The Alchemist

Visionary, self-taught chef Heston Blumenthal showed the world that food science can be sexy. Chris Dwyer finds out what the future holds for the culinary genius

- Chris Dwyer

AMONG THE PANTHEON of truly great chefs, many are mavericks. They have to be, to find the energy, inspiration and innovation to constantly keep improving and challenging themselves. One, however, seems to stand head and shoulders above the pack when it comes to the art of quirky reinvention, both on and off the plate: Heston Blumenthal.

The setting is Melbourne, the day before the World’s 50 Best Restaurants annual gathering where he would take home the 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award, receiving a standing ovation from his peers. Former recipients of the award have included culinary titans such as Alain Ducasse, Thomas Keller and Juan Mari Arzak, all of whom have spent their lives in kitchens, from teenage apprentice onwards. Blumenthal, however, famously never attended culinary school, taught himself to cook, and only lasted a week working at Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons restaurant before setting up his own, The Fat Duck, in a 350-year-old pub in Bray, outside London.

The beginning of Blumenthal’s extraordinary relationship with food came at the age of 16 during a family holiday in Provence, France. His dining epiphany at the two Michelin-starred L’Oustau de Baumaniere remains an experience etched in his memory in the most minute details, and in a way that explains his later approach to the theatre of the restaurant. “It was the whole multisensory experience, the sound of gravel on the driveway and the cicadas, the heady scent of lavender, the sight of the waiters theatrically carving lamb at the table.”