Memories of the Fat Duck
It used to be quite easy to get a table at the Fat Duck. You basically rang up on a Friday afternoon to sort out a table for Saturday lunch. It was extremely convenient for anyone living in west London, as they were one of the few places that did a cheapo set lunch on the Saturday (twenty-something quid - plus a bit for coffee).
They had the snail porridge on at the time - it actually came as a starter on the cheapo set. Actually it wasn't all that scary - it was basically a risotto made using oats instead of rice, flavoured with the classic snails-garlic-parsley combination. For the main course I liked the duck "petit-sale" - a braised duck leg made to look like a mini lamb leg, swaddled in a lovely shiny sauce. Desserts were always quite fun - although they kept on doing a carrot-salt-toffee thing which I never quite saw the point of (I've had an aversion to salt caramel since a visiting uncle left us with a ginormous box of See's Salt Water Taffy many years ago).
The advice I used to give any friends going was avoid the tasting menu, because if you went on the a la carte you got about half a dozen inter-course bits anyway. For example you got the mustard ice-cream on a bed of red cabbage, and the green-tea snifter (originally a foam in a glass, later a nitro-blasted quenelle). Leave the tasting menu for tourists, the a la carte had plenty good. I vividly remember tiny cubes of jelly accompanying the pigeon, which went off like firecrackers on the tongue, and the intensely flavoured crab biscuit which was nothing like what I'd expected - a sort of shimmering crab glass. I always had my eye on the lasagne of langoustine and pigs trotter, but I don't think I ever tried it. The six pounds fifty supplement was too rich for us.
Then of course he got the third star and it all went crazy. We didn't go back for a long time - if only because it became such a faff to book, plus we moved away from West London. When we did finally try again, for my brother's birthday, the place had changed. The room seemed darker and and was packed to the rafters. The menu had transmogrified into a giant leather-bound slab. Against our better judgement we went for the tasting menu (after all, it was a "destination restaurant" now). But when mum asked to sub out the snail porridge (she'd never really liked it on past visits) the waiter gave a condescending smirk as if she was a scaredy tourist. It felt more like a theme park ride than a restaurant.
Then they had a power cut right after the nitro-green tea mousse, and all the customers had to be sent home. I think we ended up getting supper from a Chinese takeaway in Ickenham.
Heston's Golden Years
It's always tempting to look back with rose-tinted spectacles. Especially when you had somewhere like the Fat Duck pretty much on your doorstep (okay, a short hop via the M40/M25/M4). But I do think some of Heston's finest food writing also dates from those early years. From 2001 until 2003 - the era when he won his third star - he wrote a regular column in the Guardian, full of recipes and insights. After the *** was awarded in 2004, it was scaled down to a recipe-less magazine column before finally petering out in 2005 when he jumped ship to The Times (if I recall, he took umbrage with the Grauniad for reporting on his dodgy health and safety inspection, or suchlike).
I was never quite as impressed when he was writing for The Times. At the time they had a remarkable all-star roster of food writers (including Gordon Ramsay in his pomp), which seemed to spend the whole time giving inane recipes for homebakes. I blame slack ghost-writing.
But the early Guardian columns were quite something else. You can see iconic recipes like that Caviar and White Chocolate Buttons and the Bacon and Egg Ice-Cream being born before your eyes. Sous-vide, low-temperature cooking and popping candy are passe now, but at the time it seemed like cooking from Mars. The classics I remember from the Duck are all there - the Petit-Sale of Duck (that brine is also a great alternative to the traditional salt-rub for duck confit), the pigeon, the green-tea-lime sour (pre-nitro version). Just as White Heat captures Marco Pierre White in his pomp, this is Heston at the bleeding edge.
And as far as I know, this stuff never made it into print, at least not in its original form. When Heston did pour his formidable talents on his book, it was the quixotic Family Food, a volume about food for kids that presumably suited his stage of life but left the rest of the hard-core fans panting for something more. Then he got diverted into TV with a series of tie-in volumes that had lots of hard science, but little soul. Yes the Big Fat Duck Book did finally land in 2008, but that felt more like a tombstone than a book. For sure it's worth getting, and has all the greatest hits. But they are prettified, refined version. Not the raw originals.
But the good thing is, all those Guardian columns are still out there on the website. You just have to find them.
