Fantastical Feasts & Where To Find Them

While most diners would probably gawk at the clockwork mechanics climbing up one side of the wall in the dining room of Dinner By Heston, set within Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park in London, my favourite corner would be the semi-private booth tucked away next to the kitchen.

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The space is enclosed on three sides by a tapestry-like mural, filled with symbols and drawings, which seem to be trying to convey a message of some sort. “Mrs Marshall here,” says Chef Ashley Palmer-Watts, pointing to a spot high up, “She was the first British cook like modern-day Delia Smith and Nigella Lawson.” Aside from commercialising recipe books, she also sold sieves, whisks, and utensils – over a hundred years ago. Then he points to another spot. “In the olden days, clockmakers in England built a mechanism to rotate the rotisserie.” As a ball of minced pork and veal cooked on the spit roast, a custard of cream, eggs, and parsley juice would be dribbled over, turning it green and brown. “You stick a twig on top, and this pomme (French for apple) would have been the central decoration of a table.” The 39-year-old Dorset native has been in the kitchen since twelve. For his twentieth birthday, he treated himself to a meal at The Fat Duck. “It was magical. I was like, ‘I have to go and work here.’&r