The Fat Duck - History

History

The Fat Duck is located in a 16th-century cottage that was further modified in the 19th and 20th centuries. Prior to the restaurant opening in the location, it was a public house called The Ringers. The building was Grade II listed by English Heritage on 2 May 1989. When the restaurant opened in 1995, the kitchen was staffed by owner Heston Blumenthal and one other employee. At the time the restaurant was serving meals in the style of a French bistro, such as lemon tarts, and steak and chips. Blumenthal later said that science had already begun to influence the cooking at this early stage, as already on the menu were his triple cooked chips which were developed to stop the potato from going soft.

The restaurant came close to going bankrupt, Blumenthal sold his house, his car and many of his possessions in order to keep the restaurant afloat. After four years, the restaurant was awarded its first Michelin star in the 1999 list. Blumenthal worked with Professor Peter Barham of the University of Bristol, and developed a menu of dishes using the principles of molecular gastronomy through experimentation such as slow-cooked lamb which avoids shocking the fibres in the meat and causing them to seize. By 2000, techniques were being used such as cooking vegetables in mineral water after discovering that the levels of calcium in tap water causes their discolouration, and freezing cuttlefish to break down the molecules in them in order to increase their tenderness. In 2001 it was awarded a second Michelin star, and was also named Restaurant of the Year by The Automobile Association.

In 2004, the restaurant was awarded three Michelin stars, becoming one of three restaurants in the United Kingdom to hold that level of recognition alongside the Waterside Inn, also in Bray, and Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in London. It was the fastest that a restaurant had gone from one to three stars in the UK. During the same year, the restaurant was ranked second in the world behind The French Laundry by the The World's 50 Best Restaurants. The following year the listing ranked The Fat Duck as the best restaurant in the world, At the first Front of House Awards in 2007, the restaurant won the awards for Overall Service and Front Desk of the Year.

In 2008, Blumenthal published The Big Fat Duck Cookbook, following his Channel 4 series Heston Blumenthal: In Search of Perfection. On 27 February 2009, he closed his restaurant temporarily after a number of customers reported feeling unwell at different times. A spokesman for the restaurant said, "All this leads us to believe that it has not come from the restaurant and we expect to be given the all clear." On 6 March it was reported that 400 people had stated they had felt unwell after eating at the restaurant. The restaurant reopened on 12 March 2009. The cause of the illness was later given by the Health Protection Agency as norovirus, which was thought to originate from oysters that had been harvested from beds contaminated with sewage by Colchester Oyster Fishery Limited. The virus was spread further after being contracted by staff members. It was the largest norovirus outbreak ever recorded at a restaurant.

On 19 November 2012, British citizen Ivan Aranto Herrera Jorge and Swede Carl Magnus Lindgren, two senior members of The Fat Duck restaurant, were killed on Chai Wan Road, Hong Kong in a traffic accident when their taxi was hit by two buses. They died along with the taxi driver, Wong Kim-chung. A further 56 people were injured in the accident. Blumenthal had been in Hong Kong and was travelling in a separate cab at the time of the crash.