Heston Blumenthal

Presenter0:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For rights reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in two thousand and six.

Presenter0:28

My castaway this week is the Three Michelinstar chef Heston Blumenthal. He's one of only three chefs in Britain to hold that ultimate culinary accolade, an achievement made all the more astonishing given that he taught himself to cook at home, and had only ever spent one week working in a professional kitchen before opening his own restaurant.

Presenter0:46

Last year that restaurant, the Fat Duck, was named the best in the world by an international panel of five hundred experts. His approach to food is, to say the least, unconventional a sort of willy wonka of contemporary cuisine he astonishes his diners with fanciful menus of sardines on toast, sorbet, and the now legendary snail porridge.

Presenter1:07

It's the science of food that really gets him going, and his particular approach, dubbed molecular gastronomy, means he spends almost as much time with test tubes and pipettes as he does slaving over a hot stove.

Presenter1:20

So, Heston Blumenthal, those three Michelin stars, the highest conventional recognition for a very unconventional chef, what do they mean to you?

Heston Blumenthal1:28

Um, I think it's only now just sunk in, to be honest. That was a couple of years ago. And the six months following actually being awarded the third star, I spent most of the time apologizing to people that literally, I don't know why we've got it.

Presenter1:41

Do you feel like you deserve it?

Heston Blumenthal1:42

After a couple of years, now everything's settled down. I love what I do. And I'd never cooked to try and achieve accolades. So to get it.

Heston Blumenthal1:50

On that basis, for me it's even it's even better.

Presenter1:54

Was there a moment in your life that you fell in love with wonderful food?

Heston Blumenthal1:59

Yes, it's very, very distinct cemented memory now. I was about fifteen and we'd gone to France and my father had read about this restaurant in Provence. It was called the Beaumonière, also de Beaumaniere, in Les Beaux, and it knocked me for six. I can remember the noise of the feet on the gravel, the waiting staff crunching the gravel, and the sommelier, the wine waiter, with this big leather apron, and he had this taste van, this sort of metal cup round his neck. The cheese trolley was just like a chariot, and they were pouring sauces into souffles and carving legs of lamb at the table, and the crickets were noise of the crickets filled the air, and the smell of lavender, and just the whole experience completely knocked me for six.

Presenter2:40

What was it the taste of the food? Was it the glamour? Was it

Heston Blumenthal2:42

That's a really interesting point. I can remember what I ate, definitely, but it was as much about all of the other sensory hits, the noise of the gravel crunching, glasses chinking and wine being poured, and the smell of the food around and just the the wild herbs around the tables.

Presenter2:59

So this personal epiphany that happened to you as a fifteen year old I mean, d did you talk to your parents about it? Did you say to them, This is blowing my mind and I know this is the area I want to work in? Or was it a quiet conversation in your head?

Heston Blumenthal3:01

Good.

Heston Blumenthal3:10

It was a quiet conversation in my head.

Heston Blumenthal3:12

But it very soon manifested into something much much more um I'd say obsessive.

Presenter3:19

Plenty more to discover about you. Let's now, though, hear your first record. What's your first choice?

Heston Blumenthal3:24

My First Choice is Anna Phil Hoobe by Lily Binoch.

Heston Blumenthal3:29

I had an operation on my back last December, beginning of December.

Heston Blumenthal3:34

And my daughter, Jessica, my oldest daughter, bought me this album, this compilation album, for Christmas. And so, one, it reminds me of that time at home of post-operation. And there were some wonderful experiences. I mean, it's a bit embarrassing to talk about this now, but I went and saw her choir singing at the church, and I helped well, I helped. I gave moral support to them putting up the decorations. I couldn't bend because of my back. And that was the first time I'd had that build up to Christmas with the kids. So it was a fantastic memory. So it's as much about the memory of the build up over Christmas post-op as the track itself.

Speaker 24:15

I'm not sure if I can do it.

Presenter4:21

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 24:35

Ah, yeah, beware.

Presenter4:41

Lily Bonish and Anna Fieldhoob, I'm in love. So Heston Blumenthal, the science thing.

Heston Blumenthal4:48

Oh yeah, the science.

Presenter4:48

Yeah, the science thing. Is that all about perfection? Is that about understanding the food and therefore getting it more perfect?

