Super Chef Heston Blumenthal

It took him more than a decade to realise his dream.  In the meantime, while he learnt important things to know as a chef like where to get Saffron, he was doing menial jobs simply to get by.  In his time, he’s worked as a photocopier salesman, debt collector, and credit controller.  

In the mid 1990s, Heston bought a centuries old pub in Bray.  It had a very small kitchen and was infamous for being a place for banned drinkers of other pubs .  Determined to materialise it into his dream, and partly due to lack of funding, he initially spent up to twenty hours a day in the kitchen, only grabbing fifteen minute naps when he could.  

The Fat Duck initially operated as a simple French Bistro serving classic French food.  It was re-furbished and re-opened on 2000 with it’s first taster menu, offering diners a chance try different dishes that were not available in the original format.  

All the hard work paid off eventually, because the as well as receiving good reviews from local diners and eventually receiving three Michelin stars, it became recognised nationally and globally.  In 2005 it was voted Best Restaurant In The World by Restaurant magazine, and in 2007 and 2009 won Best Restaurant In The UK by The Good Food Guide.   

Heston is also owner of The Hind’s Head, and Dinner.   He is currently on TV with a show called How To Cook Like Heston, and he also stars in adverts for Waitrose.

The 45-year-old self taught chef credits his success to his former wife, Zanna, with whom he has three teenage children, and whom he has, in the past, referred to as “the reason for my success”.