I’m a student living in the Netherlands. I have cooked seriously for a number of years now and my professional cooking experience consists of a total of 10 days working in a Spanish restaurant a few years back. Here I learned how NOT to relate to food: frozen fish, ready-made dips and one time seeing the head chef (!) picking food of the ground. This reinforced my nature to cook with fresh ingredients and, when time allows, to start from scratch.
I also completed two years of cookery school, which was once a week and got a diploma as a ‘basic chef’. All the other students were professional chefs, but I did it because I liked the more professional approach in contrast to cookery courses. I learned a lot of basics, mostly cold preparations and some elementary warm preparations, like stocks, but I did not work in professional restaurants (as recommended), so If I’m placed in a restaurant I would probably loose it.
About three years ago I came across Kitchen Chemistry on the internet. A series with some great insights into food and a host, Heston Blumenthal, with a unique inquisitive mind. Later I saw In Search of Perfection, Full on Food, Big Chef Takes on Little Chefand Heston’s Feasts. From these programs I learned to question the processes behind food and long standing claims. When I started thinking about creating a blog on food all this added up to the one you are on now.
The Big Fat Duck Cookbook may be in spirit, the ultimate cookbook to cook your way through, since Heston Blumenthal has done the exact same thing to French cookbooks before opening his restaurant. This does not mean the book lends itself well for a cook-through blog. It will not be a walk in the park, far from it, because some recipes are five pages long and require very expensive equipment. Bummer. But why should everything be simple as is the message of contemporary cooking shows?
One of the most challenging aspects will be to cook recipes without the equipment that is used in the restaurant. Items like a sous-vide waterbath, thermomix, freeze-dryer, PacoJet and vacuum machine are used throughout the book, but a bit expensive for a home kitchen. I will try my best to find a solution for this situation, like sweet talking a local butcher into letting me use his vacuum chamber (I can already picture the conversation) or use a rice cooker as a water bath.
Auldo
Contact: thebigfatundertaking@gmail.com
The Big Fat Undertaking 
Good luck with your undertaking! I’m excited to read about the challenges as well your success with some truly mind-boggling recipes 🙂
Hey! good luck with your blog, following the big fat one is definitely is a challenge, I’ve read through it and seems far too difficult to carry out alone, arm yourself with patients!!. The rice cooker is great for sous vide, I use it quite a lot, not only for sous vide, but also for slow temp braising, extracting as much umami as possible out of shitake and kombu, cooking a perfect hollandaise, eggs, and a long, long ect. Probably one of the best tools and with a great value-for-money
Cheers,
Umami Madrid’s
Hi again! just another comment to leave my blog’s adress:
http://inigoaguirre.wordpress.com/
cheers
Hey, how do you make a Hollandaise in the rice cooker, cause it has to be stirred continously. Or do you have a smaller one and use it like a pan instead of a water bath.
The kombu and shitake sounds interseting. I read somewhere a chef used it for saffron: cook it for 12 hours to extract as much flavour from the threads as possible.
I set the water bath at 60something ºC (would have to look it up) and put a metal bowl on top. That way you can make an hollandaise without having to be careful of overcooking and breaking up the emulsion with the water or steam, and its also great for maintaining the sauce hot after making it.
The best way to make a kombu stock / dashi is to cook it for an hour at 60ºC, and shitake at 40ºC. You can read more on this post… click on the right for googlenglish: http://inigoaguirre.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/todos-los-tipos-de-dashi-ichiban-y-niban-dashi-con-kombu-katsuobushi-shitakes/
If you ever find out the temp for saffron, please let me know. Cheers!
I have a brochure on water baths where a chef gives the saffron tip. It doesn’t say the temp, only that he leaves it for one night in chicken stock to maximize flavour and color. He does give the temp for oil with the zest of fruits, which goes in at 70C, so I think the same goes for the saffron.
Gonna try the shiitake sometime.
I dont believe this….Ive found someone as daft ( silly, crazy, nutty ) as me.
Ive taken 3 weeks to find gellan , it arrived yesterday so im on with the salmon liquorice recipe as i write this.
