Lunch at the Fat Duck - Part 9, The rest

At last we have come to the last part of the lunch of my life. To dessert number three.

BOTRYTIS CINEREA

Those of you steeped in wine knowledge will already know that botrytis cinerea is a fungus that is responsible for what is known as noble rot in grapes. Grapes attacked by noble rot give rise to beautiful sweet desert wines like Sauternes and Tokaji.

So, what is this dessert, then? A fungus? No. The chefs at the Fat Duck analysed the flavour of typical wines of this type (no doubt having a good time while doing so) and tried to break it down to separate flavour components. Then they made small dessert components with those flavours. And what a dessert!

First of all it was stunningly beautiful to look at. It consisted of various spheres of different colours and textures on a base of some crumbly stuff. with a few other bits and pieces thrown in for effect. Some of the spheres were ice cream, some were jello-like. Some where hollow with fillings. One was golden. They all had different flavours, all very fragrant and aromatic and sweet, but rather impossible to describe. There was some white chocolate in there somewhere. Something tasted of berries. There were citrus tones. Somewhere in the crumbles we definitely spotted parmesan cheese. The whole thing was just WOW. This was definitely the best dessert I had ever had.

 Following this masterpiece were two smaller items just to round it all up.

WHISK(E)Y WINE GUMS

This is like wine gums, but with five different whiskies. These were presented on a map showing where the all came from. Printed on the map was also the preferred eating sequence, from mild to heavily smoked. The small bottle shaped sweets had good whisky flavours and also melted well in the mouth. This was when my 17 year old daughter decided that she likes whiskey. I do believe that she will have a small shock when she tries out the real thing as these ones lacked the alcohol and the kick that comes with it...

"LIKE A KID IN A SWEET SHOP"

The meal ended with a bag of candies. Two pieces of chocolates and one piece of pie in the shape of a playing card, presented in an envelope, all delivered in a paper bag.







ENDING AND VERDICT

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I told one of the waiters that I had made some of these dishes at home, and he then suggested that a look into the kitchen might be of interest. It was. After the last little crumble was gone from our plates, we were led to what is known as the pass, where the waiters pick up the food. From there we could look into the kitchen, or one of the kitchens.

The fat duck owns several buildings in High Street. The one where the restaurant is contains a rather small service kitchen. This one was actually slightly smaller than my own kitchen at home. This is where all the dishes are finished during service. Across the road is another building with more kitchen space. There is the prep kitchen that starts at 0530 in the morning and is run on two shifts until 10-ish at night. And there is a special chocolate kitchen and the development kitchen where new stuff is developed and tested.  The food is prepared on that side if the road, loaded into a van and driven over to the restaurant in preparation for service. All in all we were told that 36 chefs had been working that day, 9 of them in the small service kitchen in the restaurant.

We came in at 12 and left at 5pm. I guess we were finished with the meal just after 4pm, the last part was seeing the kitchen, buying a book, chatting to the staff etc. That is one long lunch. It did cost 195 pounds plus beverages, and that is of course a lot of money for food. Was it worth it? It was definitely worth it to us.

So, was that the best meal I ever had? I find that a bit hard to answer. I have had several very good ones. Noma in Copenhagen, Maaemo in Oslo, the restaurant at hotel Bristol in Paris. They all had something special. But, yes, I think that when all is counted and analysed, the Fat Duck is my best restaurant experience ever. For now.