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Heston's food isn't just good, it's perfect, say inspectors
Anna Davis15 Aug 2008
Heston Blumenthal's restaurant has become the first to score top marks in the Good Food Guide for four years.
The Fat Duck in Berkshire, which serves dishes such as bacon and egg ice cream and salmon poached in liquorice, has secured a perfect 10 in the 2009 book.
The last restaurant to be given the maximum score was Gordon Ramsay's eponymous establishment in Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea. He was given top marks every year from 2003 to 2005. The Good Food Guide 2009 said the Fat Duck gained top marks for its "wondrous enchantment". Last year the guide named it Britain's best restaurant, but only gave it nine out of 10.
Blumenthal, 41, said: "It is fantastic to know that it is both our customers as well as the inspectors who have voted for us. We are all absolutely delighted to have scored the perfect 10 in this year's guide and extremely proud."
The Fat Duck's exotic dishes are available on a 13 course tasting menu costing £125. They include snail porridge, black pudding made to order, pine sherbet fountain and blackcurrant and green peppercorn jelly.
The Good Food Guide gives top marks to restaurants which "achieve perfect dishes on a consistent basis". For those which have "reached a pinnacle of achievement" they give nine out of 10.
The Fat Duck, in the village of Bray, near Michel Roux's Waterside Inn, also has three stars in the Michelin Guide. In 2005 it was named the best restaurant in the world by Restaurant magazine, and it has come second for the past three years.
Blumenthal's next challenge is revitalising the menu at the Little Chef roadside restaurant chain, where the menu has changed little since it opened in 1958.
A Channel 4 film crew will follow Blumenthal, who has fond childhood memories of eating at the restaurants, as he tries to transform old favourites.