Ive even just phoned the fat duck to see what temperature i should “dip” it….no answer.
I may end up with a gloppy mess.
More to follow
Alan
p.s. Youre a brave guy….the recipies are like rocket science.
Hi,
Great blog you have there, and I must say the food you’re producing looks pretty good. I figured you might be interested in seeing my first adulteration of a Heston dish which I prepared last weekend:
One of the best things about trying these recipes is to do things you’ve never done before. As a result, even if the recipes turn out “wrong”, you’ll still end up a better cook than before!
Keep up the good work!
He Marc, you’re absolutely right. Like you I really feel I’m learning new techniques and flavor combinations from it.
How did the dish taste? It seems to be a recipe with a delicate balance of flavors. To me it looks like the book can only point you in the right direction.
How did the dish taste? Where do I start- I guess at the actual ice cream. I tried finding all the parts of the recipe online, as I don’t (yet) have the BFD book. I mostly managed, except for the sugared mushrooms. Flavourwise, overall the ice cream reminded somewhat of Dutch bacon pancakes with syrup.
The bacon flavour in it was loud and clear, whereas the egg (despite 12 yolks in half a liter milk) seemed to stay a bit on the background. The balance may have been slightly off, as I roasted the bacon for a bit longer than the recipe indicated, whereas the milk+egg mixture could have used a bit more time. Perhaps my newly-bought cooking thermometer is a bit off; it may indicate a bit hotter than the actual temperature, but at the end the mixture became a bit harder to stir. As you can see on the picture, the salted butter caramel also turned out slightly lighter-coloured than the ‘official’ version; after having prepared this once with a thermometer (f*ing hot!), next time around I’ll probably take my clues from the colour of the caramel and from how hard it is to stir the milk-and-egg mix.
I found two Heston recipes for the salted butter caramel online, one with pistachios and peanuts, and one without, but otherwise identical. Probably against the original version of the recipe, I decided to go for the version with nuts. The result, although slightly lighter coloured than expected, was a silky, creamy, soft caramel with a very spreadable consistency. I’m not sure how it fit in the “full English breakfast” theme, though- unlike the sugared morel mushrooms which are definitely a hint towards the mushrooms often served with breakfast in the UK. As I couldn’t find a recipe for sugared mushrooms online, I had to go for my own interpretation. As morel mushrooms are a bit pricey for mere experimentation, I looked up how to make sugared orange peels and tried that first. As they turned out fine, I decided to take the same approach for the mushrooms. The result was sweetish, mushroomy bits with a hint of a salty/smoky flavour. They hardly reminded of mushrooms at all- a random person given a taste probably would not have guesses.
I followed the caramelized brioche recipe but used small brioche breads instead of a whole loaf. Turned out wonderful and cake-ish, like French toast.
So far, overall, the entire dessert was mostly based on sweet flavours. The tomato-and-red-pepper compote underneath the icecream did help restore the balance. It wasn’t bad, but with the worcestershire sauce, olive oil, coffee beans and relatively small amount of sugar in the recipe, to me this seemed a bit too ‘salad-like’ for a dessert, and the least successful part of the recipe. Before I found this recipe, my wife cooked up a Portuguese interpretation of tomato-and-red-pepper compote (sweet with lemon, cinnamon and clove), which I used the day after and which in my opinion worked better.
The jellied ice tea, on the other hand, was a perfect match for the dish. Not overly sweet due to the lemon juice, eaten with a teaspoon this took me by surprise. Even having prepared it myself, I expected a ‘gelatin dessert’ style flavour, but obviously it tasted more like lemon ice tea. It balanced out the dessert wonderfully.
As I still had a few bits of sugared orange peel left, I decided to top the bacon-and-egg ice cream with tiny bits of it- as in my view, orange fits well enough in a ‘breakfast’ theme, and it worked well on top of the bacon ice cream.
Overall quite a lot of work, but most of the dish can be prepared in advance. After a day or so of kitchen, you’re left with a dessert kit which allows you to whip up the final result in about 10-15 minutes. The only component of the dish that absolutely has to be cooked at the last minute is the caramelized brioche.
