the UK Restaurant and Hotel Zine
the UK Restaurant and Hotel Zine
Update July 2005:Since this review was written, Heston has gone on to collect more and more Michelin Stars so that Bray is now one of the starriest places in Europe! Meanwhile, some of Heston's creations have become yet more individual - some would say mad, others eccentric. But we are told by readers that our review still holds true in its essentials, so please read on...
It's a brave young man who takes on the famous Roux Brothers on their own
doorstep, so to speak. Bray is a very pretty riverside village not far
from Maidenhead. This is the heart of Thames Valley restaurant country,
where L'Ortolan, Le Manoir, Cliveden and the Roux brothers' Waterside Inn
have eight Michelin stars between them. The Fat Duck was opened in 1985 by
Heston Blumenthal, a genunine enthusiast with a great deal of
energy and professional skill. The Fat Duck was originally an old inn, and it has been
done up in modern rustic style with contemporary wrought iron furniture that is
set off by the old stone floors and exposed beams. There's an
impressive hand beaten copper bar, posh Riedel glasses to show off a great
collection of wines and wicked looking hunting knives for meat dishes.
Dine Online has had quite a few emails from readers saying how much they had enjoyed The Fat Duck. Some of them compared it very favourably with the nearby Waterside, both in terms of cuisine and also of price. So we drove out for lunch on a pleasant August summer's day. There's a special lunch menu, two courses for £17.50, three for £22.50. One dish from each of the three courses comes from the main a la carte menu which is available both at lunch and at dinner.
Heston is a wine fanatic as well as a foodie and, amongst other things, he has a terrific selection of fine Sherry wines. We started with a cold, crisp, smokey Fino Innocente from Valdespino at £3.00 for a generous glass. A lovely amuse soon arrived - a cold capuccino soup of berlotti beans with fennel. The menu is very imaginative and making a choice is difficult. A starter of Lasagne of lobster, pig's trotter and truffles (£17.00) is one of Heston's signature dishes and is justifiably popular. A Velouté of celeriac is given substance by the addition of some tapioca and comes with cabbage stuffed with pig's cheeks and choucroute. Heston does a lot of clever things with piggy bits and pieces.
I finally plumped for Crab feulliantine with roast foie gras, marinated salmon, crystallised seaweed and oyster vinaigrette - what foodie worthy of the name could resist such an ebullient creation? But would it work, and what is a crab feulliantine? It's a crisp wafer made by reducing the bouillon of many little crabs and combining it into a fine paste that is baked into a micron thin sliver of sheer heaven. Sandwiched between two of these miraculous crisps was a thick wedge of the most wonderful foie gras - crusty on the outside and molten within. This super-sandwich sat on the cured salmon which was lovely but a bit over the top! The intense flavour of the crab went so well with the foie gras, but the oilier texture of the salmon was just a little too rich for me. I still ate it, of course! The dish was one of the most enjoyable starters I've had.
From the lunch menu we had a very delicate Potage laitue de mer which was a light marine version of Vichysoise, a little slacker than the usual kind, further enhanced by the addition of some very gently poached oysters. A very suitable lunchtime starter.
We had the same enjoyable problem over what to choose from such an interesting selection of main dishes. I was intreagued by veal sweetbreads, roast in saltcrust with hay. The idea is that a saltcrust pastry is mixed with chopped hay chaff to make a sort of disposable miniature clay oven in which the sweetbreads are cooked. The herbal aroma from the hay adds to the complex flavours. Another interesting creation combines roast sliced cod, puy lentils and braised cockscombs. There's a lot of preparation involved with abats like cockscombs, but the rewards in terms of colour, texture and originality of flavour is well worth the effort. Indeed I was particularly struck by the amount of hard graft that goes on Heston's tiny kitchen. There are absolutely no short cuts here at the Fat Duck.
A confit leg of Trelough duck was juicy and delicious. It lay like a houri on a bed of puréed potato that was as voluptuous and soft as an eiderdown. This dish was also featured on the lunch menu.
Another clever piggy preparation is Cotes de Pork which Heston salts down with lots of fresh herbs. This method impregnates the herbs into the meat with particular intensity. The cutlets were served with a circular parmentier, made from chopped andouillette covered with a layer of onion topped with finely mashed spud. You do it in a ring mould, an essential piece of kit that can transform your garnishes into professional looking presentations. The sauce was a slick reduction made from roast pig's ears. Watch out piggies, the Fat Duck will have your guts for chitterlings let alone garters.
Somehow we found room for puddings: a raspberry sorbet whose concentrated fruit flavours were mouthwateringly good - and an absolutely wicked salted butter caramel. Essentially, this is home made toffee with pistachios and peanuts, topped with a dark chocolate and thyme ice. The ice was was billed as a sorbet but it was jolly rich and satisfying! With my pudding I sipped an Ambrosian glass of October-picked Jurançon from Domaine Cauhape at £3.75. For £3.00 you can have a glass of the amazingly rich and nutty Old east India sherry from Lustau. Now that would have seen off the salted butter caramel - sorted!
This was a most enjoyable meal. A lot of thought, creativity, enthusiasm and skill goes into everything at the Fat Duck. The waiting staff were terrific - really clued up about the dishes with all their special details. One felt that they could have made a pretty good job of it in the kitchen if one of the chefs were to fall into the freezer.
Clifford Mould, August 1998
The cost of your meal: Set Lunch 2 courses £17.50, 3 courses £22.50
A la Carte at both lunch and dinner: starters £9.50 to £17.00; mains
£18.00 to £25.50; puddings around £8.50.
The Fat Duck, 1 The High Street, Bray, Berkshire SL6 2AQ
Tel: 01628 580333 Closed Mondays
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