I will be honest and say that the only reasons I decided to try, and eventually watch, this programme were for the fact that it was picked on by Harry Hill's TV Burp, and that the chef has very weird and wonderful food ideas. Basically Heston Blumenthal, owner and chef of the Fat Duck (once voted best restaurant in the world), and winner of the Michelin three-star award, has very weird ideas for food and meals. Heston delves back into history, fiction and folk law to many well known periods and themes, such as Victorian, Medieval, Tudor, Roman, 1960s, fairytale, Edwardian, Gothic and many more. He takes from the pages of many books he reads from that represent the time, e.g. children's stories, songs, historical fact, etc, to bring his weird and wonderful modern interpretations of food ideas and meals of these times. To complete the show, every episode Heston invites six celebrity guests to eat all this food, knowing only the theme, and nothing about what they will be eating. These guests have included: Dawn Porter, Toby Young, Germaine Greer, Craig Revel Horwood, Liz McClarnon, Bill Paterson, John Thomson, Cilla Black, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Kelvin Mackenzie, Alex Zane, Danny Wallace and many more. Heston goes into detail about history and the themes he will recreate, and of course he goes into detail about the food he is preparing, but he reminds viewers not to try any of it at home. Heston may be one of the strangest chefs in the UK, but then again, if he can satisfy his guests taste buds, and come up with very inventive ways to eat, like he has in the show, he is a genius, and a lovable eccentric, a great alternative food/cookery show. Very good!
3 Reviews
Better watching than eating
gut-625 September 2010
This is a cooking show with only the vaguest resemblance to the conventional concept of a cooking show. Instead of introducing you to exotic regional cuisines or pretending to teach you how to make certain dishes, Heston treats his panel of 6 C-list celebrity guests to a themed dinner of completely new radical dishes unlike anything they (or anyone else) have ever seen before, or will see again. A typical trick is to make familiar-looking dishes taste like something totally unlike what they appear to be, e.g sweet dessert made to look like bangers and mash, or meat-flavoured "cocktails". He also scours cookbooks from centuries ago to make meals inspired by extinct cuisines.
In theory it should be gastronomically irresistible. In practice, watching this TV program, I am reminded a little of "Man vs Wild" in the way that Bear Grylls keeps introducing us to assorted local "delicacies" then struggles to avoid barfing as he consumes these prized morsels. Heston Blumenthal does a similar thing as he presents his guests with dishes that are just too weird or too disgusting to be easily palatable. Pig nipple scratchings, anyone? Fermented fish gut sauce? Didn't think so. It makes great gross-out television, but I wouldn't eat his meals if he paid me. Like John Cage's "music", they are a triumph of inventiveness and technical virtuosity over aesthetics, customer pleasure, good taste and commonsense, memorable for all the wrong reasons. As Nigel Molesworth would sa: "Just give me a suck at a tin of condensed milk".
In theory it should be gastronomically irresistible. In practice, watching this TV program, I am reminded a little of "Man vs Wild" in the way that Bear Grylls keeps introducing us to assorted local "delicacies" then struggles to avoid barfing as he consumes these prized morsels. Heston Blumenthal does a similar thing as he presents his guests with dishes that are just too weird or too disgusting to be easily palatable. Pig nipple scratchings, anyone? Fermented fish gut sauce? Didn't think so. It makes great gross-out television, but I wouldn't eat his meals if he paid me. Like John Cage's "music", they are a triumph of inventiveness and technical virtuosity over aesthetics, customer pleasure, good taste and commonsense, memorable for all the wrong reasons. As Nigel Molesworth would sa: "Just give me a suck at a tin of condensed milk".
A fantastic start to Heston's bizarre yet innovative edible experiments that focused on various historical eras and themes
Stompgal_8728 May 2014
Warning: Spoilers
I like watching Channel 4's cooking programmes from time to time, especially Jamie Oliver's various programmes and 'Come Dine With Me,' but the Channel 4 cooking shows that have stood out the most have got to be those involving Heston Blumenthal, who is perhaps Britain's weirdest celebrity chef but in a good way. Recently I've been re-visiting this series on 4OD and it was as good as I remembered if slightly forgettable in parts with a few repetitive uses of music.
The first series saw Heston serving up feasts that were based on different historical periods such as Victorian, Medieval, Tudor and Roman (the dining rooms were even decorated to reflect each era) plus also a Christmas feast. They would involve such celebrities as Atomic Kitten's Liz McClarnon, MTV's Alex Zane, Sophie Ellis Bextor and former 'Blind Date' presenter Cilla Black tucking into modern versions of historically-inspired delicacies such as an edible Victorian garden, a hog with edible intestines that were actually made from sausages and a stunning edible wintry scene. Heston delivered some informative facts about each era and dish, these facts being accompanied by simple yet stylish cut-out animations that reflected the look of each era. His trial-and-error footage was also worth watching because it goes to show that even professional chefs have to find out what works best for them and what doesn't. This series also had some funny moments, especially McClarnon's cries of "Bull's balls!" I also found out some surprising origins of inventions such as vibrators and helium having been invented in the 19th century for instance.
