No stone left unturned in Heston’s pursuit of perfect meal
Experimental chef reveals how newfound taste for pebbles from Provence has transformed his dishes
HOME cooks who want to give soup a little extra flavour can add seasoning, or perhaps a pinch of herbs.
Heston Blumenthal has another suggestion: gravel from the garden.
The chef, known for his experimental recipes, said he had recently discovered the transformative taste of rocks.
In Heston’s Pod & Chips, his newly launched podcast, Blumenthal revealed the new flavours he had discovered at his house in Provence.
“I cooked some soup made with green beans that came from the farm and I decided to put a lump of bauxite rock in the water,” he explained.
“From this bauxite rock, comes silica. Water, with silica in it, kind of thickens it. Silica comes from aluminium. And there’s aluminium in this rock.
“I just went and got it. There’s bauxite all round here. I got some pebbles as well and bits of gravel. I got gravel and pebbles and rock and I stuck it in a pan.
“I washed them first and I put them in a pan with green beans, no salt, and they came out really green. It was rather a successful experiment. So the next time I made the soup I just chucked loads of pebbles in it.”
Blumenthal said he later learnt that the French have a vegetable-based soup, la soupe au caillou, which contains a pebble.
He also tried local cave rock. “We came out of these amazing caves and I just put my mouth around the corner of this cave and dragged a bit of rock off. No bitterness, nothing.”
Unlike some of his past creations, which have included snail porridge and ice cream made with liquid nitrogen, Blumenthal believes the rock trick is something every amateur cook can try. However, another of his recommendations is unlikely to be followed widely.
During a trip to the Natural History Museum to explore the possibility of a show telling the story of evolution through cooking, he made another taste discovery.
“It was a 10,000-year-old sloth poo. I licked it,” he explained. “I smelt it first and it had no smell. It tasted of nothing.”
Pod & Chips – distributed via Audioboom and available to download from Apple – is billed as “the world’s first multisensory podcast”. In each episode Blumenthal conducts a live food experiment and gives listeners the chance to join in at home.
In another episode, he claims to be able to change the taste of wine using “Jedi wine tricks”.
“We all have people in our lives that, when we think of them, fill us with warmth and love and happiness. And we all have had people in our lives who we’ve had negative associations with,” he said.
“Imagine someone that fills you with happiness, then have a sip of the wine. A normal glass of white wine. And all you’re thinking about here is the richness or sharpness, the roundness or softness, the creaminess or the acidic bit, and you just compare the two, even if you don’t know what the difference is.
“That’s your happy, wonderful, warm person. Now don’t put the glass down – really think of the person you hated, or had rejection associated with, or jealousy. Find somebody and really home in on them.
“Now have a sip. Now go back to the happy person. It changes the feeling of bitterness and acidity or the creaminess or the roundedness or the smoothness.
“It’s just changing your thoughts. We don’t realise we walk round with so much bottled up anxiety. By discovering things like this the world opens up.”
‘I cooked some soup made with green beans and I decided to put a lump of bauxite in the water’