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Our approach to eating is infantile (The Times)

Monday, 6th October 2008

I have a piece in today's Times, which you can read here:

Personally, I've never had sardine on toast sorbet. But if Heston Blumenthal offered it to me I'd put it in my mouth faster than you can say “The Fat Duck”.

Later this month the greatest living British chef brings out his magnum opus, The Big Fat Duck Cookbook, an encyclopedia of the recipes and cooking methods at the restaurant he runs in Bray, near Maidenhead. Mr Blumenthal is an exponent of what is called “molecular gastronomy”, in which the arts of cooking and, above all, tasting are taken back to first principles. The result is dishes such as his most famous creations, snail porridge and bacon and egg ice-cream - and the aforementioned sorbet.

The book has not even been published yet, but already the responses are yawningly predictable. One writer yesterday described her attempt to make the sorbet. It was, she informed us, “rancid smelling”. The result was “putrid”.

That reaction, and the many other similar gasps of “yuck” that Mr Blumenthal's food has long prompted - never by people who have actually eaten it - says all that one needs to know about our nation's attitude to food. It presumably never occurred to the writer that her inability to reproduce a dish created and cooked by one of the greatest chefs in history is hardly a surprise.

The idea that food can be an art form in its own right, and that only great artists are capable of producing great art, is anathema to the British psyche. The tasting menu at The Fat Duck is £125. I consider that to be something close to a bargain. To be able to experience such an astounding product of the best in human imagination and skill is a privilege that comes cheap at £125.

On one level, Jamie Oliver's TV series, Ministry of Food, in which he tries to teach families in Rotherham how to prepare food, is as far removed from The Big Fat Duck Cookbook as can be. But the sneering reaction to them both shows how similar they really are. “How patronising!” has come the cry. Who is Jamie Oliver to tell people how to eat? If they want to eat crisps for breakfast, lunch and dinner, why shouldn't they?

To too many people, food is just a refueling agent. And it is the height of ponciness to dress it up as anything more. Whether that is Heston Blumenthal's £125-a-head molecular gastronomy or Jamie Oliver's freshly prepared salads, his pasta sauces or his roast chicken. It's all just middle-class ponce.

But there's nothing patronising about Jamie Oliver's passion to show how anyone has the ability to eat well, and how basic skills that anyone can master are the key to a world of food beauty. And if an appreciation of Heston Blumenthal's creations is poncy, how about Michelangelo or Mozart?

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patricia

October 6th, 2008 11:09am

I suppose the only positive thing about pollard's page is that mel keeps away from it most of the toxic scribblers who like her think variously that;

- the earth is flat
- sarah palin is the seventh goddess
- israel is our moral saviour

etc...

leaving pollard's untouched, unsullied and unread page free for occasional musings and observations.

Paul

October 6th, 2008 11:19am

"To too many people, food is just a refueling agent."

It is. And so what? We're surrounded by chefs, by cookery programmes and books, by all manner of commentators talking and talking and talking about food. It is, quite possibly, the most boring thing on earth. That some of us - a lot of us - have got other, better, things to be worrying about shouldn't be a concern for you Stephen. And no, that last sentence doesn't automatically imply that I/we eat shit on toast all day long - we eat fine, thank you. It's just that we know where the border to madness lies.

As for Heston Blumenthal. He is an utter prat. In fact, the only good thing about him is that he's a fan of The Fall. And you can't fault a man for that.

Nick Kaplan

October 6th, 2008 1:19pm

Heston Blumenthal is a genius and, as you rightly say, an artist. ‘The Fat Duck’ is truly sublime and I really recommend that you try it Stephen, you will never experience anything quite so special (food wise anyway). The only problem is everything you eat from then on will always be tainted by a slight sense of disappointment in that it could never live up to those awesome standards.

Whilst I admire Jamie Oliver’s attempts to get people eating well, is there not a slight contradiction between this and his campaign to end battery farming of chickens? The only way everyone will be able to afford to have a decent home cooked meal every evening is for meat etc to be produced on a large scale and at low cost.

Nick Biskinis

October 6th, 2008 2:47pm

Hmm Patricia, why do i get the impression that Heston Blumenthal's surname provoked the pointless comment about Israel? Do you think Saudi Arabia is our moral saviour?

125 quid is too much for any meal no matter how well cooked Stephen; we'd be desperately trying not to finish the meal too quickly, hesitating over gulping that spoonful of risotto knowing it's cost about 25 pounds. There are many restaurants in Central London for example where the bill is physically larger than the meal

Anthony Silverbrow

October 6th, 2008 3:51pm

I left this commetn on the Times website, but here goes again:

Stephen is spot on. The Observer coverage was ridiculous, as Jay Rayner himself argued.

BTW the book is available already in some central London branches of Waterstones and Foyles.

www.silverbrowonfood.com

Edward McLaughlin

October 6th, 2008 6:49pm

Wow, that patricia, you've got to admire his/her/its economy of style: three elliptical anti-Semitic stabs in the one semi-literate comment.

But Stephen, a meal at 125 quid?

That's with the room, right?

And rumpy-pumpy dos vadanya?

mike mckee

October 6th, 2008 9:06pm

patricia
where is your brain?
This is a blog post on food as art!
Where is the politics?
get a life.

Stephen, great post and more strehgth to the arm of both the chefs.
I'd love to have the degustation in Bray unfortunately it will cost me 2200 dollars before food.
so I'll wait until my next trip home.
it'll still be there.
keep writing someone appreciates it.
MikeNZ

HJ

October 7th, 2008 1:20pm

"such an astounding product of the best in human imagination and skill"

Ridiculous hyperbole. I am quite sure that Blumenthal is a very fine chef, but he's not exactly Einstein or Shakespeare or Mozart, is he?

Adam B.

October 9th, 2008 12:02am

Patricia's rant is a perfect example of her antisemitic obsession. A thread about food gets twisted into an incoherent rant against Israel. Amazing. Sick, but amazing.