While I haven't seen it but was alerted to a repeat of Heston Blumenthal's BBC cooking show, In Search of Perfection, during which the British chef was developing the perfect chicken tikka masala recipe. Blumenthal, chef/owner of the three-Michelin-starred Fat Duck restaurant, placed chicken breasts in an MRI machine to see the effects of marinade penetration to the meat. The chicken scan determined that the best way to infuse the meat with spices is by using a yogurt-based marinade. More

If you've eaten at a fancy restaurant in the last five years, chances are, at least part of your food was cooked sous-vide (French for "under vacuum"). It was only a matter of time before a home version of the $1,000-plus thermal water circulators required for controlling the water baths would hit the market. And who better to shill for the new toy but molecular-gastro-uber-chef Heston Blumenthal? More

Heston Blumenthal, proprietor of the world's second best restaurant, tells the Guardian, "I am delighted the Health Protection Agency and the local Environmental Health Office have given us the all clear to open the restaurant tomorrow (Thursday, March 12). Whilst they are still awaiting outstanding test results we cannot comment further, but obviously we are overjoyed to be able to get back to business as normal."... More

As part of the Heston's Feasts series on the UK's Channel 4, Heston Blumenthal revisits Victorian England with dishes inspired by the ostentatious era. He injects grubs with tomato concentrate and creates an edible pocket watch made from stock ("freeze, filter, freeze, whiz in a centrifuge, freeze again, set in moulds and cover in gold leaf"). The Victorian feast aired a little more than three hours ago in England, but if you live in the UK or Ireland, you can watch it online here. [via @frugalcook]... More

From left: Third course (oyster, passion fruit jelly, lavender); eighth course ("Sound of the Sea," made with sand of tapioca and fried bits of eel, layered with hide cockles, oyster, razor clams, seaweed). Photographs from the Ulterior Epicure's Flickr stream Although Heston Blumenthal's storied Fat Duck restaurant has some strict picture-taking protocol (“No Flash Photography” and “Keep Your Lens Trained On The Table"), the Ulterior Epicure was able to document every nibble of his 15-course feast. I approached The Fat Duck as a skeptic. None of my encounters with molecular gastronomy (“m.g.”) in the U.S. had impressed me: alinea, moto, wd~50… The Fat Duck was not only my first full-frontal m.g. experience outside the U.S., but it would be... More

Eat Me Daily has some nice words for and pix of Heston Blumenthal's Big Fat Duck Cookbook: "Referencing children's literature throughout, Blumenthal is clearly trying to develop some sort of mythology explaining both himself and his restaurant. The biblical journey through 'The Valley of Hell' to L'Oustau de Baumaniere in Provence, the Harry-Potteresque self-training, the dreamlike realization of each coveted Michelin star—these are events that actually happened, of course, but each plays on basic dramatic tropes in such a precise, premeditated way." The Big Fat Duck Cookbook, $157.50 from Amazon... More

From the Telegraph: For Feast, a forthcoming series due on Channel 4 early next year, Heston [Blumenthal] interprets historical banquets and cooks an entire pig in a sous-vide."We couldn’t find a water bath big enough so we went to a hot-tub warehouse," he says. "We took the limiters off so it went up to 62C and we cooked it at this temperature for a day and a half. Then we spit-roasted it, cranking the heat up so it got the browning. It was the best pig that I ever tasted." The rest of the profile is worth reading, too. And there are recipes for cooking with sherry. Related In Videos: Heston Blumenthal's Bacon and Egg Ice Cream Heston Blumenthal's... More

Are we surprised that celebrity chefs aren't dutifully spending sweaty nights in their restaurant kitchens? The Telegraph investigates the presence of celebrity chefs in their restaurants' kitchens and bemoans, "celebrity chefs feel no compunction charging us top rates for the work of an underling." They liken absentee chefs to a tribute band playing "as stand-ins for the Rolling Stones." The Telegraph set out to discover which rock star chefs might be found yielding a knife or stirring a sauce. The verdict: none. Jamie Oliver doesn't actually cook at Jamie's Italian in Oxford; Heston Blumenthal is nowhere to be found at his Berkshire spot, Fat Duck; and Gordon Ramsay's job description at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay entails overseeing the menu and visiting... More

After reading about Boots in the Oven's gastronomic adventure at the Fat Duck, the dish I wanted to try the most was the egg and bacon ice cream The restaurant's chef and owner Heston Blumenthal demonstrates how to make this dish on the Discovery Channel's Kitchen Chemistry. While no ice cream recipe would instruct you to curdle your eggs, he purposefully cooks the ice cream base at a higher temperature to intensify the eggy taste. Learn how to make this dessert after the jump.... More