Heston Blumenthal and is sharp wit once said in an interview that he was named after Heston Services on the M4. Well now he is combining the winning (?) combination of fine dining and roadside nosh, as the king of “molecular gastronomy” gives a Little Chef a bit of a makeover.
Blumenthal owns the Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire - widely regarded as one of the world’s best restaurants - and now he is turning his attention to none other than that well known greesy spoon pit stop for long distance drivers - Little Chef. At the grand opening night on Wednesday in Popham, Hapshire - complete with well heeled diners and a new menu launch - Blumenthal commented that he may not have got himself involved in the project, had he had some hindsight on what was to come.
The Fat Duck is one of only three restaurants in the UK that has what most chefs covet and only dream of - three Michelin stars. On the menu is a 13-course taster for the bargain price of £125 without coffee with an optional 12.5 per cent service charge. When Blumenthal arrived at the Little Chef on the A303, he was shocked to find a barren kitchen, completely devoid of basics such as pots and pans.
He said, “Everything was out of packets,” but admitted that catering for the motoring masses was a long way from haute cuisine,”I was probably quite snobbish when I started and I realised just how difficult it is,” he added. “There comes a time when you have to use the ‘compromise’ word.”
Together with Ab Rogers - son of architect Lord Richard Rogers - the pair got to work on revamping the cafe into a 1950s style diner, complete with vibrant red colours, pendant lights and a summer sky on the ceiling.
So, has Blumenthal drawn inspiration from his usual bizarre combinations such as snail porridge and bacon and egg ice-cream? Fortunately for the truckers, no, he has stuck to popular ’set you up for the day’ type dishes, such as the Olympic breakfast and Jubilee pancakes.
However, they come complete with a bit of a modern twist while still offering starving drivers a bit more value. The standard haddock fish and chips has changed to hake in beer batter served with a dainty slice of lemon wrapped in muslin. Bacon rolls are composed of two rashers of Wiltshire back bacon, while mussels are Scottish rope-grown and come with a wine sauce. The hearty meat pie is made using Hereford steak and Abbot Ale. Prices for a main meal generally come in at around £8.40 - now that’s a bargain!
The challenge of converting the dull roadside eatery into this modern take on a pit stop restaurant is being filmed by Channel 4 for a three part series aptly named ‘Big Chef, Little Chef’, and will be screened in January. Blumenthal said he did not want to overload diners with French dishes, “The key thing to me is to give better value for money by increasing the quality of the ingredients that go into the dishes. I have tried to bring more British ingredients; for me it’s about keeping to the Britishness,” he said. “This is not about creating a Little Heston, this is about Little Chef.”
On opening night, the cafe looked a damn slight different from the days of Little Chef, as the place was manned by 40 staff, rather than the normal eight - and Blumenthal’s head chef, Ashley Palmer-Watts headed the team. Chief executive of Little Chef, Ian Pegler is convinced that the winning formula could be mirrored in the rest of the 180 outlets. “When you see the menu and taste the food you will see the quality is there, the price is there, and there is no reason why we shouldn’t,” he said.
