Heston Blumenthal’s More In Search of Perfection is truly an incredible book with the perfect marriage between the visceral animalistic response to food on a palette level AND the science behind the bodies response to food. His dense writing and extreme scientific approach to food makes it almost unreachable for the uninitiated. I have to tell you that being a cerebral (left and right brain) guy I find his work challenging. Moreover, the processes which he uses seem like something straight out Blade Runner or Star Trek as opposed to a kitchen.
Nonetheless, Heston opens up a world that once was foreign to me. I remember a long time ago I told my littlest brother that in order for something to become easy for him to learn he had to find a context appropriate to something that was second nature to him. In his case it is cars, for me, obviously, it is food. I hated science, I wasn’t very good at it, though I could pick up the concepts they meant nothing to me. That is until now.
Heston opened my eyes (as have all the books I’ve read thus far) to Chefs from across the ages. In this blog entry I am going to speak about Heston Blumenthal, one of his restaurants The Fat Duck and some of the chefs that he has exposed me to AND as a result of that exposure my firm belief that no parent should ever say to their child; “Don’t play with your food.”
Heston Blumenthal will travel to almost any length in order to find for him what equals ‘perfection.” Of course the very word itself proposes a problem. What “perfection” is to me may not be to another person. However his approach is methodical, scientific and of course tempered by his utter appreciation of food and the entire body experience.
He states that food is a multi – sensory experience; the look, aroma, texture, sound and taste all are part of the experience. Heston, in his search for perfection is looking for the perfect marriage of the body – brain experience. This is a very interesting concept to me as I believe (much less so in Europe or the Far East where the concept of a meal IS the experience itself) that food is looked at as merely sustenance. Something that we do only to fuel our bodies. I for one have never ascribed to this point of view. I through the years have thrown probably hundreds of dinner parties. At each I was trying to create an experience. Something that beyond the food would be remembered for years to come. I have included some of the photographs of meals I have made over the years here. Food is at its core a celebration of life itself. It is an experience that has become rushed in North America (as Exec Chef and I bemoaned at the event last week). I asked if we could change the culture of food here and he answered that he didn’t think so because we have had ‘fast food’ ingrained into our culture and it is difficult to overcome that. Perhaps I will in the future be able to overcome that. Only time will tell.
One of the great chefs that Heston introduced me to is Hannah Glasse (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Glasse ). In short Hannah was the author of The Art of Cookery. The kitchen is an environment that as I’ve mentioned earlier is predominantly run by men. Hannah, a trail blazer on the title page of her book wrote; “THE ART OF COOKERY, Made PLAIN and EASY; Which far exceeds any THING of the Kind ever yet Published.” Many believe that food of a high quality is generally unreachable by the every day chef. However, Hannah challenged this belief and was highly regarded for her efforts (many even believed it was a man that wrote the book). If you read through the brief Bio of her at Wikipedia you will see that some even credit her as ‘The Mother of the Modern Dinner Party.’
Louis Lassen is the owner of Louis’ Lunch (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis'_Lunch and http://www.louislunch.com/ ) in New Haven, Connecticut. Heston came across him while trying to find hamburger perfection.
Lassen is credited by the Library of Congress as being the first to serve Hamburgers and Steak Sandwiches in the United States. The burgers are made the same way today by the fourth generation of Lassens’ as they were by Louis over one hundred years ago. Moreover, he grills them on Bridge Beach’s Co No.1 Patent January 11, 1898. This of course is my birthday and I found it particularly interesting as now I’m paying careful attention to just about everything. You never know where that EUREKA moment is going to come from.
Also on the search for the perfect burger Heston ended up at Le Parker Meridien. Not exactly the place you’d expect to find the best burger unless you were thinking about some kind of Foie Gras melt in your mouth $200 burger. But of course New York is filled with surprises and I’ll be sure to get C to go and try this highly recommended burger. The Executive Chef there is Emile Castillo. There is a very small corridor that leads to one of the best burger joints in the whole of the United States (http://www.parkermeridien.com/eat4.php ) . I will give you a first hand understanding of it once I get my reporter on the beat C to go. There is not much on Emile Castillo but as I find out more I will let you know.
In Search of the perfect Peking Duck Heston travels to Beijing, China. Da Dong was one of the many chefs at the state run Quan Ju De. As an interesting aside Heston points out that a placard there read; “Quan Ju De opened in 1864. It has served 115,390,636 since then.” I can’t even imagine. Can you? At any rate Da Dong is an incredible chef who is trying to put food into a cultural context. It is widely suggested that this is the finest Peking Duck anywhere in Beijing. My supposition then is that if it is the best there then it must be the best in the world. Again there is not much information about him out there but when I find more I will pass it on. Though I will say if Blumenthal says that he is a rising star I am sure to believe it.
George Blanc is a fourth generation restaurateur with a twist (http://www.georgesblanc.com/ ). His passion and drive have caused him to turn the small town of Vonnas, France into a virtual Blanc monopoly. He is widely considered one of the greatest restaurateurs in France and certainly one of the best chefs in the world. As a side note he did try to bring some of his famous Bresse to Canada for a showcase but was not allowed as it did not meet Canada’s stringent rules.
I mention each of these because I have the utmost respect for Blumenthal. If he finds these people worth exploring further than I feel I must.
So how does all this relate to my subject heading?
Who among us has not heard from our parents; “Don’t play with your food?” Every single one of us I’m sure. Now my question to you my loyal readers is this; Would Heston Blumenthal be who is today if he did not play with his food? Would I be on the journey that I’m on today without playing with my food? Therefore parents, please don’t tell your children not to play with their food, you may just have a budding three star chef on your hands.
I hope you’re enjoying my journey. As this is the don’t tell your kids not to play with their food entry I thought the following quote was particularly fitting from Walter Savage Landor; “A good cook is the peculiar gift of the gods. He must be a perfect creature from the brain to the palate, from the palate to the finger's end.”
When today you find that you would normally be upset, LAUGH! You’ll find it is quite good medicine. Be inspired today and take that LEAP towards fulfilling your dream. It all starts with just one step.
Al la prochaine.
SDM
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