The live show was great. I was intrigued by hearing Heston tell the story of how he got into cooking in the first place, and where all his weird and wonderful ideas for dishes come from. From a memorable family dinner in France—beautiful food and surroundings punctuated by the natural smells and sounds of the location—his life changed and he decided he wanted to become a chef. He spent years reading, learning and perfecting his cooking techniques and absorbing everything he could about gastronomy. The turning point for him was reading On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee, which taught him to challenge some of the culinary ideas being touted as absolutes or ‘the rules’ of good cooking.

Heston Blumenthal is part mad scientist (and I mean that in the nicest possible way), part genius, yet listening to him explain, it all seems to make perfect sense. He did go off on tangents from time to time during the evening but even that was a fascinating insight into how his very creative mind works.

Some may have been disappointed that Heston himself didn’t cook, but being realistic, a two-and-a-half hour live show isn’t really conducive to his style of cooking. Having said that, he did still demonstrate how to cook the perfect steak (turn every 15 seconds until cooked to your liking then rest). He also talked about the importance not only of taste but sight, sound and smell and how they affect the way we enjoy eating food.

I give you the Tim-Tam example to demonstrate the importance of smell, and this is definitely something to try at home. Everyone in the audience was given a Tim-Tam and during the show Heston told us to close our eyes, hold our noses and take a bite. He then asked us to think about the taste of that mouthful—to be honest, it was sweet but not as chocolaty as normal; a bit ‘ho hum’ really. Heston then asked us to take bite as we normally would, eyes open and noses unblocked. The difference was amazing. In the case of the Tim-Tam, you don’t taste the chocolate so much as you actually smell it.

Sight is more obvious—if the food doesn’t look appetising; people are less likely to want to eat it. Interestingly, if it’s not visually appealing, then this affects the way people perceive the taste too—they will most likely be disappointed—giving new meaning to the expression ‘eating with our eyes’.

Heston’s numerous examples demonstrated the importance of the different senses to eating and I definitely get it—enjoying the taste of a meal is only part of the whole experience. It is the sight, sound, feel and smell, together with taste, that prompt associations and memories to be created, making the overall experience more pleasurable.

All in all it was a wonderful evening listening to highly successful yet incredibly down-to-earth guy. I feel like I learned a lot about food and thoroughly enjoyed Heston Blumenthal’s passion for his work. If he ever comes back, I would happily see him again. And oh how I would love to eat at The Fat Duck!