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Entirely self-taught, Heston Blumenthal was inspired to become a chef after visiting a French three-Michelin-star restaurant when he was just sixteen. For the next ten years or so he taught himself to cook by translating the cookbooks of the French masters word for word and practising their recipes.
In 1995 he opened his first restaurant, The Fat Duck, which soon gained a reputation for the precision and imagination of its cooking, built on HestonтАЩs knowledge of classical French cuisine and a developing interest in the science of cooking. His popularization of the latter in 7 books, newspaper columns for The Times and The Guardian and several TV series led to a revolution in British gastronomy, encouraging a new, widespread level of culinary invention of the part of chefs, and expectation on the part of diners.
Heston is considered one of the most influential chefs of his generation, having invented the concepts of Flavour Pairing and Multisensory Gastronomy, and pioneered new technology and techniques, such as water baths, sous-vide, rotary evaporation, ice filtration, fluid gels and the use of dry ice and liquid nitrogen. His contributions to culinary science have led to honorary degrees from Reading and Bristol universities and the University of London, and the award of a Fellowship of the Royal Society, which also included him in its тАШ175 Faces of ChemistryтАЩ.
As well as The Fat Duck, Heston has established three other restaurants, which capture different aspects of his restless culinary curiosity: Dinner by Heston Blumenthal and Dinner by Heston Blumenthal Dubai which research, revisit and reinvent recipes from British gastronomic history; and the Hinds Head, a 15th-century pub in Bray that serves superlative versions of traditional comfort classics.
In 2006 he was given an OBE for his services to British Gastronomy.
