First I must declare my hand, I am a huge Heston fan. His passion, his enquiring mind, his unique take on food, the way he combines art with science and some magic to create the most extraordinary dishes. All this and the man is self-taught. I've got the books, I love all his TV series and I did the pilgrimage to the one Little Chef that they 'Hestonised' - what a short sighted decision not to change the whole lot of them, and now where are you Little Chef, eh, eh?
I ate at The Fat Duck many years ago and it remains the most memorable meal I've ever had. It was an experience that tantalised every sense, I loved the spritzing of essences over our heads before one course, the iPods for the soundtrack to another course and the dry ice. Now I realise that one woman's dry ice is another's gimmick but I thought the meal was anything but gimmicky, it was stunning and beautifully presented. With each mouthful I could appreciate the work that had clearly gone into distilling the essence of various flavours. You get the picture, I think the man pretty much walks on culinary water.
Thus it was with joy in my heart that I took my dear friend B to Heston's newest enterprise 'Dinner' at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Hyde Park, London. The dining room of 'Dinner' is charming and quirky as I expected. Antique jelly moulds for light fittings, a gentle glow from all the wood, lots of light, funky herringbone and velvet banquettes and a view out into Hyde Park. The staff were engaging and efficient. They knew their stuff, we had enthusiastic conversations with them and they looked the cat's pyjamas in their grey waistcoats and petrol blue ties.The theme of Dinner is that the dishes all have a provenience in British culinary history. For her starter B chose the now famous Meat Fruit (c.1500), this arrived and looked to all intents and purposes like a perfect mandarin, even down to the slightly puckled skin, but of course it was actually a mousse-like chicken
parfait in disguise.
I had Salamugundy (c.1720) which was chicken oysters (often called Chef's perks), salsify, marrow bone and horseradish cream and blooming delicious it was too.
For our main courses we had Cod in Cider with chard and fired mussels (me) and Hereford Ribeye with mushroom ketchup, red wine juice and triple cooked chips (B). All perfectly fabulous and without doubt the best, and I mean the BEST chips ever. The mushroom ketchup was a typical Heston, it was more mushroomy than the most mushroomy thing you've ever tasted, sweet, umami, velvet soft and unctuous - genius on roller skates. We finished with Chocolate Bar with passion fruit jam and ginger ice cream (like the world's poshest jaffa cake complete with gold leaf) and brown bread ice cream with salted butter caramel (that was like a mousse or a whip or a parfait or some alchemy that made it into a light, creamy, airy confection) and malted yeast syrup.
Congratulations go to Ashley Palmer-Watts who is head chef at Dinner and has already been recognised with a Michelin star for 2012, more surely are on the way.OK if you go a la carte it's not cheap but prices aren't that much more than much more average restaurants and astonishingly they do a set menu of three courses for £32 which is tremendous value. It was packed on a Monday lunchtime in January so the word is out. Find a reason or better still, have no reason at all other than treating your senses and go to Dinner.