If you are ever at a loss for what to make for dinner, and you are Heston Blumenthal, you ask yourself one simple question: WWHVIIIE? What would Henry VIII Eat? Dinner by Heston Blumenthal sets out to answer that very question. The extremely creative menu is based on historic British food as researched by the British Library and includes recipes from the cookbook of Richard II’s royal chefs. Since January 2011, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, which is ranked on the Pellegrino Top 50 restaurants list (number 45 in 2016) and is a two Michelin-starred restaurant since 2014, has been getting its dining inspiration from days of yore. This may be the first case of a repressed historian becoming a chef. In fact, food history professor may have been Heston Blumenthal’s real calling if he hadn’t become obsessed with food from the age of 8. He was given an extra push at age 16 thanks to a trip to France and a dinner at the three Michelin-starred L’Oustau de Baumanière.
The stunning glass-fronted restaurant at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in London provides vistas of Hyde Park and is under the watchful eye of executive chef Ashley Palmer-Watts (formerly of The Fat Duck – Heston’s three Michelin-starred restaurant). The room is beautiful and the perfect place for a special dinner.
As a surprise for Pete’s birthday, I arranged for us to be In the Kitchen for Dinner, with seats at the Chef’s Table for what would be a very special behind-the-scene’s look and a fantastic dinner. The dinner was served on a 200-year-old oak table (side note, the oak tree for the table was cut down for CHARLES DARWIN) and offered a set menu. Anett was our knowledgeable server. Stefan our sommelier did a brilliant job of pairing the wines with each course.
- The meal started with house-baked sourdough bread and unpasteurized butter. Maybe bread is an understatement – slow proofed, unbelievably good sourdough bread. I know Mom always said “don’t fill up on the bread”, but it’s hard not to!
- Hay Smoked Salmon () Lemon Salad with gentleman’s relish, wood sorrel and Exmoor caviar. Gentleman’s relish conjured up visions of old school men’s clubs, cigars, and newspapers. The sauce is made from boiling garlic in milk to reduce the strong garlic flavour and mixing this with anchovies and mayonnaise.
- My dish was Salamangundy (c1720) Chicken Oysters with salsify (a root vegetable resembling a thin parsnip), marrowbone, toasted bread crumbs and fresh horseradish cream (to give it a kick). The chicken oysters are the delicacy at the base of the back that the chefs usually saves for themselves.
- Roast scallops () with cucumber ketchup, roasted cucumber, bergamot and borage. The hand-dived Scottish Scallops were roasted and served with cucumber ketchup. What?! Yes, the cucumbers are first peeled (skins reserved) vacuum packed overnight, then char-grilled with olive oil and soaked in vinegar before being reunited with their skins and dill. This creation is originally from Malaysia.
- (Fun off-menu item as we were discussing cucumber ketchup – Anett brought out some mushroom ketchup and Heston’s famous “triple cooked duck fat” french fries. Oops, no photo!)
- I was lucky to have one of the oldest dishes on the menu, the Rice & Flesh (c1390) – saffron, calf tail and red wine – really a saffron risotto with veal creamy deliciousness and some mascarpone parmesan to “lift” the course.
- Meat Fruit (c1500) – spiced red wine, chicken liver parfait and grilled bread disguised as a plum. The plum is only prepared in the month of December – it is normally a mandarin orange as a playful homage to the hotel (The Mandarin Oriental). While the original recipe may be from the 1500s, the techniques used to create this one are quite modern and include using a blow torch. The dish is then frozen to -34 degrees and dipped into gelatin (three dips to let the ice crystallize and the skin matte). This creation was originally was made with Port wine.
- Roast Halibut & Green Sauce () with braised chicory, parsley, pepper, onion and eucalyptus. The name “green sauce” underplays the complex combination of green peppers, green chilis, green coffee, eucalyptus parsley and garlic butter.
- I had the Chicken with Lettuces (c 1670), with grilled onion emulsion and spiced celeriac sauce. The truffled lettuce, coriander and star anise complement the chicken (which is brined, ballotined (stuffed) and then cooked sous vide). The skin is then broiled to make it crispy as it sits on a bed of smoked onion mayonnaise sauce. (This dish and the Iberico Pork Chop, next course, are the favourites of Annet, our fabulous server.)
- Roast Iberico Pork Chop () with spelt, ham hock and Robert sauce. The Robert sauce is created by using pork bones, mustard and lemon juice and the stock is pressure-cooked at higher temperatures for 4 hours.
- Powdered Duck Breast () with braised and grilled red cabbage, spiced umbles and pickled cherries. The skin and duck are actually cooked separately over 24 hours and then glued back together. The duck is served with pickled cherries and cherry juice sauce.
- Sambocade () with goat’s milk cheesecake, elderflower and apple, pickled blackberries and walnuts – this dessert is the masterful creations of Anna. The goat’s milk cheesecake sits on an elderflower biscuit base with pickled blackberries, smoked and candied walnuts with a charcoal ash edge.
- Tipsy Cake (c1810) with spit-roasted pineapple. The cakes are a brioche, with a custard made of sugar, sauterne and cream, a creation meant to showcase the spit-roasted pineapples. From the chef’s table, you have a great view of the pineapples roasting – so dedicated are they to the roasting of the pineapples, that they have created a special mechanism for their roasting.
- Nitro Ice Cream Trolley – this ice cream machine is an homage to Agnes B. Marshall, the Victorian English inventor of the ice cream cone. Fun toppings include apple pop rocks, chocolate hazelnut pralines, dehydrated raspberry bits and candy-coated spice seeds.
Please note that although the restaurant is called “Dinner”, it is open for lunch also. If you can’t make it to London, you can also try “Dinner” in Melbourne, Australia.
Where: Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, 66 Knightsbridge, London SW1X 7LA +44 20 7201 3833 When: 12 – 2 (M-F) 2:30 pm (Sat & Sun); 6:30 – 10:15 (M-F) 10:30 pm (Sat & Sun) Reservations necessary
Special thanks to Anett and Stefan for a wonderful evening!
On the Table in the Kitchen at Dinner our server Amy told us it was from a very old cherry tree that had fallen in or near Kew Gardens.