My presentation skills obviously still leave much to be desired. The salted butter caramel and ice cream were hard to plate up prettily as they stuck to the spoon. I wonder how pro cooks deal with that.
Ok, you made an interpretation of the dish featured on Kitchen Chemistry. Sounds tough, especially when your part free agent. Let me know if you make something else.
The recipe reminded me also of Dutch pancakes, because I always eat them with bacon and treacle.
Hello
I was sent a link to your interesting site , I am glad the pictures we made inspired you, good luck and I look forward to seeing more of your results
best
Dominic Davies
What a nice surprise, thanks for the comment. The photos are indeed an inspiration, love them.
Regards
Nice guy 😉
Hey Auldo , Im just starting to get along with is blogging thing.Ive added a link to here from mine , would you do the same for me as im only getting 2 hits a day and theyre both mine from work ha ha.
Cumbriafoodie
http://cumbriafoodie.wordpress.com/
cheers dude
Alan
Sure dude.
Zalig Man!
Groeten,
Ex fat duck chef
Thanks man!
can anybody tell me how can i find all these nice chemicals that Heston uses? is there a list of ingrediens that they cook with?
can i find it on ebay or something like that?
thanks
Hi Dado,
Yes, eBay is a good source but you won’t find everything there. You don’t mention where you’re located, but in the UK, creamsupplies.co.uk will also be able to supply you with many of the chemicals as well as some of the tools (whipped cream cannister+nitrous oxide). (In fact, Heston mentions this as one of his own suppliers). Some of the stuff you’ll be able to find elsewhere too: agar in Asian (Chinese) supermarkets; I also found citric acid there; xylitol, fructose, xanthan gum in the health food department of your supermarket, glucose syrup, glycerol in the bakery section. Also try Amazon.
Liquid nitrogen and dry ice are tricky – but they can be found at suppliers of industrial gases. Dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide) can also be produced by emptying a CO2 fire extinguisher in a pillowcase (next step is finding a place that refills them). Your local pub uses CO2 to pressurize their draft beers and may also use nitrous oxide to serve their Guiness- ask them for their suppliers.
Hope this helps,
Marc
Hi
I don’t quite know how I haven’t come across your blog before, it’s right up my street. I’m a big Heston enthusiast and use him as inspiration for much of my cooking.
Great stuff, amazing dedication and well done for seeing it through!
Gary http://bigspud.co.uk
Thanks man. Always good to hear from new visitors.
Hi there, random question I know but where did you purchase the plates shown in your recipes, for example the Red Cabbage Gazpacho bowl?
Brilliant Blog by the way!
He Nathan, I got a similar question in the Jelly of Quail, so I would head over to the comments section there. Good luck.
Thanks for the praise by the way. Appreciate it.
I’ve just read the book last week. Lots of inspiration, some parts I just wouldn’t attempt in a million years. Where do you get all your kit? I just need to get some gellan F and soy lecithin to keep me happy.
Great effort.
Thanks man. Here’s some info: https://thebigfatundertaking.wordpress.com/2009/11/03/small-update/. The rest of the info where I got stuff is scattered throughout the blog. Good day captain!
Your blog was suggested to me by Teun. Looks great — it’ll take some time for me to read all of it though 😉
I noticed you stopped writing a while ago. Did you continue in another blog, or did you stop writing altogether?
Did you eat at his place yesterday? You could just scan the site, there are quite a few words 😉 Stopped writing on a blog when this one ended. Loved doing the fat duck dishes, didn’t feel the urge to start another.
Nice website btw.
Thanks! I haven’t met Teun yet, we met online through my blog.
Have fun tonight, Stefan, Teun & Auldo!
Thanks! The dinner is tomorrow. Or there is some activity they left me out of. 😉
Kees was confused. Tonight I’m having dinner in Utrecht with a friend. See you tomorrow, looking forward to it!
Hi Auldo, how are things, are you up to any new cooking projects? I’ve just started my own business in London offering culinary tours of London and cookery classes (www.londonforcooks.com). I was wondering if you could add a link to my website on your page?
Regards, Anna