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

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.

In addition to purchasing The Hinds Head in 2004, the self-taught chef has also launched Dinner by Heston Blumenthal restaurants in London (Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park) and Dubai – with two and one Michelin stars respectively – and in 2006, he was awarded an OBE for services to British gastronomy.

‘Look, I could never big myself up, but I realise there are some dishes I have done that have changed the world of cooking,’ he says. ‘I rebuffed the molecular gastronomy label because I thought everyone thought it was syringes and pipettes and stuff. Molecular gastronomy as a term makes sense, but I realised what I did was to create multi-sensory gastronomy: tasting, yes, but also smelling, hearing, touching – and feeling.’

Making changes

My conversation with Blumenthal and his wife doesn’t touch on his week-long manic episode in Provence in November 2023, which led to his sectioning, three weeks on a psychiatric ward and an ultimate diagnosis of type 1 bipolar disorder. But it’s clear the medication has affected his memory, speech and balance.

Soon after our meeting, I not only discover that Blumenthal had been prescribed Mounjaro to help manage the weight gained as a side-effect of his medication, but also that this prompted a new reduced menu at The Fat Duck. Designed specifically to cater for diners’ suppressed appetites brought on by weight-loss drugs, as well as a shift toward health-conscious eating, The Mindful Experience offers all of the dishes on The Journey tasting menu, but with portion sizes for each reduced by between 20% and 50%. The cost is £275 – £75 less than The Journey.

This joins the return of the à la carte menu (£195-£225), in celebration of the 30th anniversary, as well as the Christmas menu (£375-£450), which runs until 21 December. And from January, The Fat Duck is introducing The Top Seat, an exclusive solo dining experience that I was lucky enough to be the first to test out the day before our meeting in mid-September.

It was inspired by the increasing number of single diners requesting a booking, and I can confirm that it’s the ultimate treat for any foodie. You have a seat at the kitchen pass, amid all the quietly controlled action and precision of the brigade, along with the chance to chat with and be served by the same chefs you’ve seen prepare your iconic dishes – including two of the most complex desserts The Fat Duck’s pastry team has ever encountered, both of which have wine at their core.

The molecular DRC

For a vertical tasting The Fat Duck hosted with Burgundy’s Domaine de la Romanée-Conti in July this year, Blumenthal created Pinot Noir Grape. As he explains it, he broke down the base flavour profile of the wine into molecules and then paired these molecules with food.

It’s a reinvention of another wine-based Fat Duck dessert, Botrytis Cinerea, created in 2012 for a wine event the restaurant hosted with Bordeaux’s Château d’Yquem. The dish – on this year’s Christmas menu – recreates the profile of noble rot (the grape fungus central to Sauternes sweet wine production) and features, among other surprising flavours, tomatoes, Parmesan and fenugreek, along with honey and ‘the tiniest bit of passion fruit’.

‘But the Pinot dish… that was a ball breaker. It was six to 10 months in the making,’ recalls Blumenthal, who flew back and forth to Vosne-Romanée every week to try to capture the complexity and nuance of aromas and flavours in the legendary domaine’s wines.

‘It only came together the day before the dinner,’ he says with a laugh. ‘I was sweating it. To pair a dessert with a non-dessert wine, and for that wine to be DRC Echezeaux… That extra layer was what made it harder than the Botrytis dish to create.

‘Eventually, it was a strawberry macerated with pepper that did it,’ he says, describing one of the 20 elements of Pinot Noir Grape, which requires more than 50 stages of preparation. ‘We had the cep mushrooms, cherry, leather, tobacco and the olive, and the crystallised flowers, cocoa and Parmesan in the soil, but it was that strawberry that made the dish.’

Impulse shoppers

After all that, it’s unsurprising that Blumenthal cites DRC as his favourite producer. But it’s Burgundy in general that has long been his favourite wine. ‘When Burgundy is at its best, it’s the most hedonistic wine you can get: the complexity of smell, taste and texture… And we got a bottle of DRC Romanée-Conti as a wedding gift!’ he exclaims, suddenly remembering. ‘And a bottle of Bâtard-Montrachet!’

‘They’re in storage,’ interjects Ceysson. ‘That’s the start of our collection; it’s a work in progress! Mostly we just go to the supermarket and buy what we want for that night. If we’re travelling, we pick up a few bottles at a wine fair, or a case from wineries we visit, like Mas de Daumas Gassac in Languedoc recently.

‘We don’t really think about it too much; we are very impulsive – we’ve both got ADHD,’ she explains, with Blumenthal chiming in: ‘If we have too much choice, we can just spend an hour staring at a shelf and then walk out because it’s too complicated.’

But there’s one wine style Blumenthal is unlikely to choose. ‘New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc; it was my first “dislike” of wine. I like it a bit more now, but it’s not subtle, is it? It’s not Ladoucette or Cotat,’ he adds as justification, citing two acclaimed Central Loire producers. They discuss what they’ve eaten and drunk together recently. ‘Ragu bolognese and Valpolicella – a slightly aged one,’ says Blumenthal. ‘We had it two weeks ago, it was magic. Dal Forno, I think?’ Ceysson agrees, recalling that it was one of the bottles she bought ‘H’ for Christmas last year.

The Christmas meal

Now living in Provence, the pair’s past two Christmas meals – mainly with friends – have been a unique blend of Anglo-French traditions, with cooking duties shared. ‘She’s going to marry the sous vide machine,’ jokes Blumenthal.

