OK - we're officially very, very excited. The first interview with Heston Blumenthal about his upcoming opening at the Mandarin Oriental in London has just gone up at www.cntraveller.com and it's bound to whip foodies into a frenzy over the December opening.
Certain details are very interesting - such as the idea that you can hire a private dining room there to recreate the atmosphere from Heston's Feast TV shows.
And although he doesn't give too much away about the menu - what Heston does say, sounds like a lot of fun.
'There are several dishes I'm happy with, but in particular the meat fruit dish because it's so simple,' he says. 'It's gone through an awful lot of work to get it to the stage for the Mandarin, but it's such a beautiful simple dish that has strong historical routes - and it tastes delicious. The one we did for Feast was really mince meat. For Dinner, we're trying to get the filling and the parfait just right.' If you recall, the meat fruits were from Heston's Mediaeval Feast - we'll have to wait and see whether the plum made from bulls' bollocks makes it to the SW1 dining room.
Leaving the best till last, Heston hints of elements from The Fat Duck that'll be coming to Knighstbridge: 'There might be something with liquid nitrogen,' Blumenthal says. 'We're having something designed and made and I've just seen first prototype for this morning. But I can't tell you anymore than that…'
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