Heston Blumenthal4:55

First, you mentioned this term molecular gastronomy. The origin of the name came from there was a chap called Nicholas Curty, who was a physicist at Oxford University. And I think he made the statement that he thought it was a travesty that while we know the atmospheric pressure on the surface of Mars or Venus, we don't know what goes on inside our souffles. And so he advocated the use of some knowledge of some of the science that goes on in the kitchen, because it it's there, it goes on whether you like it or not, it's happening. And some knowledge of that could help us in the kitchen.

Presenter5:26

And where did you learn about this? I mean, is did you start picking the books off the shelf yourself when you started to learn more about food? You thought, Hold on a second, I need to get to the bottom of this.

Heston Blumenthal5:30

Yeah, when

Heston Blumenthal5:34

Yeah, I didn't like if someone told me something that didn't have an actual reason for it

Heston Blumenthal5:39

I didn't I d just d felt uncomfortable. But the trouble is because I didn't have that basic boundary in chemistry, for me to access information was a lot harder work and to understand it because that stuff s wasn't easily accessible.

Presenter5:43

Basic bounty and care.

Presenter5:51

You are an obsessive, I think it's fair to say. I mean, you peel peas and you you put pinpricks in chips to make them crispier.

Heston Blumenthal5:58

Yes. I mean, there is a line, believe it or not, there is a line that gets drawn at which does all this work make a difference? Peaning peas we dropped though. We decided life's too short.

Presenter6:09

I'm so glad. Um and on the menu is the green tea and lime mousse poached in the nitrogen, the sardines on toast, sorbet, the famous snail porridge.

Heston Blumenthal6:14

Poached in the nitrogen the salt.

Heston Blumenthal6:19

Yeah. Yeah. There are and and you've got we've dug like an orange and beetroot jelly. It's two two squares of jelly and what looks like orange is actually yellow beetroot juice and what looks like beetroot is blood orange, so you eat one expecting the other. And we've got um the bacon bacon egg ice cream.

Presenter6:37

I mean a lot of it does sound disgusting.

Heston Blumenthal6:39

Yeah, the thing is, if you take snail porridge is a really good example. All the dishes on the menu have a story, I have a reason for their evolution. Oats are savoury, there's nothing sweet about them. It's only our association with putting them with maple syrup or honey or whatever. And you purge snails on oats. It's quite a classic way of actually cleaning the snails. So we use the oats and sieved out all the fine parts and then made a risotto, but with a really vivid parsley butter. So it's parsley and garlic and smoked bacon and that's what it is. But it's also all in the name. So you create an expectation. That's one thing. And as long as you like snails, if you don't like snails, well, then it's a different kettle of fish. But there's nothing antagonistic in that to eat at all.

Presenter7:20

So this rigour, Hestern Blumenthal, this this search for explanation and understanding w was that apparent in school?

Heston Blumenthal7:27

So

Heston Blumenthal7:28

I was really trying to think of a a way I could say yes to that question, but n no, it wasn't I did okay in school. I left school with an A level in art, and that was more luck than anything else. I just happened to be that the things I learnt from my art history exam the night before all came up.

Presenter7:42

So there wasn't when you walked into the science labs in school, you didn't love the smell of the sulphur and the Boonston burners and the science didn't grab you in school.

Heston Blumenthal7:49

No, it didn't at all. I just I wasn't very good at it, to be honest.

Heston Blumenthal7:52

It all came through my cooking.

Presenter7:54

What's your next track?

Heston Blumenthal7:55

Uh my next track is actually from the film Once Upon a Time in the West. I think the f film is Fantastic Serge Eleonee and it was his sort of he did all the Fistful of Dollars films and this one was his uh his series Western. It's pretty powerful. But what I loved about the film what I do love about the film is its use of music and the main characters each have their own track.

Heston Blumenthal8:17

This track is called Man with a Harmonica and it's it Charles Bronson's in the film and it's his track. And there's a gunfight scene at the end that makes the hairs on your ne the back of your neck stand up. It's just fantastic, and this is the track from that.

Presenter8:59

Man with a harmonica from the soundtrack of Once Upon a Time in the West. Uh although the name then, Heston Blumenthal, hints at uh this very exotic lineage suitably for a three-starred Michelin chef, in in in fact you were your parents are British, you were born in London.

Heston Blumenthal9:11

Sh

Heston Blumenthal9:14

Yes, slap bay in the middle of central London, yeah. So my name is much more exotic sounding than I actually am, although I'm not sure how exotic Heston is as a plan.

