Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck restaurant gets perfect 10 in Good Food Guide

Aug 18 2009 By Andrew Jackson

HESTON Blumenthal’s Fat Duck restaurant was rated as a perfect 10 in the new edition of the Good Food Guide 2010, its editor said today.

It beat Gordon Ramsay’s eponymously named Chelsea establishment, which was the only place in the country to score nine out of 10.

The high marks for both super chefs were described by the guide authors as "good news at last" after Blumenthal’s place in Bray, Berkshire was closed due to the norovirus, and Ramsay’s international empire was battered by the recession.

The Fat Duck, which famously includes snail porridge on its tasting menus, scored a "perfect" rating for the second year running.

Blumenthal is known for his use of chemistry to create ever more outlandish dishes, but there was much more to the dining experience than wacky food.

Good Food Guide editor Elizabeth Carter said: "It is the most extraordinary restaurant in Britain.

"It is food as theatre, the way the waiters interact with the table, it is like a performance.

"You are there for four hours while the meal is almost flown, course-by-course, to you."

The Fat Duck’s website lists a tasting menu at £130 which includes a course called Sound of the Sea, during which the diner eats smoked fish, edible ’sand’ and ’seaweed’ while listening to seagulls’ calls on an iPod.

The editor described the meal at the Fat Duck as "exquisite food taken to the next level".

"It’s a destination restaurant, a place you save up to go to, and you will remember it forever."