Introducing Heston's Secret Cookbook
I like to think of them as Heston's Secret Cookbook - the volume he never wrote detailing what he saw at the revolution. So what I've done here is a sort of culinary archaeology. I've collected links to all the articles below, with a brief note about what he discusses in each article, and what recipes are included. This is the Table of Contents
I've also taken the recipes, and grouped them into a more conventional cookbook format, each with a link going to the relevant article. As he often included two or three recipes in each article, many links are duplicated. But it lets you see when this might have looked like, if he'd adopted a more conventional approach. This is the Recipe Index at the end of the post.
So feel free to browse, and cast your mind back to a more innocent time. When savoury ice-creams were shocking, rather than something you find in the supermarket. And foams were fun.
Enjoy.
Heston's Secret Cookbook - Table of Contents
| Article | Theme (Date) | Recipe |
|---|---|---|
| The appliance of science | Introduction to food science (10-Nov-01) | Green Tea and Lime Sour |
| Confit salmon with lentils | ||
| Herve This's chocolate Chantilly | ||
| Bean there, done that | Not cooking vegetables in salted water (17-Nov-01) | Haricots verts a la Crème |
| Salad of haricots | ||
| Runner beans with cucumber | ||
| Love me tender | Low temp meat cooking (24-Nov-01) | Saddle of lamb |
| Gigot a sept heures | ||
| Braised shoulder of lamb | ||
| The proof of the pudding… | Tenderising with pineapple (08-Dec-01) | Roast pineapple |
| Pineapple and chilli jelly | ||
| Crab Syrup | ||
| Let the festivities commence | Heston's Christmas meal (15-Dec-01) | Pot-roast pork |
| Pears poached in red wine | ||
| Where's the sense in that? | Playing with preconceptions about food (22-Dec-01) | Spice mix for chicken or fish |
| Parsnip cereal with parsnip milk | ||
| Beetroot jellies | ||
| A whole new bowl game | Stocks and soups (05-Jan-02) | Butternut squash soup |
| Lentil soup | ||
| Clear chicken soup | ||
| Absorbing experience | Risotto (12-Jan-02) | Basic risotto |
| Cauliflower risotto | ||
| Pea risotto | ||
| Soak it and see | Brining meat (19-Jan-02) | Petit sale of duck |
| Two preparations for fish | ||
| Butter them up | Potatoes (02-Feb-02) | Basic potato recipe |
| Good old-fashioned mash | ||
| Crushed potatoes | ||
| Pommes puree | ||
| Sunday best | Perfect Sunday lunch (09-Feb-02) | Roast chicken |
| Roast potatoes | ||
| Buttered cabbage | ||
| Cut and dried | Pasta (16-Feb-02) | Spaghetti carbonara |
| Gratin of macaroni | ||
| Spaghettini with clams | ||
| The heat is off | Low temperature roasting (02-Mar-02) | Roast rib of beef |
| A sauce for the roast | ||
| Beef juices | ||
| The light fantastic | Desserts with Herve This (09-Mar-02) | Chocolate fondant |
| Rice tuile | ||
| Avocado rice | ||
| Mind over matter | Perception of taste vs. flavour (16-Mar-02) | Strawberry soup |
| Fine and dandy | Mackerel (27-Apr-02) | Rilettes of macherel |
| Escabeche of mackerel | ||
| Red peppers marinated with anchovies | ||
| Weird but wonderful | Flavour matching (04-May-02) | Caviar and white chocolate discs |
| Beetroot and green peppercorn jelly | ||
| Mango puree | ||
| Cream cracker | Ice cream (11-May-02) | Vanilla ice cream |
| Mrs Marshall's almond cornets | ||
| Mrs Marshalls' apple ice cream | ||
| Top tips | Asparagus (25-May-02) | Pot-roast asparagus |
| Parmesan ice cream | ||
| Asparagus soup | ||
| A burst of flavour | Flavour encapsulation (01-Jun-02) | Bacon and egg ice cream |
| Caremlised brioche | ||
| Tomato and red pepper 'jam' | ||
| Tea jelly | ||
| Drink and thrive | Cooking with alcohol (08-Jun-02) | Red wine sauce for fish |
| Coq au vin | ||