Presenter9:22

There's a place. But let's talk about this early life then. In in the early days of family life, I mean, things were pretty cramped. There was you, your younger sister, and your mum and dad all living in a tiny flat, and indeed all sharing the one bedroom. What was that like?

Heston Blumenthal9:36

Um, it was cosy. It was cosy and it was small. But we did live not too far from High Park, so that was my playground really. I do remember actually getting into trouble. There's fountains at Marble Arch and we went went swimming in the fountains at Marble Arch and I think the police pulled us out of there and they used to threaten to put you in prison when you were younger. It was all so innocent in those days.

Presenter9:57

And what was being cooked at home?

Heston Blumenthal9:59

My mum, um, she used to make quite a lot of soups and stews and, um, she was a very good cook well, she is a very good cook. But I I don't think I got the bug.

Heston Blumenthal10:11

It wasn't until I was fifteen or so with this experience in France when I really got the bug.

Presenter10:15

So you weren't this little boy standing on a a chair in the kitchen helping stir in the macaroni cheese. No, you weren't. That was she was doing the cooking. You weren't me in the fountain.

Heston Blumenthal10:18

Yeah.

Heston Blumenthal10:20

But that was she was doing the cooking, you were definitely not me. No, I did. I do remember getting into trouble. I used to the old pressure cookers, which they're brilliant bits of cooking equipment now, but we had a very it was a very unstable kitchen floor. And if you stood at the doorway and jumped up and down enough, you could actually pop the top of the pressure cooker off and let all the steam out. So I remember doing that and and not being the most popular man in the world.

Presenter10:40

So that was your only interest in cooking. Yeah.

Heston Blumenthal10:42

Yeah, basically as a false

Presenter10:43

Stretched.

Heston Blumenthal10:44

Yeah.

Presenter10:44

So, what did Mum and Dad say to you when you said, You know, that meal that we had in France? Well, actually, it's given me an idea. What was their response?

Heston Blumenthal10:51

Um, I think it happened over a longer period of time than that because round about when I was about I seventeen, eighteen is when I when I really thought, right, and now I'm I'm gonna start my career and I wrote to all the uh top forty restaurants in and around London that are in the Good Food Guide to go and start to work to work at one of these places. And leading up to that time, they were I think they were they were all very supportive. Uh, you know, they probably thought, I'm sure he hasn't got the he's got the energy or the uh the staying power to last the course.

Presenter11:21

How wrong they were.

Heston Blumenthal11:23

My next record is Every Dub by the Sunburst Band and this is my son's one of my son's favourite tracks.

Speaker 211:38

Easy

Speaker 211:49

Every day, oh I'm so happy baby, every day.

Speaker 211:56

I'm easy to feel everywhere.

Presenter12:02

The Sunburst Band and Every Dub. Chosen Heston because it's one of your son Jack's favourite records. Um so you were leaving school, you wrote to the top forty restaurants in and around London, and you only get one reply. Who replies?

Heston Blumenthal12:15

Roman Blanc from the memoir, which lucky enough, I mean it's great'cause it it was the best restaurant in the country, I think, at the time.

Presenter12:22

And so you were invited to come into his kitchen and to work for how long?

Heston Blumenthal12:24

And yeah.

Heston Blumenthal12:26

Well, it was working for a week and then it was to see if, one, th there was a possible job off at the end of it and to and to see if I wanted to work there.

Presenter12:34

Um, so uh at this stage then you're working for a week in this very famous kitchen. Were you offered a job at the end of that week?

Heston Blumenthal12:41

Yes, Raymond wrote me a very nice letter and offered me a apprenticeship.

Presenter12:46

Now let me get this right. You want to be a good chef, a very, very good chef, and you are offered a job at one of the best kitchens in Britain working under one of the most notable chefs in Europe.

Heston Blumenthal12:55

Yeah.

Presenter12:57

And you turn it down.

Heston Blumenthal12:59

Yeah, I know.

Heston Blumenthal13:00

I just felt that I'd been teaching myself classical French cooking for a couple of years up to that point now, so all the basics.

Presenter13:08

And I forgot.

Heston Blumenthal13:08

As an eighteen year old. As an eighteen yeah, for r from the age of probably sixteen, I would say. So we're going up to a couple of years up to up to that point. And for some reason, and and I I still to this day don't know why.

