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In Search of Perfection (Hardcover)

by Heston Blumenthal (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC; Television tie-in edition edition (2 Nov 2006)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0747584095
  • ISBN-13: 978-0747584094
  • Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 18.8 x 3.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 6,413 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Product Description

One of the world's most renowned chefs, Heston Blumenthal has made his name creating such original - and some might say bizarre - dishes as Snail Porridge and Nitrogen Scrambled Egg & Bacon Ice Cream at his internationally acclaimed restaurant, The Fat Duck. Heston decided, though, that it was time to go back to both his and our roots and to focus his creative talent on reinventing some of our most well-known and abused dishes. In order to do this he travelled around the world in search of 'perfect' versions of eight dishes which represent the essence of our culinary heritage: Roast Chicken & Roast Potatoes Pizza Bangers & Mash Steak Spaghetti Bolognese Fish & Chips Black Forest Gateau Treacle Tart & Ice Cream Everybody's idea of 'perfection' is different, and so Heston, drawing on interviews with experts and cooks as well as using his own culinary and scientific research, sets out to discover what makes these standards so great. He explores the origins of each dish, how to find the best ingredients, and of course the many different ways - and whys - of cooking them to perfection.He reveals priceless culinary tips along the way: everything from how to cut potatoes for flawless frying, to what makes the choicest beef, to the secret ingredients in the perfect spaghetti Bolognese, to capturing the essence of a fish and chip shop in a perfume bottle, to making aerated chocolate bars at home with a vacuum cleaner. In Search of Perfection examines the role of food in our lives and memories and is a completely original, inspiring and fascinating exploration of these kitchen classics.


About the Author

Chef Heston Blumenthal has been described as a culinary alchemist for his innovative style of cuisine. His work researches the molecular compounds of dishes so as to enable a greater understanding of taste and flavour. His restaurant The Fat Duck, in Bray, Berkshire, was awarded three Michelin stars in 2004, and voted the Best Restaurant in the World by an international panel of 500 culinary experts in Restaurant Magazine's The World's 50 Best Restaurants 2005 awards. He also owns the Hinds Head Hotel, a village pub in Bray. Heston Blumenthal lives in Berkshire with his wife and three children.

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Customer Reviews

17 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (17 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Nice to look at but difficult!, 14 Nov 2006
This is a book that is long overdue in that it tells you how to cook dishes that people actually want to eat! Unlike many of the modern chefs it is a relief to come across someone who is happy to cook real food for real people.
There are some good stories in the book and the photography is fantastic. I could hardly believe the time and effort that someone could spend on making a pizza but the finished product certainly looks nice.
I have to take issue with a couple of the recipes though. My favourite meal is steak with Black Forest gateaux and these are the two dishes I have tried to make but be warned - it is not easy.
It tells you to cook the steak with a blowtorch and then put it in the oven for 18 hours (true!). This just did not work for me and the steak ended up far too black and chewy. To be fair, the recipe did say to trim off any burnt bits but if I had done that we would not have had much left. As for the gateaux, this turned out very nice (although not as good as the photograph) but do be careful when using the vacuum cleaner on the chocolate because it is very hard to clean afterwards. Apart from this it is a great book and I recommend it.
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27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Best book on food I own, 3 Nov 2006
By David Hampson "kuma" (Reading, Berkshire United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This is perhaps one of the most audacious cookery books you will read... Heston has taken 8 everyday classic dishes and sought out how to make it as good as it can possibly be by seeking out master chefs and carrying out in-depth testing in the research kitchens of his restaurant (The Fat Duck, named the best restaurant in the world last year) then by learning about the ingredients he found to be the best by visiting the artisans who create them.

What makes it so special is that each dish is assessed both culturally and scientifically in the quest to make the recipe perfect, looking at how tradition and memory shape the food, and at the chemical processes involved in the preparation, assessing things such as how variations in temperature, ingredient quality and methods and timings of preparation may influence the final outcome.

At the end of each chapter Heston presents his recipe which often draw on novel and unusual methods of preparation which overcome the limitations you may face in the home (for example you are not likely to have a dewar of liquid nitrogen for making ice cream or an oven than can hit 500 degrees Centigrade for making pizza, but he finds a way to get close to these).