| Good fry day | Egg & chips (22-Jun-02) | Chips |
| Fried egg | ||
| Ahead of the game | Food technology research (29-Jun-02) | Blue cheese chantilly |
| Paint the town red | Tomatoes (06-Jul-02) | Tomato fondue |
| Ratatouille | ||
| My heart belongs to umami | Umami (13-Jul-02) | Marinted squid with Parmesan |
| Poached sea bream with konbu borth | ||
| Salad of green beans and tomatoes | ||
| Bursting with pleasure | Flavour encapsulation (again) (20-Jul-02) | Butternut squash and red pepper soup |
| Vanilla ice cream with encapsulated flavour bursts | ||
| Keep a lid on it | Cooking in a cocotte dish (24-Aug-02) | Cocotte of duckling and chicory |
| Cocotte of potatoes and peas | ||
| Cocotte of cod | ||
| Lord of the rings | Onions (31-Aug-02) | Onion puree |
| Maliks onion bhajee | ||
| Dried onion slices | ||
| The nutty professor | Pistachios (07-Sep-02) | Pistachio ice cream |
| Pistachio scrambled egg | ||
| Sugared pistachios | ||
| You won't know till you try… | Food for kids (28-Sep-02) | Cream of tomato soup |
| Pot-roast cod | ||
| Couscous salad | ||
| Mission possible | Vegetables for kids (05-Oct-02) | Braised lettucs |
| Glazed carrots | ||
| Gratin of potatoes | ||
| Keep them sweet | Desserts for kids (19-Oct-02) | Jacks' raspberry crunch |
| Nectarines poached with star anise and rosemary | ||
| Great shakes | Jelly (26-Oct-02) | Mead and sichuan peppercorn jelly |
| Beetroot and orange jelly | ||
| Kir Royale jelly | ||
| Under cover | Braising (02-Nov-02) | Rognonnade of veal |
| Chicken with vinegar | ||
| Braised turnips | ||
| Happy ever afters | British desserts (09-Nov-02) | Vanilla junket |
| Rice pudding | ||
| Basil blancmanger | ||
| A flash in the pan | Liver (30-Nov-02) | Sauteed calve's liver with cream of bacon sauce |
| Parfait of chicken livers | ||
| Black olive puree with red mullet liver | ||
| Take your time | Stewing meat (07-Dec-02) | Beef juice |
| Chicken broth | ||
| Ox cheek (or oxtail) stew | ||
| It's a cracker | Christmas recipes (14-Dec-02) | Mince pie ice cream |
| Hazelnut red wine drink | ||
| A Christmas version of Mrs Blumenthal's cheesecake | ||
| Accidentally on purpose | Idea generation (04-Jan-03) | Carrot toffee |
| Butternut ice cream | ||
| Dried carrot | ||
| Shuck it and see | Recipes from Sydney (11-Jan-03) | Liam Tomlin's freshly shucked oysters with Vietnamese dressing |
| Tetsua Wakuda's slow roasted rack of lamb with miso and blue cheese | ||
| Neil Perry's confit of green-lip abalone with fine noodles, mushroom, soy and truffle oil | ||
| Practice makes perfect | Restaurant-level cooking (18-Jan-03) | Poached Anjou pigeon breast, a pastilla of its leg with cherries, pistachio, cocoa and quatre epices |
| Mind over matter | Food memory (01-Feb-03) | Crab ice cream |
| Vanilla-pine sherbert dib-dab | ||
| Sardines on toast ice cream | ||
| Memory is everything? | Food memory (again) (08-Feb-03) | Crushed meringue and pistachio with soya sauce mayonnaise |
| Toothpaste and mouthwash | ||
| Celeriac soup, curried marshmallow, bacon | ||
| Hang on in there | Hanging meat (15-Feb-03) | Steak with sauce moelle |
| Potatoes sauteed from raw | ||
| Golden Wonder | Lemon tart (01-Mar-03) | Lemon tart with butter-based filling 1 |
| Lemon tart with butter-based filling 2 | ||
| Custard-based lemon tart | ||
| Flour power | Pastry (08-Mar-03) | Shortbread pastry |
| Chocolate shortbread | ||
| Make ends meat | Spag bol (15-Mar-03) | Bolognese sauce, or ragu |
| Wilted baby spinach with mortadella | ||
| Mortadella chilli oil | ||
| Gaga for Aga | Aga cooking (29-Mar-03) | Brine |
| Shoulder of pork | ||
| Pot-roast pork | ||
| It's a choux in | Choux pastry (05-Apr-03) | Profiteroles |
| Vanilla ice cream | ||
| Chocolate sauce | ||
