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Heston in the news: Cooking for the Queen and New Restaurant Name
Heston Blumental has been in the news over the weekend with two interesting stories. Firstly, it’s been announced that he will be cooking for the Queen at a special banquet at Windsor Castle this Thursday, in which guests will be served a starter which looks like a bowl of fruits, but will actually be sweetmeats.
Also, he has just unveiled the name of his highly anticipated London restaurant at the Mandarin Oriental hotel which will be called Dinner by Heston Blumenthal.
The restaurant, which is set to open at the luxury Knightsbridge hotel in November, will serve a menu centred on contemporary British food based on historical concepts.
The kitchen will be headed up by the Fat Duck group executive chef Ashley Palmer-Watts.
Blumenthal said the name Dinner reflects the concept the restaurant is based on. “I wanted to find a name that encapsulated the concept, which has a strong focus on dishes inspired by historic British gastronomy, but was also a bit of fun,” he said.
“There has always been confusion in the UK over the names of our midday and evening meals and their origins, so researching this, I discovered the word dinner comes from the old 13th century French word disner, which initially stood for breakfast, and developed to the main meal of the day.”
Blumenthal’s restaurant will be housed in the space currently occupied by the Mandarin Oriental’s Park and Foliage restaurants with expansive windows offering views over Hyde Park.
Interiors will be developed by US-based designer Adam D. Tihany, who said the restaurant will reflect the chef’s modern take on tradition. “It will be relatively classic – wooden floors and coffered ceilings – but it’ll have some quirkiness to it, too, to give a sense of Blumenthal’s creative way of thinking,” he said.
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal will be the second high profile opening at the Mandarin Oriental, which last month opened renowned US-based French chef Daniel Boulud’s Bar Boulud.
Information sources: Guide Girl
