There's really no competition: 2011's most anticipated restaurant by a city mile has got to be Heston Blumenthal's new restaurant at the Mandarin Oriental in Knightsbridge. So when Hot Dinners bumped into Heston and the new restaurant's head chef Ashley Palmer Watts in London last week, we simply had to pump them for information on the new opening (on January 29, 2011). Luckily for us, instead of backing away, both Heston and Ashley was happy to talk about the new opening - and we have to say it sounds as though Dinner by Heston Blumenthal will more than live up to expectations. From the Adam D. Tihany designed interior, to the private dining room and its experimental Feast menus - this is going to be the hardest place to get a table in London.
And if there is a hardest table to get at the hardest restaurant to book, it's going to be the chef's table which, Ashley told us, is 'going to be brilliant – right opposite the pass. We’ll serve maybe eight or nine courses there – smaller versions based on the menu at the time.'
As for why he chose to open at the Mandarin Oriental, Heston was full of praise for the staff there - saying he thought their professionalism and attention to detail was second to none. But he was clear on the title of the restaurant - it was important that this was Dinner By Heston Blumenthal, not With - this is Ashley's restaurant and while he and Heston are involved in everything up to the opening, it will be Ashley and not Heston in the kitchen.
Read the full story and interview with Ashley Palmer Watts here.