Heston Blumenthal13:19

But I had some

Heston Blumenthal13:21

Idea that I was going to go off and do my own self-educational process.

Heston Blumenthal13:27

and then I will go off and um earn myself uh l some money doing something else and then start my own restaurant. So I'd somehow jump I would jump that um that path and go f straight from A to Z as it were.

Presenter13:40

So you were teaching yourself from a a a young age, from the mid teens onwards, the c the the rules of classical French cookery. How did you learn? I mean, presumably all these books were in French you you were trying to read.

Heston Blumenthal13:49

I remember translating God, this sounds like really sad, but I remember translating um Trogreux there's a restaurant in France called Trogreu, Three Mission Stars, wonderful place. And one of their books, literally word for word, with a French English dictionary, yeah. Along with chemistry, French was not something I took up at school. And I wrote I wrote the whole translated the whole book.

Presenter14:03

With a French industry.

Presenter14:11

How long did that take you?

Heston Blumenthal14:13

Okay, I think it was a few months.

Presenter14:15

Quite an unusual pastime for an eighteen-year-old.

Heston Blumenthal14:17

Bad, I think.

Presenter14:19

Were you friends? Did you have friends?

Heston Blumenthal14:20

Do you have friends? I had no friends. No, I did. Most of my friends I I did martial arts for years. I did full contact kickboxing. Now this is High Wickham Full Contact Club.

Heston Blumenthal14:29

Can you imagine talking about cooking and anything remotely linked to lobster and truffles and stuff like this?

Presenter14:35

It's not the place to show your puff pastry recipe, is it?

Heston Blumenthal14:37

Now you fairy cakes.

Presenter14:40

And although you weren't cooking a dinner party food, I understand that. I mean, were your parents tasting the food you were cooking or were you tasting it yourself?

Heston Blumenthal14:42

But I understand.

Heston Blumenthal14:46

Well, they were. And my wife in particular, I think she's been very long suffering'cause I I remember one morning waking her up. It was about two o'clock in the morning and I was working on creme brulee, and I think I'd done four of them, and I was looking at the

Heston Blumenthal14:58

This is so b so this is so.

Presenter14:59

Okay, say it out loud. It's fine.

Heston Blumenthal15:00

Okay. This is a cream-milk ratio and and sugar. So if you cut the cream down and cut the sugar down, you have a lighter creme brulee, but you also have slight a more chance of granulation. So I was trying to get a very light creme brulee with the same texture and I had had a really good result. And I remember waking her up l with a tray with four creme brulee. She's not the greatest creme brulee lover now and I wonder why.

Presenter15:23

Hesdom Blumentell, what's your fourth track?

Heston Blumenthal15:25

My fourth track is by Bobby Womack, and it's a live version of Lovers Finally Come at Last. This is actually from a concert at Hammersmith Odeon that my wife and I went and saw. And this this song became our this was our our wedding song.

Speaker 215:42

Of a smiley corner

Speaker 215:45

The member goes

Speaker 215:48

No no, yeah, yeah, I know.

Speaker 315:55

Yummy. Yeah.

Speaker 315:58

I tell you what we do, we'll break it down, Rusty, because he might cut them lights out for real.

Speaker 316:02

No bullshit.

Speaker 316:04

Break it down!

Presenter16:07

Bobby Womack and Love has finally come at last. In 1986, then, Heston Blumenthal, you read a book that you say changed your life. What was that?

Heston Blumenthal16:17

It was On Food and Cooking: The Science and Law of the Kitchen by somebody called Harold McGee.

Presenter16:21

And what was it about that that so captivated you?

Heston Blumenthal16:24

Um it was all about

Heston Blumenthal16:26

The science of cooking. And I remember reading it. It was very complicated for me. Lots of micro microscopic photographs of yeast cells in in in in gluten formation. But there was a comment, there was a sentence in there statement that said browning meat does not seal in the juices.

Heston Blumenthal16:42

And Harold went on to explain that you can't seal juices in the meat by browning it.

Heston Blumenthal16:47

So, for example, if that was possible, it would be impossible to have a well-done state.

Heston Blumenthal16:52

Because if you browned it and then just carried on cooking it, all the juices would stay in, because it didn't matter how high you cooked it, it would never dry out. Well, that's not true. But it took somebody to explain it, to then think.

