Biography-writing is always an eye-opening, perception-confounding experience. Never have I found this to be more true than in my research for my new book about masterchef Heston Blumenthal.
I’d always admired him but my respect grew the longer I worked on the book. He is a man of wonderful contrasts and makes for a joyful, fascinating subject to study.
His food rarely comes cheap: a meal at The Fat Duck is going to set you back comfortably in excess of £100 per person and will cost you several months of waiting time. However, his tasting menu experience is not aimed exclusively, or even primarily, at those for whom such a hefty bill would be a commonplace experience. The theatre and multi-sensory joy of the Blumenthal experience – iPods playing the sounds of the sea, cakes having ‘orgasms’ on the plate, miniature fireworks going off, sprays to add complimentary scents etc – would most likely be lost on such souls. No, Blumenthal’s favourite customers are those who have saved up for a really special treat and want to savour every moment, every mouthful.
He understands these people because throughout his twenties he was one of them – only obsessively so. Indeed, in his work he frequently harks back even further – to the smells, tastes and experiences of his childhood. These include ice-creams in west London, picnics in Windsor Great Park, Christmas lunches and so much more. No wonder he is so happy in his work and says he can count on the fingers of one hand how many days he has not wanted to go to work. Not that he has always been such a content soul. Bluemnthal has past issues with anger that took him to the brink of tragedy on more than one terrifying occasion. He was a very angry young man before he accepted treatment and before he hit the bigtime, when the years of hard work and sacrifices finally paid off.
Even given the riches his success have earned him and the famous intricacy of his work, Blumenthal’s feet remain on the ground. When he received his OBE he said that all he does is chop a few onions. Away from work, he often eats a curry takeaway of a Monday evening, and has been spotted at the Pizza Express restaurants and even the kebab vans of the Royal county. That’s why he was such a perfect choice for the Channel 4 Big Chef Takes On Little Chef reality series: he understands the world of both the big chef and the Little Chef.
The classy man with the common touch, he truly represents the best of Berkshire.
I’ve written biographies of other personalities including Simon Cowell and Amy Winehouse, but (aside from a brief stay in Windsor for the young Cowell) this was the first time I’ve been lucky enough to write about a man who lives and works so near me. (The Fat Duck is a 15 minute drive from my house, and I’ll let any of you treat me to a lunch at the Hinds Head anytime. When can you make it?)
All of us in Berkshire should be pleased and proud to have Heston in our midst. Where he fits in among the crowded arena of celebrity chefs can best be seen by what each would do were we to hand them a single egg. Delia Smith would teach us how to boil it, Ainsley Harriott would tell it an annoying joke, Jamie Oliver would take the egg onto his high-horse with him and Gordon Ramsay would scream at it: “Where the f**k are your balls?!” Blumenthal, meanwhile, quietly showed us how to use liquid nitrogen to create egg and bacon ice cream. As you do: he is the Willy Wonka of the masterchef world.
As such, he stands as part of a noticeable and welcome trend. From the increase in bespectacled, intellectual football managers, to the hero status of the team at Google and the millions earned by the creators of Facebook, the geeks are finally inheriting the earth. So it’s no wonder that it is the experimental, bright and boyish man from Berkshire who is cooking up a storm. Long may he reign.
by Chas Newkey-Burden
Chas Newkey-Burden lives and works in Datchet, in Berkshire. He is a prolific writer who has written several top-selling biographies, including Simon Cowell, Michael Jackson and Amy Winehouse. His work has been translated into nine languages. He is also the co-author – with Julie Burchill – of Not In My Name: A Compendium Of Modern Hypocrisy.
Chas has written, for the first time, the full inspirational story of the self-taught genius, Heston Blumenthal. This biography traces his journey from a life-changing childhood holiday in France, through to his brief apprenticeship in Raymond Blanc’s restaurant where he stood up to a kitchen bully. It then follows him as – constantly pushing the boundaries of his work – he reached the top of his profession and received an OBE from the Queen. His book, Heston Blumenthal: The Biography Of The World’s Most Brilliant Master Chef by Chas Newkey-Burden, is out now (£17.99, John Blake).
Chas Newkey-Burden blogs at http://www.oyvagoy.com
- Heston Blumenthal was happy to lend his support to the first ever Marlow Food Festival, on Sunday 20th September 2009, held at the Crowne Plaza, Marlow.
at The Marlow Food Festival
He is a small, neat man, with intense eyes who asks more questions when you meet him than he allows you to ask him. However, he did field an hour long Q&A session where he talked about how he got interested in cooking down the road from where Van Gogh cut his ear off. “The smell of the Lavender, the sound of the crickets, wine lists out of Cecil B DeMille movies, I fell down the hole into the magic wonderland”
This was in the context of growing up in London in the 70′s, “When there was only one type of Pasta and you bought olive oil from the chemist. You poured it in your ears as a medicinal aid.”
The first dish he ever made (before going to France) was bacon and eggs. The first paid job he ever had was at the Manoir in 1985, and then he took on The Fat Duck. He claims “that level of naivety was the only reason I got through the first seven years.” He tells wonderful stories with charm and humour about his early years here in Bray, when his ambition was to have a bistro. He thought he had come to a quaint, sleepy hollow and on the first day he he was given a list of “undesirables” he needed to watch out for.
He remembers not exactly being welcomed with open arms himself, he was clearing out the place when “An eighty-something old biddy with a headscarf came up, and I thought what a lovely chance to bond with the community. She turned to me, waved her stick at me, and said ‘this place has had three owners in five years, we are going to close you’.”
He even blew up the gas oven in the early days, “there was just myself and a washer-upper. One day I put the gas and and got distracted for a minute, when I came to light the stove. It exploded and next thing I knew I was sitting on the counter.” He burnt his hair down to his scalp, and had to give instructions to the washer-upper as to how to cook the meals “with a bag of frozen peas on each side of my head.”
He was so tired he used to fall asleep in the kitchen, and one day he tried to light his blow torch with the hot running tap, “I knew the cold tap wouldn’t help” he says.
Those days are far behind him now,and he is settled in our leafy borough. When asked about the future, Heston Blumenthal says he sees restaurants as theatre, “Historically restaurants are there to satisfy hunger, I see lighting, smell, sound. The impact of sound is really emotional”. He has already raised the curtain on the third act to redefine the stage of cuisine to thrill audiences around the world.
And the festival was similarly a showcase of local talent, there was a simply incredible chocolate tasting and masterclass with renowned chocolatier, Damian Allsop from Marlow Bottom (who Beat will be doing a feature on in the coming months). His unique water-based ganache gastronomic ‘cH2Ocolate’ quite literally has your jaw dropping open aghast at its purer intense flavour. Other highlights of the Marlow Food Festival included Jo Pratt, a regular face on the popular cooking show Market Kitchen, she was in attendance with her new book In the Mood for Entertaining, full of the delicious no-fuss recipes. “ComeandCook” owner Dorn Kipping conducted a “hands-on” children’s cookery session. Other masterclasses were given by local chefs, including Michael Macdonald of Vanilla Pod, Miles Warren of Aubergine at The Complete Angler, and James Penlington owner of The Royal Oak, Bovingdon. It provided a taster menu of it’s own, the Masterclasses displayed a passion for creativity and innovation that made it feel like a gastronomic Cirque du Soleil.
by Melanie Gow
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