Lunch at the Fat Duck - Part 2

The Fat Duck is a not a large restaurant. It holds around 12-13 tables and can seat a little more than 40 guests. All tables are round (as far as I can remember). Contemporary art line the white walls. There are dark wooden beams in the ceiling, and you are constantly reminded to mind your head from one of the attentive waiters each time you move around. And the waiters really are attentive and professional. Toilets are up the stairs in the corner (mind your head), and there you can also find the wine "cellar". You cannot enter the wine kingdom, but you can peek in through openings in the wall.

We were seated at our table and given a copy of today's tasting menu. I had notified in advance that one of us was vegetarian, but does eat fish. We got two printed menus, one for her where the meat dishes had been substituted with other dishes, and the regular one for the rest of us. There was not an a la carte menu, but only the 14 course tasting menu at 195 pounds. They also offer three different sets of wine pairings with different price tags, but we chose one bottle of white in stead from the large book of wines.

And then the food started coming. The first course was a small amuse bouche made from dried beetroot foam with horseradish cream. You can see a bit of the making of this in this video on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnEy6VLSGX4

at around 1:33.

Popping it into my mouth, it proved to be very light and crunchy and released lots of beetroot flavour with a hint of horseradish.

This little mouthful gave us a hint of things to come. It was visually stunning, even though it was quite simple, rather like a small piece of jewellery. It was packed with flavour, and it was perfectly balanced. You could pick out all the flavours, but nothing was overpowering. Just perfectly balanced.

Next up was

NITRO POACHED APERITIFS

• Vodka and Lime Sour, Campari Soda, Tequila and Grapefruit
• 
  

"Cooking" in liquid nitrogen is something that the Duck is famous for. Liquid nitrogen holds -196 degrees Centigrade and is used to freeze food very quickly.

For this dish, the waiter had three spuma bottles with different foams. We each chose which one we wanted, and the waiter placed a dollop of foam from one of the bottles on a spoon. This was then put into the liquid nitrogen and left to "cook" for some seconds. It was then taken out of the bath and held behind a candle while oils from a piece of fruit peel was squirted through the flame and onto the little ball on the spoon. It was then placed on a plate and presented to the one of us with the instruction to pick it up very carefully and pop it in the mouth.

It was like eating a meringue, only that it had not been baked, but frozen. The outside was crunchy and quite cold, but melted quite quickly in my mouth giving way to a soft interior and releasing lots of flavour. Here is a video of some of the proceedings:

https://vimeo.com/88925585

Loved it!