Heston Blumenthal17:02

God, that's really obvious, isn't it? But it's only obvious when somebody explains it to you.

Presenter17:05

But what did that do then about influencing your thought on all the stuff you'd been teaching yourself through the classical French books?

Heston Blumenthal17:09

And you also

Presenter17:11

Yeah.

Heston Blumenthal17:11

Yeah.

Presenter17:11

Come on.

Heston Blumenthal17:12

threw the door wide open. I was then started to think how many of the other things that I've been reading about are not quite as they seem. Maybe the how many bits of information I read are wrong. So that's where the real catalyst for the inquisitive approach came from.

Presenter17:26

So all the while, then, the the evenings are spent in mum's kitchen with the boning knives and the beur blanc and the twenty different recipes for vanilla ice cream, but the days are spent, Hest implemental, doing things like debt collecting and selling office equipment.

Heston Blumenthal17:42

Yes.

Presenter17:43

Pretty solar stuff.

Heston Blumenthal17:44

Yes, I remember going to do

Heston Blumenthal17:47

And how I thought I could have got this stuff. There was it was gym equipment in the Rhonda Valley, above a carpet showroom.

Heston Blumenthal17:53

I had one where I had to go and pick up a a microwave remember those microwave freezers where you you'd get the hot dog or whatever it was and you take out the freezer and pop it in the microwave. One of these in in in where was it, in Dudley.

Heston Blumenthal18:05

And I turned up and the shopkeeper came out with a broom handle and I was sort of ready to sort of have a bit of an argument and I think someone else in the shopper called all his friends. So these three or four taxis all pulled up outside. I looked I looked at the broom handle and the taxis and the freezer and the microwave and thought, it's just not worth it So I left.

Presenter18:23

You said you'd done some kickboxing. W did the kickboxing come in handy when you were a debt collector?

Heston Blumenthal18:27

It wasn't completely useless, put it that way.

Presenter18:32

I get your drift. So seven years is a long time to put your ambition on the back burner. I mean, even if the money that was coming in wouldn't be a huge amount of money, but it it was helping fund uh the the pots and pans and and and the cookery books and all the things that that you would need. I I mean, were you short of money at this time?

Heston Blumenthal18:33

M

Heston Blumenthal18:38

I mean it

Speaker 218:41

One day.

Heston Blumenthal18:51

Yes, I mean we at the time'cause my wife was a nurse, so we weren't earning I can't remember what the wages were in those days, but it we what would happen is the money was actually spent on food related things first and everything else would come second.

Presenter19:04

And Susannah your wife was fine with that.

Heston Blumenthal19:07

Yeah, she got she she luckily for me, she got the bug, which is great.

Presenter19:12

I suppose her her sharing your enthusiasm uh I hate the phrase long suffering, but it it does seem that in Susanna's case that it might be appropriate.

Heston Blumenthal19:19

Oh, it's very appropriate. Yeah, very appropriate. When we first opened, I did remember this some of the incidents um where because I couldn't leave the kitchen for one second and I read that we needed to find the right potato for chips. I read that if you put salt in water to a certain level, make it a certain density, the potato with the more dry matter, which is the the solid stuff, the heavier dry matter, heavier potato, sinks. The stuff with the lighter dry matter floats. Heavier dry matter is better for chips. So the potato that sank is better for chips than ones that float.

Heston Blumenthal19:48

Better for mashing.

Heston Blumenthal19:50

So I s I sent her down to the local Sainsbury's with a bucket of salted water and uh

Heston Blumenthal19:58

And she went? She yeah, she did. She went. She would never, ever do that now, but she did it then.

Presenter20:05

And she went round Sainsbury's dropping her tears in the water.

Heston Blumenthal20:07

Picking up the data, yeah.

Presenter20:09

You find one in a million there. What's your first record?

Heston Blumenthal20:12

Fifth Records by Pacquiao Lucia and is Andre Dos Aguas and it's reminds me I picked this track because right in the early days of The Fat Dark.

Heston Blumenthal20:21

We actually played some music because it was a converted pulp.

Heston Blumenthal20:24

And this was one of the tracks it reminds me of.

Heston Blumenthal20:28

The fonder bits of the early years of the Fed Duck.

