Top UK restaurant closed as 400 diners taken ill (top-rated Fat Duck restaurant)

Reuters on Yahoo ^ | 3/6/09 | Tim Castle

[NormsRevenge]

LONDON (Reuters Life!) – British health officials said on Friday they were investigating 400 potential cases of food poisoning linked to top-rated Fat Duck restaurant, run by celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal.

The award-winning restaurant in Bray, Berkshire, is known for its chemistry-inspired dishes such as bacon and egg ice cream and snail porridge, with many courses frozen in liquid nitrogen.

Blumenthal voluntarily closed the restaurant last month after around 40 diners complained of diarrhea and vomiting.

The Health Protection Agency said the number had risen to 400 after media coverage of its investigation.

"This is a very complex outbreak," said Graham Bickler, a regional director at the agency.

The agency said its probe would extend to all those who had eaten at the restaurant since late January, whether they reported being ill or not.

The restaurant, which has had a three-star rating from the Michelin guide since 2004, is co-operating fully with the investigation, the agency said.

Diners often wait months for a reservation at the Fat Duck, which seats 40 people and charges 130 pounds ($185) a head for its 17-course tasting menu.

[Rebelbase]

5 years ago I got violently sick with some kind of bug on a 3 day surf fishing trip. I’d binged on olives and smoked fish the night before and to this day I cringe at the thought of eating either. And this past fall I got the 2-day stomach flu after binging on fresh apples the night before. I’m gonna miss my apples!

[stayathomemom]

You mention olives. My grandfather would not eat ripe olives. If I remember correctly, he had a couple of relatives die after eating some. Mind you,this would likely have happened over 100 years ago. I don’t know what sort of canning techniques were used.

[Mike Darancette]

Diners often wait months for a reservation at the Fat Duck, which seats 40 people and charges 130 pounds ($185) a head for its 17-course tasting menu.

There must not be a depression yet if people will pay that much to eat ca ca.

[GladesGuru]

A good deal of the “sick’ population may be suffering”BID” Syndrome.

That’s “Barrister Induced Disease” for those on this side of the pond.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

I think they changed the name of the restaurant to from Fat Duck to Dat F*cks.

[dfwgator]

It gets me here. I can't give you any excuses for it - there are no excuses. I've been meaning to spend more time in the restaurant recently, but I haven't been too well ,.. things aren't going very well back there. The poor cook's son has been put away again, and poor old Mrs Dalrymple who does the washing up can hardly move her poor fingers, and then there's Gilberto's war wound - but they're good people, and they're kind people, and together we were beginning to get over this dark patch ... there was light at the end of the tunnel . .. now this . .. now this...

[southernnorthcarolina]

Seems to me they might be trying just a bit too hard to be different for the sake of being different. I consider myself a fairly adventurous diner, open to trying new things, but do cauliflower and chocolate jelly make a good combination? Or scallops, caviar, and white chocolate? And does Douglas Fir puree really go with anything?

Their current a la carte menu:

MENU SAMPLE FOR A LA CARTE

NINETY EIGHT POUNDS

STARTERS

CRAB BISCUIT
Roast foie gras, crystallised seaweed and oyster vinaigrette

CAULIFLOWER RISOTTO
Carpaccio of cauliflower and chocolate jelly

LASAGNE OF LANGOUSTINE
Pig’s trotter and truffle
(Eight pounds and twenty five pence supplement)

ROAST SCALLOP
Scallop tartare, caviar and white chocolate veloute

RADISH RAVIOLI OF OYSTER
Goat cheese and truffle, rissole of fromage de tete

MAIN

POT ROAST LOIN OF PORK, BRAISED BELLY
Gratin of truffled macaroni
(Nine pounds and seventy five pence supplement)

SADDLE OF VENISON
Celeriac, marron glace and sauce poivrade; civet of venison with pearl barley and red wine
Venison and frankincense tea

SOLE VERONIQUE
Champagne fluid gel, triple cooked chips

BEST END OF LAMB
Ice-filtered lamb jelly, braised tongue and cucumber
Hot pot of lamb neck, sweetbread and oyster

ROAST TURBOT
Mushroom carpaccio, mussels, artichokes and jelly of verjus
Turbot and langoustine royale
(Six pounds and twenty five pence supplement)

DESSERTS

DÉLICE OF CHOCOLATE
Chocolate sorbet, cumin caramel

CHANTECLERC APPLE
Fromage blanc, apple milk caramel and vanilla ice cream

MANGO AND DOUGLAS FIR PUREE
Bavarois of lychee and mango, blackcurrant sorbet and green peppercorn jelly

BLACK FOREST GATEAU

GALETTE OF RHUBARB, NEROLI SCENTED YOGHURT
Crystallised coconut and rhubarb sorbet

CHEESE
(Available as an additional course at thirteen pounds and fifty pence)

An optional 12.5 per cent service charge will be added to your bill
These prices are subject to change

[ViLaLuz]

I’ll have the snail porridge, with extra slime.

[ViLaLuz]

Yech.

Pig’s trotter?

Yeeeecccccccchhhhhhhhhhh.

[Atlas Sneezed]

No way I would pay 185 bucks to try and eat 17 courses

---

From my experience with “destination dining”, many of those courses are a single bite.

And delicious, no matter how silly or weird the name tries to make them sound.

[NormsRevenge]

I wish they did that on cruises. :-] single bite would allow you to experience more variety.

you can always grab a pizza or hotdog later if you’re still hungry.

[Atlas Sneezed]

There’s nothing on that menu that doesn’t sound absolutely delicious to me.