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Heston Blumenthal (born May 1967 at High Wycombe, near London) is head chef at The Fat Duck, a three-Michelin-starred restaurant in the village of Bray in Berkshire.

In 2005 The Fat Duck was named as the "best restaurant in the world" by Restaurant magazine, having been runner up the previous year. However, both his eccentric culinary style and his allegedly attention-grabbing persona have met with scepticism in some quarters.

His fame is based on a supposedly scientific approach to cooking which has been termed "molecular gastronomy" and "culinary alchemy". This takes in both the chemical processes subjected to food structures during cooking, and the inherent physical properties of foodstuffs. He regularly works with scientists such as Dr Peter Barham, Reader in Physics at Bristol University and author of the book The Science of Cooking, and Dr Charles Spence, an experimental psychologist at the University of Oxford, with whom he collaborated in experiments with the use of headphones during eating. Blumenthal's trademark dishes famously include such unlikely dishes as bacon-and-egg ice cream, and snail porridge. Other examples include oyster and passionfruit jelly with lavender, and cuttlefish cannelloni of duck with maple syrup and parsley broth.

Blumenthal is self-taught and has only been cooking "seriously" for about ten years, according to an interview with The Observer in 2004.

He is a regular contributor to newspapers such as The Guardian and The Sunday Times.

External links

• An interview in the Observer newspaper, 2004
• Guardian newspaper article on Blumenthal's collaborations with academics
• Who's Who of Chefs
• Caterer Search

• British chefs