Presenter21:00

Paco de Lucia and Entre dos Aguas. Um So in nineteen ninety five then you buy this tiny place in Bray, in Berkshire. The life savings are spent. You've been working all these years to build your dream. Here it is. You open the door. What's on the menu on the first day?

Heston Blumenthal21:17

First date, we had steak and chips, lemon tart, leek and potato soup, that type of thing. But just before we opened, I had some friends take time off work to help me do the place out. I had a skip outside one day, and this old lady walked past. She must have been 90 in the shade. She had a headscarf, neck scarf on, and a walking stick, and she asked what we were doing. Mr. Naive said, Oh, it's gonna be wonderful. You can come in and have a glass of wine and some oysters and maybe some pâté and a pint of beer. And she looked at me and I thought, Gosh, she's gonna be so excited. And she picked her stick up.

Heston Blumenthal21:49

And she said there's been three owners in five years. We've closed them down and we're gonna close you down and walked off waving a stick in the air. Um luckily, it's completely different now. I mean, uh I got it's fantastic. But I think there was it was just worried about what the place is going to become.

Presenter22:03

That opening menu that you describe, I mean, it it makes my mouth water. It sounds delicious. Don't you think that that's what most people want to eat rather than a seventeen course tasting menu?

Heston Blumenthal22:07

Since the

Heston Blumenthal22:12

Um I I think that people want to eat both. In terms of the fat duck, for me the w what I think interests human beings in everything we do is contrast. And I've often looked at this and thought maybe the experience I had at that restaurant when I was fifteen in France, had I've grown up with lobster and caviar and truffles, that wouldn't have knocked me for six in the way it did. And that was a great example of how contrast can be can be really important and interesting. It's like the scary bit in a film is only scarier or jumpy'cause the bit before was so serene.

Presenter22:42

Um the life of a chef proprietor is notoriously hard work. I mean, how many of you were in the kitchen at that point when you opened?

Heston Blumenthal22:48

Uh two.

Presenter22:49

Two of you. So what what were the typical days for you in the opening of

Heston Blumenthal22:52

I'd leave the house. I had this old Metro Metro van that was painted in emulsion paint and started with a two handles. You didn't need a key to start it. And I remember

Heston Blumenthal23:03

Trying to get this thing started would take twenty minutes every morning, and that was between five and five thirty. And I'd probably get back home at

Heston Blumenthal23:10

One o'clock?

Heston Blumenthal23:12

So you'd be looking at y yeah, from five, five thirty till one in the morning and then we'd get home and still do some sort of getting lists and stuff for the next day.

Presenter23:14

Yeah.

Presenter23:20

The hard work paid off quite quickly though, because in 1999 you were awarded your first Michelin star. Did you think that's it? I've arrived, I'm part of the club.

Heston Blumenthal23:29

Um, funny enough, the first star was the only time I sort of thought, cool, maybe we should get the year before if just part of me wondered if we'd get a star and we didn't. And so when it happened, I sort of felt a bit more that we should have had a star. So that's the only time that actually happened.

Presenter23:45

So it brought a degree of satisfaction. Did it bring financial stability?

Heston Blumenthal23:48

Um no, financial stability only happened, I would say, two years ago.

Presenter23:52

What's your sixth record?

Heston Blumenthal23:54

My sixth record is uh called Harry the Guitar and it's by Doctor Rubberfunk and I've chosen this one because um I

Heston Blumenthal24:02

I love my car basically and it's a great driving track.

Presenter24:06

Fancy car

Heston Blumenthal24:06

It's quite a fancy car. It's an M5 BMW and after those memories of driving around in the plumber's van that didn't start with no door keys and the engines that blew up on me, £100 cars. Every time I get in it, it sounds really kind of sad. But the drive home from work is just great fun. And this track is a great track to drive to.

Presenter24:57

Doctor Rubberfunk and Harry the Guitar, your driving record, Heston, in that flash BMW that you've treated yourself to. It wasn't always that way, of course, as you say. Let's go back a bit then to 2001. The plaudits keep on coming in. The Good Food Guide rates you, the AA Guide, The Guardian give you an award. And then in 2002 you get your second star. What's strange about this time is that at the same time that everybody is recognising you and applauding you for your professional record, you are teetering on the brink of financial distress.

Speaker 225:10

Going in

Speaker 225:13

I'm gonna give you a little bit of a

Heston Blumenthal25:26

What do you want?

