Blumenthal's Perfect Christmas

[phil_v]

Heston Blumenthal's series about perfecting classics on BBC culminated a couple of days ago with his perfect Christmas meal. I missed it being at work as usual, but fortunately caught the signed repeat in the early hours of this morning...

Wow.

Absolutely incredible.

And fortunately, available on demand for the next 5 (I think) days, on the BBC iplayer - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/page/item/b008kj81.shtml - I urge you to watch him create one of the most amazing experiences imaginable.

Basically, Heston invites 6 celebrities for a special Christmas meal, which encompasses many of the techniques he has become famous for. But what takes this to another level completely is the phenomenal amount of thought that goes into each course in relation to the psychology of the 'perfect christmas'. This is about the experience as a whole, with specially created sets, perfumes, smoke and yes, snow to work with the food.

I was lucky enough to have the tasting menu at the Fat Duck a few years ago, but I would chew off my right arm to have been invited to this. Never have I been so envious of 'celebrities'... Richard E. Grant especially was absolutely bewitched by it, his face registering sheer amazement and wonderment.

Watch the programme if you can (you can download it for 30 days as well). I haven't found any record of the dishes online yet, and don't have time to post all the dishes, but would love to read the full menu if anyone's seen it.

Cheers Heston - amazing.

[jvp]

i agree, it was the best in the series. i too would sell my own grandma to have been at that table. i don't believe that i am easily sucked in by hype and am very critical but i have eaten at his restaurant a couple of times and in my opinion, he really is at the top of the pile.

[gfweb]

The sods at BBC won't let a non-UK address view the show. Can some kind Brit rip the thing and post the file?

[Simon_S]

It was truly awesome, and made me wonder what the rest of the series would have been like if Heston had been unfettered by the need to be able to cook the recipes at home.

A few non-foodie friends saw it and were blown away, and many got on the phone the following morning to try to book a table at the restaurant, with many others claiming they now definitely want to go. So it didn't do his career and bottom line any harm either!

[TheSwede]

Excellent program. The guest were giggling in one moment and stunned in the next. They really behaved as kids on christmas day - which I belive was Mr Hestons intention.

For the more technical among us, there were some glimpses of high tech cooking. Roto-vapouring, freeze drying, freeze/gelatine filtering, sous-vide cooking, making heat resistant gels...

[Tri2Cook]

I didn't get to see this one and haven't been able to find it online yet but I'll keep searching. I have the BBC broadcasts of all of season one and half of season two downloaded. I'm persistent so I'll get the rest of season two and the christmas dinner eventually.

[Fibilou]

How funny, I was just doing a blog entry on it. I thought it was astonishing ! Really enjoyed it.