Being a vegetarian

[Doug]

Dear Heston,

A few of us have been having a discussion about being vegetarian and whether or not it's possible to be a vegetarian and a gourmet at the same time. I think not, but some other good people on this list seem to disagree with me! I was just wondering what you think? I've read that you run a great restaurant, so what's it like having to account for this and other limitations to what you can cook for people?

Thanks,

Doug

[Heston Blumenthal]

Doug,

I think that it is possible to be a vegetarian and a gourmet although I do think that by sticking to just vegetables, with no use of meat or fish whatsoever is starving the palate of many pleasures.

The biggest downside for me from being a vegetarian is the whoeful quality of some of the fruit and veg available to us in this country.

Why should we have to pay more money for tomatoes grown especially for flavour? Why is it so hard to find carrots that actually taste of carrot?

How can one buy peaches from a roadside market stall near Nimes that are or so fragrantly flavoured and ripe yet we are asked to pay four times the price for un-ripe relatives in this country?

We have eventually managed to organise a range of fruit and vegetables to be grown for us by the late Roald Dahls' wife, Felicity.

She came for dinner the first time a couple of years or so ago. we have since become friends.

She kindly offered us the services of her gardeners and the use of her vegetable garden as, she said, Roald would have wanted it to be put to good use.

Unfortunately we will not benefit from the fruits of this for another year yet.

I do think however that to create truly great food with vegetables, the quality and the freshness of the vegetable itself is be paramount.

I f the freshness and quality is there than the dish is easy to create; without this, it does become difficult to turn out gastronomic food with substandard ingredients.