Heston Blumenthal has raised eyebrows by serving a main course of braised celery for almost £50.
The vegetarian dish features Gruyere cheese, girolle mushrooms, truffle, cider apple and smoked walnuts. It will set back visitors to his Michelin-starred Dinner by Heston Blumenthal restaurant in London £48.
The dish dates to 1730 and according to the UK Association of Dieticians, celery is in season from September until January in the UK.
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Meat and fish dishes at the eaterie are not much more expensive, with Roast Cod and Cockle Ketchup, dating from 1830, priced at £56 and Powdered Duck Breast £58.
One diner who had the celery described it as “excellent” on TripAdvisor, adding: “Each dish was perfectly presented and tasted faultless.”
But another diner who had it said: “It was good but I didn’t expect it to be almost as expensive as the meat dishes.”
Chef Deiniol Pritchard, COO of Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, said the utmost care was put into creating the dish.
“The main cost is black truffle,” he said.
“It’s intellectually driven. We’re not a farm-to-fork restaurant. With wastage, it costs almost that much just to put the dish on the plate without any labour, that’s just food cost.
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“It takes a lot of work before we can start to even develop the dish to understand the historic recipe and the times it’s come from and then adapt it to a fine dining restaurant.”
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