Heston Blumenthal25:30

Yes, yeah. Because what's happened is every time when the turnover is up, you then buy the things you wanted to, or some of the things that you wanted to.

Presenter25:39

This is in terms of ingredients for the restaurant, produce, equipment.

Heston Blumenthal25:41

Produce. It could be equipment, staff, ingredients, everything. You just want to keep on you know, you're so desperate to move things along. And interestingly enough, on the night that we got the third star,

Heston Blumenthal25:52

Well the night it was the night before the guide came out. We had a four and a two booked in the restaurant.

Presenter25:57

It's a table for four, a table for two.

Heston Blumenthal25:58

Which is it?

Heston Blumenthal25:59

Six people.

Presenter26:01

In the space of three days in Spain, your life changes forever. Because you go off on on that trip, it's a a food-related trip, a restaurant-related trip. You're not sure if you can pay the wages at the end of the week. Susannah your wife doesn't know that it's that bad. You're living with that internal stress. And then in these three days, life changes forever.

Heston Blumenthal26:08

Yeah.

Heston Blumenthal26:12

Yeah.

Heston Blumenthal26:14

The earth.

Heston Blumenthal26:17

Yeah.

Heston Blumenthal26:21

Yeah, that was the most stressful of all because as you said, financially we were teetering big time. But when I got on that plane to go to Spain, someone it was like somebody had sprinkled something on the plane. Um I got told my book got awarded the best cookbook in the world at the World Book Fair and we won an Observer Restaurant Award and and then got the results of the third mission stuff.

Presenter26:42

What happened? You got a phone call?

Heston Blumenthal26:44

Yeah, I actually it was Ashley, my head chef phone, and said, Derek Bulmer, the head of Michelin, is going to call you in a minute. So he's put the phone down, so I put the ph I took the phone call and I remember him saying,

Heston Blumenthal26:55

We heard there's a journalist breaking the news who wanted to tell you you got the third star. Congratulations. Now I don't remember how long the time this the time had passed until he said this, but he then brought me round by saying, Are you still there?

Heston Blumenthal27:09

And it's just complete silence. Then I phoned my wife and she was

Heston Blumenthal27:14

She was just screaming, and then I phoned the restaurant.

Heston Blumenthal27:17

And spoke to Asheen and told and she been told Ashley and he had to sit down, he literally fell into his chair.

Presenter27:22

And then your phone rings off the hook and the restaurant is busy every night because people want to come and pay homage.

Heston Blumenthal27:27

We'd been closed over Christmas, that's why our cash flow was dented. There was no sign of any money coming in to bring us out of the the cash flow situation that we had.

Heston Blumenthal27:37

And literally, I reckon probably three days, four days away from God knows what, and then all of a sudden the phone starts going, the fact starts going.

Heston Blumenthal27:45

And then the great thing with a restaurant is you take your money on day one and pay a month, six weeks later, whatever. And it means that if you get cash flow, you get bums on seats, you can actually pull yourself out of it. And then and that was it. And s and

Heston Blumenthal27:56

Never looked back since then, really?

Presenter27:57

Really? What's your next record?

Heston Blumenthal27:59

Uh my next record is by Ilam al-Madfi and it's called Chalchal Ala Ruman

Heston Blumenthal28:06

I think it's called that.

Presenter28:06

Uh

Presenter28:08

And why have you chosen it?

Heston Blumenthal28:09

I've chosen it because this the three days that I call it the three days that changed my life I I'd had I bought this album shortly before before that and this track completely reminds me of those three days and in particular when I got back from Spain I got home opened the door sat down and my wife and kids had put their three little gold balloons they they they had those tied onto the chair and there were some cards and the and the times piece in a frame and it just was just lined up and they're all in bed

Heston Blumenthal28:41

And I sat there with this glass of wine listening to that track and it was the probably the only time really I can really truly say I woke up and smelt the roses.

Speaker 228:50

Chalchalayrumi Fizali.

Speaker 229:01

Adal hello, Marida.

Speaker 229:07

What do we need?

Speaker 229:11

Chal chalalai yaluma mini fiza.

Presenter29:19

Um this obsession with perfection, um it's ruled your life. Uh at the same time, Susannah your wife's been at home, she's had three children. Uh is there any sense in which she's sort of been left to to clean up the bits that you haven't time for?