These recipes will be quite expensive to prepare with the special equipment you may need to buy and the use of the best ingredients possible - though Heston does suggest to use the best you can afford, and I plan to use good ordinary ingredients for a couple of dry runs (not yet being a three Michelin starred chef who has cooked up several hundred practice versions in a well-equipped research kitchen I think this may be sensible!) Also most of these recipes require a lot of time to prepare and may not leave much change out of a weekend.

I believe everyone who reads this book will feel inspired enough to want to pick up their vacuum cleaner and paint gun and have a go at these recipes themselves, knowing that the time, money and effort invested in making these dishes will give great satisfaction both in preparing something resembling perfection and in the understanding of the food that it will give you.

One last note - this book was prepared as a companion to a BBC TV series; having seen the first episode I would suggest don't let the poor quality of the TV series affect your judgement - it is evident that a lot of the material has been omitted or cut down to cram each recipe into a 15 minute slot, whereas three or four times this would have been more fitting.
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24 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Putting the wonder back into food, 30 Nov 2006
By Dr. George L. Sik (Epsom, Surrey) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
In an atmosphere of competition and hostility among the country's best-known chefs, where barbed comments about one another in tortured autobiographies are the order of the day, it's nice to know that there are still those, like Heston Blumenthal, for whom the enjoyment, the fun and the sheer wonder of preparing mouth-watering meals is what it's all about. To eat at his restaurants is a delight, and this book is more in the spirit of his pub, the Hind's Head, with its perfect interpretations of classic British dishes, than The Fat Duck next door with its snail porridge and sardine-on-toast ice cream. Nevertheless,the spirit of adventure that first mixed white chocolate with caviar is present on every page.

Naturally, he goes over the top with cooking times and equipment that may seem a little out of reach in most kitchens (Private Eye recently parodied his style, providing a recipe that involved the use of a particle accelerator and nuclear reactor core), but that's the whole point: in the quest for perfection, no stone is left unturned. Even if you can't reproduce what he does exactly, there is plenty to savour. The result is a delight for anyone who loves cooking...or indeed eating.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Food of the Gods
This book is an amazing read. The way Blumenthal goes through all the processes, and talks about how the ingredients used in the recipes are procured and processed. Read more
Published 8 months ago by S. J. Turner

1.0 out of 5 stars Borat in the Kitchen
Heard a snippet of a radio interview with Blumenthal a couple of months ago, so put his book on my Christmas wish list. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Jakkals

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but unattainable perfection
I enjoyed reading this book and picked up a few interesting tips, but, even though I'm a keen cook, the lengths to which Heston Blumenthal goes to to achieve perfection are... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Bluebell

5.0 out of 5 stars Contextualising Kitchen Classics.
Reading this book, it is difficult not to get caught up in Blumenthal's obsessive quest. Whether seeking the perfect chocolate, steak or potato, he writes engagingly about produce... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Ms. F. Ford

5.0 out of 5 stars You need to be open minded
Neither the Fat Duck nor the Hinds Head (The authors 2 restaurants) had the Black Forest Gatteau on their menu's and I really wanted to see if something with THAT much thought and... Read more
Published on 18 Oct 2007 by Mr. A. Thomson

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is NOT for someone who can't cook!
If you have an inkling of an idea about how to cook and are hungry for someone to take you to a higher level, then you will enjoy this book. Read more
Published on 2 Oct 2007 by Bonzo The Great

1.0 out of 5 stars Tried and tested recipes
I am not a big fan of Heston Blumenthal and that whole Molecular Gastronomy approach to cooking but I did watch his show - In Search of Perfection - I was particularly interested... Read more
Published on 13 Sep 2007 by Minder

4.0 out of 5 stars Worthwhile and provocative
Is this using Steingarten's style or is Blumenthal just another good food writer with interesting ideas? Read more
Published on 4 Jan 2007 by brian ingram

4.0 out of 5 stars Perfect
This is not a cook book, its something else. Usually you expect a cook bok to have tons of recipes & ideas in but not this one. Read more
Published on 28 Dec 2006 by Mr. M. Randall

4.0 out of 5 stars Buy his previous book
This book is interesting and good, for the dishes covered. I would however highly recommend his previous book, Family Food, as a better, wider ranging book and introduction to his... Read more
Published on 18 Dec 2006 by R. Loxley

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