| It's crunch time! | Spring vegetables (12-Apr-03) | Charlotte of vegetables |
| Tomato fondue | ||
| Olive puree | ||
| The secret ingredient | Popping candy (24-May-03) | Popping candy base |
| Chocolate mousse | ||
| Chocolate glaze | ||
| Heston Blumenthal easy | Simple cooking (31-May-03) | Toasted cheese |
| Marinated peppers with anchovies | ||
| Confit tomatoes | ||
| No messing | Eton mess (28-Jun-03) | Eton mess |
| Meringue | ||
| Strawberry juice | ||
| Mini marvels | Lentils (05-Jul-03) | Braised lentils |
| Lentil soup | ||
| Lentil tuiles | ||
| Gee Whisk | Emulsions (12-Jul-03) | Mayonnaise |
| Custard | ||
| Bearnaise sauce | ||
| It takes all sorts | Liquorice (09-Aug-03) | Liquorice made for treacle |
| Liquorice jelly | ||
| Liquorice ice cream | ||
| The acid test | Acidity and fruit (16-Aug-03) | Balsamic mousse |
| Raspberry juice | ||
| Raspberry jelly | ||
| If the cap fits | Mushrooms (13-Sep-03) | Duxelle |
| Bouillon de champignons de printemps comme un cappuccino | ||
| Dried mushrooms | ||
| Taste not, want not | Flavour combinations (again) (20-Sep-03) | Cauliflower puree |
| Braized shoulder of lamb | ||
| Poached peaches with pistachio and almonds | ||
| Fire away | Blowtorching food (27-Sep-03) | Chicken in salt crust with hay |
| Jasmine crème brulee | ||
| Magic dust | Quartre-epices (11-Oct-03) | Quartre-epices |
| Ballotine of foie grast with quatre-epices | ||
| Jellied beef | ||
| We have blast off | Microwaves (18-Oct-03) | Nicholas Kurti's stuffed profiteroles |
| Braised' shallots | ||
| Game on | Game (26-Oct-03) | Loin of venison |
| Sauce poivrade | ||
| Fried muscat grapes | ||
| The twist in the tail | Stewing cheap cuts (15-Nov-03) | Oxtail stew |
| Pickled daikon | ||
| Parsnip puree | ||
| The great all-rounder | Couscous (22-Nov-03) | Couscous with hazelnut and rosemary |
| Couscous-c'est moi au pain perdu | ||
| Sweet couscous | ||
| Chill out | Winter vegetables (06-Dec-03) | Pumpkin risotto |
| Mushroom tart | ||
| Osso bucco of carrots | ||
| Golden globe | Oranges (13-Dec-03) | Carrots glazed with orange and cumin |
| Terrine of blood oranges | ||
| Orange bavarois | ||
| Net gains | Fish (20-Dec-03) | Macherel tart |
| Escabeche of red mullet |
Heston's Secret Cookbook - Recipe Index
How it works: Links take you through to the full article containing the featured recipe. Note that components which go together to form a final dish may be split between categories - but obviously the source link will have them all together. If a name comes up twice its because he used the same dish in different articles (although actually the recipes themselves are often subtly different).
Meat, Fish and Fowl
Meat
- Gigot a sept heures
- Braised shoulder of lamb
- Braised shoulder of lamb
- Saddle of lamb
- Tetsua Wakuda's slow roasted rack of lamb with miso and blue cheese
- Pot-roast pork
- Pot-roast pork
- Shoulder of pork
- Jellied beef
- Ox cheek (or oxtail) stew
- Roast rib of beef
- Steak with sauce moelle
- Oxtail stew
- Rognonnade of veal
- Sauteed calve's liver with cream of bacon sauce
- Loin of venison
Poultry
- Chicken in salt crust with hay
- Chicken with vinegar
- Coq au vin
- Parfait of chicken livers
- Roast chicken
- Cocotte of duckling and chicory
- Petit sale of duck
- Ballotine of foie gras with quatre-epices
- Poached Anjou pigeon breast, a pastilla of its leg with cherries, pistachio, cocoa and quatre epices
Seafood
- Neil Perry's confit of green-lip abalone with fine noodles, mushroom, soy and truffle oil
- Red peppers marinated with anchovies
- Marinated peppers with anchovies
- Cocotte of cod
- Pot-roast cod
- Macherel tart
- Escabeche of mackerel
- Rilettes of macherel
- Liam Tomlin's freshly shucked oysters with Vietnamese dressing
- Escabeche of red mullet
- Poached sea bream with konbu borth
