Catch up TV

Episode 20 December 2022

In this entertaining and emotionally powerful documentary, celebrated chef Heston Blumenthal takes his world-famous restaurant back to 2001 as restaurant critic Giles Coren challenges him - and staff past and present - to recreate an extraordinary tasting menu from a significant year for him and The Fat Duck. As he looks back to the past to prepare for the celebration, Heston unearths revealing truths about his life and career.\n \nHeston and his contemporary team reassemble original staff members from 2001, eliciting joyful reunions, powerful reminiscences and hilarious attempts to recapture their glory days in the kitchen. Together, they recreate a delicious historic tasting menu for a unique one-off event using recipes and techniques of the time, revealing some of the processes and combinations of ingredients pioneered by Heston that went on to shake up the restaurant scene and had an impact on kitchens at home too. The Fat Duck dining room and kitchen are redecorated overnight to reflect 2001 styles, and high-profile guests synonymous with the year, dressed in the styles of 2001, are served Heston’s innovative dishes.\n \nAs he looks back to the past and gathers together his old comrades and celebrities for the magical event, Heston realises some deeper relatable truths about his career, life path and bonds with others. He also rediscovers for all of us the power of looking back to the past to fuel perspectives on the present and future.\n \nThis nostalgia-packed programme interweaves the challenge of an ambitious event with moving insights into Heston's biography, alongside the wider cultural context of 2001, to reveal how Heston and his food has shaped and mirrored recent British history.

Source: BBC 2