The second series was better, in which they not only looked at more historical eras (including the 1960s - 1980s) but also themes such as Gothic horror and fairy tales, both of which focused on the 19th century to a certain extent. This time celebrities included 'Just a Minute' presenter Nicholas Parsons, singer 'Mica Paris (who also appeared on 'CelebAir'), BBC Radio 2 DJ Jo Whiley, singer Jamelia and comedian Johnny Vegas. I liked the fact that the 1960s feast was inspired by my favourite Roald Dahl book 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' and it was clever of Heston to base his 1970s feast on his own childhood. Dishes here included a 1980s lobster power lunch, a dissected 'hog's head' in a storybook, 'magic mushroom soup,' duck a l'orange disguised as sweets and a gourmet Pot Noodle. The creme de la creme of Heston's second series feasts were his desserts from an edible chocolate waterfall, a graveyard, Hansel and Gretel's house and iceberg desserts to pick-and-mix desserts in a flying saucer-type bowl and a 'Vienettamisu', a hybrid of Vienetta and tiramisu. One anachronism I spotted in this series is that Heston made a mini savoury version of a Twister ice lolly in his 1970s feast but this ice lolly wasn't available until 1982. Like the first series, this series also featured trial-and-error footage from Heston as well as historical facts accompanied by cut-out animations and again dining rooms that reflected each era. This series also has some laughs, especially Heston secretly operating the flying saucers in his 1970s feast. At the end of this series, Heston looked back on his standout courses from the first series, which included medieval meat fruit, Victorian mock turtle soup, a Tudor mythical beast and a Roman ejaculating pudding.
Both series had a whimsical and memorable theme tune with chirpy whistling.
Overall, this series was well worth the re-visit, despite the repetitive uses of music and the slight anachronism in the 1970s episode. 9/10.
The first series saw Heston serving up feasts that were based on different historical periods such as Victorian, Medieval, Tudor and Roman (the dining rooms were even decorated to reflect each era) plus also a Christmas feast. They would involve such celebrities as Atomic Kitten's Liz McClarnon, MTV's Alex Zane, Sophie Ellis Bextor and former 'Blind Date' presenter Cilla Black tucking into modern versions of historically-inspired delicacies such as an edible Victorian garden, a hog with edible intestines that were actually made from sausages and a stunning edible wintry scene. Heston delivered some informative facts about each era and dish, these facts being accompanied by simple yet stylish cut-out animations that reflected the look of each era. His trial-and-error footage was also worth watching because it goes to show that even professional chefs have to find out what works best for them and what doesn't. This series also had some funny moments, especially McClarnon's cries of "Bull's balls!" I also found out some surprising origins of inventions such as vibrators and helium having been invented in the 19th century for instance.
The second series was better, in which they not only looked at more historical eras (including the 1960s - 1980s) but also themes such as Gothic horror and fairy tales, both of which focused on the 19th century to a certain extent. This time celebrities included 'Just a Minute' presenter Nicholas Parsons, singer 'Mica Paris (who also appeared on 'CelebAir'), BBC Radio 2 DJ Jo Whiley, singer Jamelia and comedian Johnny Vegas. I liked the fact that the 1960s feast was inspired by my favourite Roald Dahl book 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' and it was clever of Heston to base his 1970s feast on his own childhood. Dishes here included a 1980s lobster power lunch, a dissected 'hog's head' in a storybook, 'magic mushroom soup,' duck a l'orange disguised as sweets and a gourmet Pot Noodle. The creme de la creme of Heston's second series feasts were his desserts from an edible chocolate waterfall, a graveyard, Hansel and Gretel's house and iceberg desserts to pick-and-mix desserts in a flying saucer-type bowl and a 'Vienettamisu', a hybrid of Vienetta and tiramisu. One anachronism I spotted in this series is that Heston made a mini savoury version of a Twister ice lolly in his 1970s feast but this ice lolly wasn't available until 1982. Like the first series, this series also featured trial-and-error footage from Heston as well as historical facts accompanied by cut-out animations and again dining rooms that reflected each era. This series also has some laughs, especially Heston secretly operating the flying saucers in his 1970s feast. At the end of this series, Heston looked back on his standout courses from the first series, which included medieval meat fruit, Victorian mock turtle soup, a Tudor mythical beast and a Roman ejaculating pudding.
Both series had a whimsical and memorable theme tune with chirpy whistling.
Overall, this series was well worth the re-visit, despite the repetitive uses of music and the slight anachronism in the 1970s episode. 9/10.
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