- Marinated squid with Parmesan
- Sardines on toast ice cream
- Confit salmon with lentils
- Two preparations for fish
Vegetables
Vegetables
- Pot-roast asparagus
- Haricots verts a la Crème
- Runner beans with cucumber
- Salad of green beans and tomatoes
- Salad of haricots
- Buttered cabbage
- Carrots glazed with orange and cumin
- Glazed carrots
- Osso bucco of carrots
- Cauliflower puree
- Pickled daikon
- Fried muscat grapes
- Braised lentils
- Lentil soup
- Lentil tuiles
- Braised lettuces
- Dried mushrooms
- Duxelle
- Mushroom tart
- Dried onion slices
- Maliks onion bhajee
- Onion puree
- Parsnip puree
- 'Braised' shallots
- Wilted baby spinach with mortadella
- Butternut squash and red pepper soup
- Confit tomatoes
- Tomato fondue
- Braised turnips
- Charlotte of vegetables
- Ratatouille
Potatoes
- Basic potato recipe
- Chips
- Cocotte of potatoes and peas
- Crushed potatoes
- Good old-fashioned mash
- Gratin of potatoes
- Pommes puree
- Potatoes sauteed from raw
- Roast potatoes
Soup, Pasta, Risotto and Eggs
Soup
- Asparagus soup
- Bouillon de champignons de printemps comme un cappuccino
- Butternut squash soup
- Celeriac soup, curried marshmallow, bacon
- Chicken broth
- Clear chicken soup
- Cream of tomato soup
- Lentil soup
Risotto, Pasta and couscous
- Basic risotto
- Cauliflower risotto
- Pea risotto
- Pumpkin risotto
- Gratin of macaroni
- Spaghetti carbonara
- Spaghettini with clams
- Couscous-c'est moi au pain perdu
- Couscous salad
- Couscous with hazelnut and rosemary
Eggs, cheese and savoury ices
- Bacon and egg ice cream
- Crab ice cream
- Fried egg
- Parmesan ice cream
- Pistachio scrambled egg
- Toasted cheese
Desserts, Jellies and Ice-Creams
Desserts
- Mrs Marshall's almond cornets
- Avocado rice
- Basil blancmanger
- Caremlised brioche
- Carrot toffee
- Dried carrot
- A Christmas version of Mrs Blumenthal's cheesecake
- Caviar and white chocolate discs
- Chocolate fondant
- Chocolate mousse
- Herve This's chocolate Chantilly
- Nicholas Kurti's stuffed profiteroles
- Profiteroles
- Sweet couscous
- Meringue
- Custard-based lemon tart
- Lemon tart with butter-based filling 1
- Lemon tart with butter-based filling 2
- Liquorice ice cream
- Liquorice jelly
- Mince pie ice cream
- Toothpaste and mouthwash
- Nectarines poached with star anise and rosemary
- Orange bavarois
- Terrine of blood oranges
- Parsnip cereal with parsnip milk
- Poached peaches with pistachio and almonds
- Pears poached in red wine
- Roast pineapple
- Crushed meringue and pistachio with soya sauce mayonnaise
- Sugared pistachios
- Popping candy base
- Jacks' raspberry crunch
- Raspberry jelly
- Rice pudding
- Rice tuile
- Eton mess
- Strawberry soup
- Jasmine crème brulee
- Vanilla junket
- Vanilla-pine sherbert dib-dab
- Balsamic mousse
Ices
- Butternut ice cream
- Mrs Marshalls' apple ice cream
- Pistachio ice cream
- Vanilla ice cream
- Vanilla ice cream
- Vanilla ice cream with encapsulated flavour bursts
Jellies
- Beetroot and green peppercorn jelly
- Beetroot and orange jelly
- Beetroot jellies
- Kir Royale jelly
- Mead and sichuan peppercorn jelly
- Pineapple and chilli jelly
- Tea jelly
Sauces, Pastry and Drinks
Sauces (Savoury)
- A sauce for the roast
- Bearnaise sauce
- Beef juice
- Beef juices
- Black olive puree with red mullet liver
- Blue cheese chantilly
- Bolognese sauce, or ragu
- Brine
- Crab Syrup
- Mayonnaise
- Mortadella chilli oil
- Olive puree
- Quartre-epices
- Red wine sauce for fish
- Sauce poivrade
- Spice mix for chicken or fish
- Tomato fondue
Pastry
Sauces (Sweet)
- Chocolate glaze
- Chocolate sauce
- Custard
- Liquorice made for treacle
- Mango puree
- Raspberry juice
- Strawberry juice
- Tomato and red pepper 'jam'
Drinks and foams
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