Eat To Live: Heston, the food scientist

BRAY, England, April 14 (UPI) -- Heston Blumenthal, 3 Michelin-star chef of The Fat Duck in Bray, England, has just lost his first-place spot as the best restaurant in Europe to Ferrán Adrià of El Bullí in Spain.

It's a bit like saying Manet has been deemed a better artist than Monet.

Given the pickiness of Michelin judges, those stars provide the greater surprise than last year's Number One vote for The Fat Duck from the industry's Restaurant Magazine.

While that decision was based on a survey of more than 600 international chefs, critics and restaurateurs, the Michelin guide has been accused of an inherent bias towards French cuisine.

It would be a stretch to call Heston Blumenthal's "Smoked Bacon and Egg Ice Cream" French. The "Nitro-Green Tea and Lime Mousse" -- a meringue-crisp swirl of liquid nitrogen-frozen flavor that explodes into nothing on contact with the tongue -- might cause Bibendum, the bulbous Michelin Man logo, to explode himself. And what to make of a single glass of tea that is both hot and cold at the same time?

A restaurant much of whose food is referred to as "molecular gastronomy" and whose chef is dedicated to a scientific search for "flavor encapsulation" seems unlikely to fit a French ratings system.

Yet it took him less than four years to win his first Michelin star. And this for a self-taught chef who has spent only one week in a professional kitchen.

But while provocative conceits like "Snail Porridge" and an oyster nestling under a wobble of passion fruit jelly fill the Tasting Menu, also part of the experience is a pairing of licorice with poached salmon, and two ways with pigeon lifted to exalted heights by a faint suggestion of cocoa and Asian spices.

These and dishes from the A La Carte list, like poached turbot on a cream of Borlotti beans scented with rosemary, vanilla and a rare olive oil, make it clear just how skilled he is in classic technique.

His influence, though, goes far beyond gourmands who can fork out the money to cover a considerable bill for a Fat Duck meal.

Alarmed by falling interest in science subjects in schools, he has spent the last two years working with the Royal Society of Chemistry to produce a textbook that is going to every one of Britain's secondary (Middle combined with High) schools. "Kitchen Chemistry" is a chemistry book written with Ted Lister of Royal Society of Chemistry in a way that he hopes will stimulate young students to turn them back to the sciences.

Last month he joined in the national schools science week, teaming with a physicist to present a program on food chemistry and sensory perception.

He's a chef who sees the value of letting kids play with their food.

On his Tasting Menu is Mrs Marshall's Margaret Cornet.

Agnes B. Marshall was an English cookbook writer who in the late 1800s ran a cookery school, a cook's hardware store, a domestic staff agency and a cookery magazine. She is credited with the invention of the edible ice cream cone. Heston Blumenthal fills tiny cornets with a ginger-flavored frozen cream. Though this isn't his recipe, it comes pretty close to replicating it.

--3 cups heavy cream

--1 cup whole milk

--1/4 cup grated fresh ginger

--zest of half a lemon

--Pinch salt

--8 egg yolks

--3/4 cup sugar

--Put the cream, milk, ginger, lemon zest and salt in a heavy-bottomed pan and simmer for 20 minutes over medium heat.

--In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar till pale yellow.

--Carefully pour in ½ cup of the hot cream, whisking all the while, then slowly pour the mix back into the cream pan.

--Lower the heat and keep stirring the cream and egg with a wooden spoon until it thickens enough to coat the back of the spoon, about 3-5 minutes.

--Pour through a sieve into a clean bowl, let cool, then chill 4 hours or overnight.

--Pour into an ice cream maker and follow instructions, or put into the freezer and once crystals begin to form, beat it with a fork, returning it to the freezer and repeating the process until it is completely frozen. It won't be as smooth as it would in a machine, but it will taste good.

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