What is the point of Heston Blumenthal's cookery prog?

[bakedpotato]

Surely the most preposterous thing ever?
Why, why, why?

[Lizzylou]

Exactly right, not the stuff you'd do at home, surely?
He also has a book out...
I'd still like to go to his restaurant tho.

[bakedpotato]

brilliant send-up of his book

[WideWebWitch]

I didn't see it, tell me, tell me.

[Lizzylou]

[bakedpotato]

Just wanking around with pizza, www.
Really, he badly needs to get a life.
Is anyone getting any inspiration from this show?
It has certainly inspired me to stop fantasising about a trip to the Fat Duck.
Also his specs are ludicrous.

[DingdongMegaLegsonhigh]

I loved it when he put that melted chocolate in a vaccuum jar and turned it into what looked like a giant aero (mmm chocolate).

[katierocket]

DP and I were discussuing just this last night. How pointless can you get! Pizza did look yum though.

[bakedpotato]

Not the pizza which had a nasty end in the bbq, though, eh?

[WideWebWitch]

lol at wanking around with pizza!

[DingdongMegaLegsonhigh]

Do you think he actually gives customers in his restaurant those little spray bottles to squirt about?

[Lizzylou]

I'd love to go to his restaurant, at least you'd know that if he makes so much effort with every dish, the exorbitant prices at his restaurant were worth paying.

[bakedpotato]

I suspect the prog will have undone a lot of his mystique. He did come across as a saddo.

Also, his lab, from the outside, looked like a nasty b&b.

[KathyMCMLXXII]

LOL. Private Eye had a rather shorter and sweeter parody which involved borrowing a nuclear reactor to make a boiled egg.

However I have to admit I am totally gripped by it, as is my dad, who as he has far too much time on his hands sometimes makes the recipes - he is a big fan of Blumenthal mushy peas (!) and is relishing the thought of batter made with vodka and beer. Bakedpotato, you apparently make a much nicer and fluffier mash than the traditional boiled potato sort.

I wouldn't dream of following all of any of the recipes but I can see the point in adopting bits of some of them - eg am going to have a go at using an upside-down cast iron frying pan as a pizza stone next time I do pizza - and I like seeing why it works rather than just being told 'this is how you do it'.

[KathyMCMLXXII]

I love the way he comes across as a saddo. Think it's very sweet when someone is that obsessed by what they do.

Better than Mr-I'm-So-Cool Sweary Gordon Ramsey any day.

[Piffle]

the fish and chips one was enough to make me want to put a contract out on him
Fat Duck my arse.
Like we've all got 4 fucking hours to oven dry tomatoes for ONE PIZZA and a pressure cooker and time to skin, deseed and exactly cook 8 on the vine darling cherry tomatoes.
He can piss off, the whole point of pizza and fish and chips is that you get the night off from peeling and chopping
Arse.
Give me Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall any day

[Carmenere]

Gilding the lilly imo.

[KathyMCMLXXII]

Ah, but if someone else were to cook it for you, Piffle....

[KathyMCMLXXII]

and pay for the turbot

[PinkTinsel]

is this the same dud e who did that kitchen chemistry show on discovery?

his mashed potatoes looks foul, he should come taste mine

[Piffle]

best pizza I ever had was in Brussels in a little italian place
italian pizza oven, thin hand kneaded crust, spicy thick tomato sauce, reduced down from his grandmamas hand bottled home grown italian tomatoes and chilis grown on his veranda and buffalo mozzarella - sprinkled with fresh shredded basil.
I do not ever think I would want a better pizza than that. Go and watch the Italians do it - simplicity is the key not elongating the process.
Cost 4 euros

[Piffle]

actually I think the point of the programme is it make people so irate they have to watch Trinny and Susannah parade naked unhappy people around - it was art in comparison to HB.

[KathyMCMLXXII]

So it's only me who thinks he's brilliant?

[zippitippitoes]

I hate the idea of his food and this squirting and foaming stuff disgusting

[bakedpotato]

I would happily (well, fairly happily) watch a documentary on him and his bonkers techniques.
But a cookery prog is the wrong context for what he does.

[choosyfloosy]

i liked the idea of the programme but the black forest gateau one put me right off. what rubbidge. The best bit was the chef in the Black Forest hotel explaining how to do it. The thought of making food look this complicated is really annoying IMO.