Blooming bad news for Blumenthal's restaurant

Published on Saturday 28 February 2009 18:47

TELEVISION chef Heston Blumenthal's award-winning restaurant has been closed after an investigation was launched into a food poisoning scare.

The "culinary alchemist" shut The Fat Duck temporarily as a precaution while tests are carried out. Blumenthal said he took the decision to shut the Michelin-starred restaurant in Bray, Berkshire, on Tuesday after customers reported feeling unwell.

Tests by the celebrity chef's own food safety consultants and environmental health officers from Windsor and Maidenhead Borough Council have so far proved inconclusive.

"It's not an easy decision to close the restaurant and there will be a lot of disappointed people who have bookings, but it has to be investigated," his spokesman said.

"He wants to look after his customers – he is fanatical about food hygiene and he is flabbergasted as to how this could have happened.

"The restaurant will be closed for as short a time as possible, but his priority at the moment is to the investigation."

Blumenthal said he was giving a demonstration in France when he realised he would have to cancel current bookings: "After 14 years of work, to come to the point where you have to close the restaurant is upsetting. The Fat Duck for me is very much a labour of love. We have 40-odd chefs for 40 customers.

"All that we try to do is give the best possible experience to our customers and we don't want anyone to feel remotely uncomfortable, let alone unwell. We put so much time and effort and work into providing the best quality we can."

Between 30 and 40 people are understood to have complained of illness over the last two to three weeks.

The chef said the source of their symptoms remained a mystery, particularly because he employs hygiene consultants and gets samples analysed routinely – which have all come back negative. He said: "All our systems are checked and monitored. We have done everything in our power and I've never come across anything like this before.

"We called in the environmental health officers and they said it could be a non-specific virus which is going around. But all our staff have been tested and nothing has shown up."

Blumenthal, who opened The Fat Duck in 1995, found fame with his innovative cooking style. He researches the molecular compounds of dishes to achieve a greater understanding of taste.

The restaurant boasts three Michelin stars thanks to his scientific approach to flavours and was voted "the best place to eat on earth" by Restaurant magazine in 2005. It is currently second only to Spain's El Bulli.

Food lovers have to book months in advance to secure a table at the restaurant, where the tasting menu costs 130 and features gastronomic delights such as snail porridge and scrambled egg and bacon ice cream.