When I watch Heston Blumenthal — whether it’s on Masterchef Australia, his Fantastical Feasts show or his Great British Food show – I always see a big kid living out his wildest dreams with the best job in the world.
It’s what makes him so much fun to watch – his joy about is infectious. Who wouldn’t want to don goggles, head to a lab and mix things in order to get something to smell just the right way? Or mince fish, chips and tartar sauce in order to make the biggest chip ever?
And, if you’re going to throw in some iconic food and British history, Heston is the ideal host because watching him learn about the history makes it, again, fun. It’s all right there on his face.
In Heston’s Great British Food he takes viewers on a trip through familiar iconic British food from fish and chips to pies, pudding, roast beef dinner, and curry – and gives them a Heston make-over from entrée through to dessert. And of course, there’s an episode on chocolate.
It’s the history that’s entertaining though when he throws in dishes like Queen Victoria’s favourite fish head stuffed with veal, and a chicken riding into a battle on a pig – it looks about hilarious as it sounds, but it was an honest-to-goodness real dish – and some old fashioned chocolate bars.
All, I want to know is WHY do these sorts of episodes never happen in Sydney? Because the dinners in these episodes are simply delicious. I was hungry the entire time I was watching these episodes.
It’s the inclusion of curry that resonated with me – I’m Indian – and I had no idea that chicken tikka were actually created for British tastebuds and the dish was never from India. In that episode, he goes on to create a pop-up Indian restaurant right out of the 1960s, and then has a giant pappadum for entrée, and then later on a vindaloo meringue, with a mango lassi chaser just in case it got too hot. Be still my heart, I wanted to be there.
This is the fun of this show – it’s a journey, and given that he’s Heston Blumenthal and everything that comes with that name, he’s still excited about learning about food and experimenting with it and there’s none of the gloss of the other cooking shows we’re used to.
Seriously, where else are you going to get a beeryani – rice infused beer – with dinner?
This DVD boxset is out now.
