Well that's him told. Noticed a letter in -- of all places -- the mailbag bit of Winner's Dinners in the Sunday Times (link). Says the Fat Duck hasn't changed its menu in three years, and is at risk of becoming "no more than a theme park". Interesting observation, I thought. ← .....and to take the analogy further, the degustation menu is the main ride in the theme park exciting with unexpected twists and turns, once experienced however, it loses its magic thereafter. When I dined there this year I loved it but could not help but think you could actually set one of these restaurants up in every major city. A Fat Duck chain. I suppose there is a limit to how long a menu can stay the same, ok it is a winning formula, but it does not intice me to return again. I like restaurants and chefs to evolve, albeit sausage and mash is evolution, only in a retrospective manner. Closer to home I have had the tasting menu in Juniper on about five different occassions, once even in the space of two weeks. I have never received the same dish twice, and Paul Kitching is whipping up 15-20 dishes. Now that is one hell of a theme park, ok some rides are not as good as they may sound or as good at the last one, but it keeps the adrenaline and surprise factor alive time after time.