Dinner by Heston Blumenthal facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Dinner by Heston Blumenthal |
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The entrance to the restaurant space of Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
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| Restaurant information | |
| Established | 2011 |
| Current owner(s) | Heston Blumenthal |
| Head chef | Jon Miles-Bowring |
| Food type | Historical British |
| Dress code | Comfortable |
| Rating |  (Michelin Guide)AA Rosettes   |
| Street address | Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, Knightsbridge |
| City | London, SW1 |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Coordinates | 51°30′08″N 0°09′36″W / 51.50222°N 0.16000°W |
| Reservations | Yes |
| Other information | Nearest station: Knightsbridge |
| Website | Official website: http://www.mandarinoriental.com/london/fine-dining/dinner-by-heston-blumenthal/ |
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal is a famous restaurant in London, England. It was created by the well-known chef Heston Blumenthal. The restaurant opened its doors in January 2011.
It quickly became very popular. Within a year, it earned a Michelin star, which is a special award for great restaurants. By 2014, it had earned a second Michelin star! In April 2014, it was even named the fifth best restaurant in the world by Restaurant magazine.
The first head chef was Ashley Palmer-Watts. He used to be the head chef at another one of Blumenthal's restaurants, The Fat Duck. In December 2019, Jon Miles-Bowring took over as the new Head Chef. The restaurant's menu is special because it features old British dishes. These recipes are found by looking through history books and even at the British Library.
What is Dinner by Heston Blumenthal?
The idea for Dinner by Heston Blumenthal was announced in August 2010. It was planned to open in early 2011. The restaurant took over the space of another award-winning restaurant called Foliage. This space is inside the beautiful Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park hotel.
The restaurant was supposed to open on December 1st. However, there were some delays. Because of this, they decided to wait until after the busy Christmas holidays to open. People could start booking tables on December 1, 2010. The restaurant officially opened on January 31, 2011.
When bookings opened, the restaurant was incredibly popular. They had 42 phone lines just for taking reservations! They received over 600 bookings on the very first day. The restaurant was fully booked for the first three months before it even opened. One person even sold a booking for Valentine's Day on eBay for £250!
The first head chef, Ashley Palmer-Watts, had worked with Heston Blumenthal for many years. He was the head chef at The Fat Duck for five years. Heston and Ashley worked together to find old recipes. They got help from a food historian named Polly Russell from the British Library. This helped them create a menu based on historical British food.
Heston Blumenthal became interested in old recipes a long time ago. He even filmed a TV show called Heston's Feasts. In this show, he recreated amazing meals from different times in history. These included meals from the Tudor period, the Middle Ages, and the Victorian era. Even though the restaurant is called "Dinner," it also serves lunch. The name "Dinner" means the main meal of the day, no matter when you eat it.
The inside of the restaurant was designed by Adam Tihany. It has big windows that let you see right into the kitchen. There's even a special pulley system. This system is based on a design from the 16th century that was used for the British Royal Court. A special clockwork machine slowly cooks pineapples. These pineapples are used for one of the restaurant's delicious desserts.
The Menu
The restaurant plans to change its menu every three months. Each menu features historical dishes from the 14th to the 19th centuries. Before the restaurant opened, there were many rumors about what dishes would be served. One newspaper even thought there might be an ice cream meat pie!
Some of the dishes you might find include scallops and peas with cucumber ketchup. There's also a special mackerel salad with a citrus flavor. Every dish is based on an old recipe. For example, the scallop dish comes from a recipe published in 1826.
One dish that everyone talks about is the "meat fruit." It's a chicken liver mousse that looks exactly like a mandarin orange! It even has the texture of an orange peel. The meat fruit became so popular that by November 2011, the restaurant was selling about 900 of them every week. They even wanted to make more to sell up to 1200 a week!
The restaurant also has a special ice cream trolley. Heston Blumenthal and his team created this amazing machine. It's powered by a hand crank. It mixes custard with liquid nitrogen right at your table to make instant ice cream! You can choose from many toppings like sprinkles, popping candy, or apple jelly. The menus themselves tell you the year each dish comes from.
