Heston Blumenthal

Heston Blumenthal, along with Ferran Adria, is one of the biggest proponents of molecular gastronomy on a world stage. Like Adria, he also has decried the term “molecular gastronomy”. However, where Adria embraces the deconstructivist approach to experimental cooking, Blumenthal has run in the completely opposite direction. At his restaurant (The Fat Duck in Berkshire, England), Blumenthal has created dishes such as an edible watch that dissolves in a cup of tea (a nod to Alice In Wonderland), and a dish called “Sound of the Sea”, which features seafood foam along with an iPod playing ambient ocean sounds.

Blumenthal is a self-taught chef, whose only prior experience was unpaid, impermanent positions at places run by notable chefs such as Marco Pierre White and Raymond Blanc. He reached international prominence with The Fat Duck, his first restaurant, and has since achieved celebrity status, creating a very popular television miniseries called Kitchen Chemistry, as well as being featured in films and television, such as The Trip.

Blumenthal's stated intention is to change the customary perceptions of a diner by assigning different flavors to little used textures, such as bacon and egg ice cream, or sardine on toast sorbet. To achieve this, Blumethals kitchen is more like a laboratory than a traditional kitchen, replete with centrifuges and vacuums. If Ferran Adria seeks to minimalize the art of molecular gastronomy, then Blumenthal is his mad scientist twin, forever looking for ways to maximalize the potential of combining chemistry and cooking.