Heston Blumenthal wins Diners Club Lifetime Achievement Award
The Fat Duck and Dinner by Heston Blumenthal chef has been recognised as part of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards, which will take place on 5 April at the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne, Australia.
Blumenthal is widely regarded as one of the culinary world’s most influential figures despite being largely self taught. The London-born chef, whose world famous restaurant The Fat Duck was once crowned The Best Restaurant in the World, has no formal training.
He developed his multi-sensory approach to cooking through investigation, experimentation and a single-minded vision to challenge culinary norms.
In an exclusive interview with Restaurant magazine, Blumenthal said of winning the award: “This is a major new chapter for me. I consider the past 20 years to have been my apprenticeship. I’m only just getting started.”
Blumenthal also revealed in the interview, which appears in the March issue of Restaurant magazine, that he had recently been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. “I’ve got ADHD and I would not swap it for the world,” he said.
In 1995, Blumenthal opened The Fat Duck, a 40-seat restaurant in the tiny UK village of Bray, where he earned plaudits for his playful, inventive multi-course tasting menu and curious flavour combinations.
His famed recipes for snail porridge and egg-and-bacon ice cream revealed an appreciation for art and science and put him at the forefront of a gastronomic revolution. The Fat Duck was awarded its first Michelin star in 1999, a second in 2011 and a third in 2004.
In 2005, the restaurant secured the number one spot on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list.
In 2011, he opened Dinner by Heston Blumethal at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park in London, to universal acclaim.
As the 2017 recipient of The Diners Club® Lifetime Achievement award, Blumenthal joins an elite group of international chefs. Former honourees include France’s Paul Bocuse, Alain Ducasse, Alain Passard and Jöel Robuchon, as well as Alice Waters, Daniel Boulud and Thomas Keller
To read the full Restaurant magazine interview click here.
