Heston Blumenthal has been slammed after offering a £425 Christmas dinner which features no turkey or drinks at his restaurant The Fat Duck.
The British chef is renowned for being on the wackier side of cookery, with some of his famed dishes including snail porridge and bacon and egg ice cream.
Blumenthal’s Berkshire restaurant is known for switching things up every quarter with different so-called Anthologies, meaning his seasonal menus.
However, the Christmas menu is usually the highlight of the year, with last year’s £395 offering including real gold carrots.
This year’s £425 festive menu has already received backlash, though, despite it being only November!
The hefty price tag does not include any drinks, but instead focuses on minimalist meals.
Restaurant-goers will dine first on Christmas Tipples and its Nitro-Poached Aperitifs, via The Mirror.
After this, there is the Pine Tonic of Botanicals – Green Herbs and Pine, Smoked Cumin, Jerusalem Artichoke.
Decorating the Tree comes next, which consists of Truffled Egg, Smoked Salmon and Buttered Toast – Chicken Liver Parfait and Plum.
This is followed by a Langoustine Cocktail, served with Marie Rose, Tomato, and Vanilla.
The fifth course is Roast Scallops and Almond – Chocolate, Kombu, and Pickled Lemon.
After this, there is a dish called Twas The Night Before Christmas – a Short Rib of Beef, Lardo do Colonnata, Dried fruits, Gold Carrot, and Sherry.
King’s venison comes after this, featuring Beetroot, Chestnuts, Brussels sprouts, Black Truffle and Umbles.
To conclude, there is a dessert consisting of Cheese, Nuts and Port and Botrytis Cinerea, which is a type of edible grey mould.
“It’s a noble rot. It’s a particular kind of rot that affects certain grapes. It’s a good rot, the grapes shrivel up, they lose their moisture and they develop all these really complex flavours,” Blumenthal previously explained about the mould.
The Christmas menu at The Fat Duck runs from November 29 to December 23, so unfortunately diners won’t be able to dig into the festive feast on Christmas Day.
However, it seems not many want to anyway, as Blumenthal’s menu has been met with poor reception from social media.
One person wrote: “No Christmas Dinner is worth that amount of money…”
A second put: “So much for the season of goodwill and sharing.”
While a third said: “Well done Heston, that’s two fingers up to the rest of the country in a cost of living crisis.”
“What floats one person’s boat……may well sink another’s,” a fourth added.
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