EXCESSMAS DINNER
Heston tops posh festive feasts with £375 secret menu
CELEBRITY chefs are charging a packet to stuff diners with festive treats that will certainly eat into their wallet.
Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck has the biggest bill at £375 a head… and it may not include turkey.
The Fable Tree menu – an “edible adventure” exploring the role of the Christmas fir – is shrouded in secrecy.
Diners heading to Bray, Berks, will be greeted by an advent calendar-style menu with seven windows which guide them through their meal.
But what do they get? A staff member said: “We don’t want to ruin the surprise.”
Heston himself teased: “I love the sights, sounds and smells of the festive period, but I can’t stand the traditional Christmas dinner.”
There are fewer surprises at Gordon Ramsay’s place but the fayre is equally mouthwatering and the fee equally eye-watering – £195 for a Christmas meal and £350 for the New Year’s Eve special.
Visitors to his Royal Hospital Road restaurant in Chelsea, West London, can choose from a Hogmanay menu including scallops and Cornish turbot. Raymond Blanc has a £ 175 six- course Christmas menu at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons in Great Milton, Oxfordshire. Courses include crab, trout and duck. T V ’s Tom Kerridge wants £145 for a traditional Christmas Day lunch at The Bull & Bear in Manchester.
Michel Roux’s Landau restaurant at the Langham Hotel in central London is £125 for a Christmas blowout – rising to £175 with wine.
There are cheaper options. Weekend diners at James Martin’s Manchester restaurant get a three-course Christmas meal for £ 45. Marco Pierre White’s English Chophouse in London’s Whitechapel has three courses at £39.50 while Rick Stein’s restaurants in Winchester, Marlborough and Sandbanks are charging £37.50.