News

Blumenthal tackles BA in-flight food

17 Jan 2011 by BusinessTraveller

Heston Blumenthal has set his sights on transforming BA’s in-flight food production as part of a new Channel 4 show, as the Michelin-starred chef gears up to open his first London restaurant later this month.

Blumenthal has tackled the “unique dilemmas” posed by organisations including British Airways, the NHS, the Royal Navy (in the form of food production on board a submarine), and the Cineworld cinema chain, for a Channel 4 series entitled Michelin Impossible which is due to air next month.

According to Channel 4 “Heston conducts outrageous and bizarre experiments in his quest to find solutions where other chefs have failed”, with staff “flabbergasted by his seemingly impossible ambitions”.

Talking at a press event to publicise the opening of his first London restaurant at the end of this month, Blumenthal was tight lipped on exactly what food was served to BA customers, but confirmed that he flew on flights to destinations including New York and Dubai, with economy and business class passengers benefiting from the chef’s expertise.

In 2008 Blumenthal attempted to transform the Popham branch of Little Chef's roadside restaurant offering. The chain has since opened two further restaurants using the "Heston style new concept", in York and West Kettering - for more information visit little-chef.co.uk/heston.

Meanwhile Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, located within the luxury Knightsbridge hotel Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, is set to open on January 31. Described by Blumenthal as a “refined brasserie”, the restaurant will serve “simple modern dishes, inspired by our historic gastronomic past and celebrating the very best of British produce”.

Signature dishes will include the Meatfruit (see online news October 26, 2010), a starter taking the appearance of a citrus fruit, but which is in fact chicken liver parfait with a mandarin gel exterior. Head chef Ashley Palmer-Watts (group executive chef at Blumenthal’s Fat Duck for eleven years) said that this dish alone had a three-day production process.

Other modern interpretations of historical dishes include Rice and Flesh, Slow Cooked Beef Royal and Hay Smoked Mackerel with a Lemon Salad. The restaurant will feature a glass-walled open kitchen, and will serve lunch and dinner, with an afternoon tea menu being added later this year.

Reservations for Dinner by Heston Blumenthal are now open at dinnerbyheston.com. For more information on the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park visit mandarinoriental.com, and for a review of the hotel’s recently opened Bar Boulud restaurant by French chef Daniel Boulud, click here.

Report by Mark Caswell

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