‘We do a seafood platter and of course foie gras,’ says Ceysson. ‘Last year, I challenged myself to cook his Meat Fruit recipe. Not shaping it like a mandarin, but doing the mousse. ‘H always does the poultry. We did capon last year, this year chicken – always Bresse – and he loves to truffle it under the skin.’ (‘It’s about the only time we eat truffle,’ he adds.) ‘And then the veg,’ Ceysson continues. ‘There are lots of similarities between France and the UK, because we both have the potatoes and the greens, but last year, H brought a British touch with the red cabbage. That was good!

‘The cheese board is something very important in France that I bring to our Christmas,’ she adds. ‘We have beautiful cheeses here so we make sure to get some fancy ones. Like Brie de Meaux with truffles…’ ‘Britain produces more cheese than France, you know,’ adds her husband.

Anglo-French desserts

The conversation moves to dessert and Blumenthal makes a surprising revelation: ‘I never liked Christmas pudding until I did the hidden orange one for Waitrose. The thing that really turned me on to it was I steamed it, not microwaved it. It was wonderful! But you can’t eat too much of it.’

Since the UK supermarket ended its partnership with Blumenthal in early 2023, The Fat Duck team has sold a candied clementine christmas pudding via its website. ‘Last time we had it,’ he says, ‘Melanie poured about half a bottle of Cognac over the top. I’m surprised the firefighters didn’t come!’

Ceysson’s contribution to the sweet side of the festive feast has been ‘les treize desserts’ – an old Provence tradition, where 13 desserts (representing Jesus and the 12 apostles) are served after Christmas Eve dinner. Each guest must eat all 13 to guarantee good luck for the year to come. They include dried fruit and nuts, quince paste, fresh fruit, nougat, marzipan, candied fruits, biscuits and cakes – which often includes a yule log, or bûche de Noël.

‘We did have a bûche last year, but our dog ate it,’ says Ceysson. ‘Do you remember H? We had finally discovered a good patisserie guy, we found this village, drove quite far and really made a big effort to get this pastry. Harry – he’s a British Bulldog – he was really quiet at one point and we couldn’t understand why. We went to find him and…’

‘There was chocolate everywhere,’ finishes Blumenthal. ‘Harry had a good Christmas present.’

Switching off

‘We haven’t even spoken about Christmas presents yet, have we?’ Blumenthal asks. ‘How about a bit of peace?’ suggests Ceysson. ‘In the world and in life. That would be nice.’

She smiles and then reveals that when the restaurants close in December and January, and ‘it’s his time for a proper break; his mind can switch off’, there are always two things stashed in the suitcases they take to Provence.

The first is the scent of Christmas that Blumenthal created with the perfumier. ‘We spray it all around the house,’ she says. The second is the mince pies. ‘It’s the only thing we don’t cook. We always ask The Fat Duck pastry chefs for a box. It’s our little treat.’

‘And we usually eat them well before Christmas,’ adds Blumenthal. ‘We can’t wait!’

Just like those chocolate ornaments off the tree from his childhood.

Michelin-level mince pies

The Fat Duck’s mince pies (pictured below) – the ones Heston and Melanie take to France – are incredible. But preparing them is best left to the professionals. They take three days to make, require a vacuum sealer, sous-vide machine and meat injector, and the recipe calls for 45 ingredients – including Wagyu beef short ribs and Golden Oscietra caviar.

But if you still want to try your hand at making Michelin-starred mince pies, Heston has shared the recipe from Dinner by Heston Blumenthal (main image, above), which is far simpler and can be made using shop-bought ingredients and domestic kitchen appliances. Fruit mince (This recipe makes a lot, so you can keep any unused jars for the following year).

Fruit mince

(This recipe makes a lot, so you can keep any unused jars for the following year)

• 400g pears, peeled and chopped
• 400g Bramley apples, peeled and chopped
• 260g suet
• 300g raisins
• 200g sultanans
• 200g dried cranberries
• 200g currants
• 120g candied lemon peel, chopped
• 120g candied orange peel, chopped
• 240g muscovado sugar
• 2 each oranges & lemons, zest and juice
• 100g pecans, chopped
• 400ml brandy
• 200ml verjus
• 100g Sherry (not fino or manzanilla)
• 6g ground cinnamon
• 4g ground ginger
• 160g candied ginger in syrup, chopped

Method

Place all the liquids in a small pan and bring to the boil. Add all the other ingredients and slowly simmer while continually stirring. Keep reducing until thick – about 20-30 minutes – then leave to cool. Store in sanitised jars in the fridge for at least a month to mature, the longer the better. But you can also use it straight away if you don’t have the time.

Pastry

• 375g flour
• 260g butter, cold, in cubes
• 1 whole egg
• 125g golden caster sugar
• pinch of salt

Method

Place the flour, salt and cold butter in a stand mixer. With a paddle on low speed, work it until it becomes a fine crumb with no butter lumps left. Add the sugar and let it incorporate. Last, add the egg and let it just come together. Tip onto a work surface to bring it all together with your hands. Wrap up in cling film and rest in the fridge for one hour before rolling. Remove the dough from the fridge and leave at room temperature for 30min. Roll to 2mm with a light dusting of flour then rest for one hour before cutting. Use a 50mm (or whatever size you have) fluted cutter to cut out bases of the tart shell. Press into greased or lined mini tart tins and blind bake at 180°C/gas 4 for 10-12 minutes. Allow to cool. Any excess pastry can be placed on a tray and baked at the same temperature and time. Once cooked and cooled, break this excess pastry into small pieces to sprinkle on top of the finished pies.

To compile

To make 12 pies, use 300g of the prepared mincemeat that has been mixed with 5g of mandarin zest. Fill each blind-baked pastry case with 25g of mincemeat (increase or decrease this quantity depending on the size of your cases) and sprinkle with the crumbled pastry. Either serve as is, or warmed through, and dusted lightly with icing sugar.

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