The Fat Duck

The Fat Duck

Good news for all you British foodies, who have laboured under the delusion that British cuisine and cooking was not highly rated by the rest of the world.

Heston Blumenthal's restaurant, The Fat Duck in Bray Berkshire, has been crowned the best in the world by a panel of 600 international chefs and critics.

Blumenthal's award winning dishes include, smoked bacon and egg ice cream and green tea and lime mousse dipped in liquid nitrogen.

The Fat Duck, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this year, also won the Best in Europe accolade.

Blumenthal reportedly said:

"There are so many very good chefs in the world I cannot believe my name is even in the running for the top. It is fantastic for Britain, though this is all down to the Roux brothers, who first put England on the gastronomic map..".

Adding:

"I like to experiment with different tastes and flavours of sweet and savoury and show they have no boundaries. People expect ice-cream to be sweet, but the Victorians ate it savoury. Cucumber ice, for example, with fresh cucumber was common as a starter or deappetiser in a meal. Crab ice-cream was also popular and I have a recipe dated 1800 for parmesan ice-cream,"..

Quote:

"The award is the culmination of what has been happening to cooking in Britain since the mid-1990s and makes it now the best place to eat, especially in London and just outside. You can still get appalling food in restaurants outside London. I just don?t think there is a good food culture here as there is in France and Italy. But food trends trickle down from restaurants and some time that will trickle down to people?s own kitchens."