Heston Blumenthal29:31

Please

Heston Blumenthal29:37

I mean it's a very good point. Zanna's had to deal with all the st everything else outside the restaurant and there's an awful lot of it. She's brought up the family, the home and looked after the kids, almost been a single single mum for for a l a a long time. But if my wife hadn't been as supportive and uh uh as she has been, there's no way on earth the fact that that would have happened.

Presenter29:59

When you spoke about your first record, you you spoke very fondly of this three weeks that you had off. I mean, it was for a back operation, but actually it gave you the opportunity to be involved in in Christmas in a way that you never had before. Is there a regret there that you've you've missed things, that they've gone and you'll never get them back to times with your children and your wife?

Heston Blumenthal30:15

Yes, there's a certain yeah, there is. So when uh my kids were putting the decorations up on the tree and I was standing there with my walking stick, my son just turned around and said, This is the first time you've done this. You know, he's thirteen and it's awful. I mean, talk about a big lump in my throat. It was uh part of it's great that I'm there, but also the other part is I go to work and come home the tree's up.

Presenter30:37

What are you going to do this Christmas, then?

Heston Blumenthal30:39

Um this Christmas

Heston Blumenthal30:42

Uh this Christmas I'm going to go to the see my daughter sing choir and I'm going to put the decorations up. Oh, I'm going to help put the decorations up. Actually, do you know what? My wife wouldn't have heard me saying this. She has. So she doesn't know she's got that connection. No, no, I'm going to do that. I'm not going to come home to to a ready made tree.

Presenter30:54

She's got that connection.

Presenter31:01

Your final record.

Heston Blumenthal31:03

My final record is The Grand March from the second act of Aida, Verdes Aida.

Presenter31:09

And why have you chosen this?

Heston Blumenthal31:10

I chose this for I bought my wife for birthday this year.

Heston Blumenthal31:15

tickets to Ada in uh Verona. We went for a couple of days and it's only uh the second time we'd been away together in like well, since the kids are born. And it was just unbelievable. And I got back and

Heston Blumenthal31:30

Yeah, nice bit of culture.

Heston Blumenthal31:32

We're on a holiday this year in France, and I was choosing the tracks, looking at tracks for here, and I said to my wife, I think I'd like to do something for my either because, you know, wonderful weekend, no way. So I put this track on, and Joy walks out, my youngest daughter humming this song, humming this track. How on earth do you know about this? I only heard this when I was 40 for the first time. Well, she's got a PlayStation game and there's a thing where you conduct some music and it's this track. So I picked this one because of my youngest daughter actually humming it as I was choosing it.

Presenter33:04

The Grand March from the second act of Verdi's Aida, your final, your eighth record, Hestimplemental. We will give you the complete works of Shakespeare, of course, and the Bible. What book would you take with you?

Speaker 233:08

Yeah.

Heston Blumenthal33:15

Um, I think I'd have to take Harold McGee's book, The On Food and Cooking.

Heston Blumenthal33:21

I mean, it really was such a big catalyst for me. It's also.

Heston Blumenthal33:25

I've read bits of it. I've read the whole book in sections over the years several times, but I'd love the.

Heston Blumenthal33:32

Pleasure to be able to sit down and read it from cover to cover.

Presenter33:34

And what would be your luxury?

Heston Blumenthal33:37

It would have to be I've got these um these Japanese knives. They've just literally just come into the country. They're fantastic. And um they're so sharp when you cut with them you don't you do such little damage to the cell walls. It preserves the the the the the the whole structure of the fruit and veg'cause I'm assuming that on the island there's gonna be an awful lot of fruit and veg to be able to eat. So they're they're they're tojiro senko they're called and they're they're just fantastic. So I'd have I'd have a couple of those with me. I don't know how many I'm allowed to take but I

Presenter33:57

Yeah.

Presenter34:06

You can take the full set. Oh, I'll have the full set.

Heston Blumenthal34:07

I'll have a full set.

Presenter34:08

You can have them. And i if the waves were to crash onto the shore and wash away your discs, which one would you run across the sand to save?

Heston Blumenthal34:15

Yeah, I think it would have to be uh Bobby Womack.

Presenter34:19

Hest and Blumenthal, thank you very much for letting us hear your Desert Island discs.

Heston Blumenthal34:23

Thanks.

Presenter34:30

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio four.