. The Fat Duck has that rare combination of serving superb food in a light-hearted way &, as such, is a most deserving winner of the 2006 BMW Square Meal Restaurant of the Year award.

Chef: Heston Blumenthal

One of only a trio of three-Michelin starred chefs operating in the country at present, Heston Blumenthal’s rise to the top is even more remarkable considering that, bar a few weeks’ of work experience, he is entirely self taught. Born in London in 1966, he discovered a passion for food while on a family holiday in France. He opened The Fat Duck in Bray in 1995, originally serving classical French dishes, but slowly developing the scientific approach to cooking for which he is now famous. His individualism paid off with the award of a third Michelin star in 2004. In that year he also bought the Hind’s Head pub in Bray, where he showcases traditional British food to great acclaim. The past 18 months have seen him pick up an OBE for services to the hospitality industry & star in his own quirky television series, In Search of Perfection.