Heston Blumenthal's secret ingredient for a memorable Christmas celebration

Ask Heston Blumenthal what the secret to a perfect Christmas is and the answer may surprise you.

Is it mastering his groundbreaking technique for triple-cooked chips (or roasties) for the feast? Recreating his hidden orange Christmas pudding? Or going the full molecular gastronomy route and maybe trying your hand at snail porridge or Sound of the Sea?

‘It’s the smell of the Christmas tree,’ declares the celebrated chef of the Michelin three-star The Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire. ‘It’s the most important thing of all – more than the food. Smell invokes so many memories.’

I’m in The Hinds Head, Blumenthal’s 15th-century, Michelin one-star pub next door to The Fat Duck, chatting with him and his wife Melanie Ceysson about the upcoming holiday season. Blumenthal, who is rounder now, with whitening whiskers, and is resplendent in a fir-green velvet suit, could be the autumn incarnation of Santa.

‘For some people, Christmas holds bad memories, but for most of us, it’s a moment that brings people together to celebrate, and [that smell] is a massive childhood memory that I’ve kept to adulthood,’ he says. ‘The smell of the Christmas tree takes me back to putting the baubles up, all the chocolate ornaments you hung and then later pulled off to eat, the presents… And as I grew up, the anticipation of Christmas became stronger and stronger.’

This ‘smell of Christmas’ is so important to Blumenthal that he has created a bespoke scent with a perfumier in France – including extracts of pine, cinnamon, raisins and apple – that is used during The Fat Duck services over the festive season to evoke that childhood anticipation among diners.

Celebrating milestones

The 16th-century cottage that’s home to The Fat Duck restaurant in the centre of Bray, near the Thames in Berkshire. Credit: Lola Laurent

It’s this emotion and playfulness, which runs throughout Blumenthal’s precise, imaginative, creations, that has seen The Fat Duck remain at the forefront of British cuisine. Last year it celebrated two decades of holding three Michelin stars and this year marks 30 years since Blumenthal opened his famous restaurant.