Heston’s great British food focuses on curry (and some familiar faces)!
Friday, 9th May, 2014
Heston Blumenthal has got to be one of our Head Chef Minal’s favourite celebrity chefs (after Gordon of course!). She loves his passion for the science behind food and his determination to create dishes that are never anything short of perfect in their taste and presentation. 
In his new series ‘Heston’s Great British Food‘, Blumenthal starts with a focus on his favourite cuisine – curry. And what better place to visit to make the best British curry than Bradford; the Curry Capital of the UK.
Back in February, he came to film the episode in the World Herigate village of Saltaire – and we got the chance to go along! Mayur and Marko, owners of our sister company Bundobust (a craft beer bar with Indian street food kitchen launching in Leeds city centre soon) were invited along to do the enviable job of being Heston’s tasters (lucky non-vegetarians!), while the front of house team from Prashad were brought in for last minute supporting in serving up Heston’s food to the standard it deserved.
Maity, Bundobust’s star chef, along with Bobby, was drafted in to make a mammoth batch of the perfect naan breads with vitamin C and enzymes to make them as light and bubbly as possibly for as long as possible. After a few false starts, they were ready just in time to hit the tables fresh and hot. The pressure was really on but the tasters said they were mind blowing!
Seeing Heston’s development kitchen at work first hand gave them teams from both Prashad and Bundobust a lot of food for thought. It was fantastic to be invited along – particularly for Bundobust who are just building a profile for themselves – and of course to meet and learn from Heston. He was even more of an inspiration in person than he is on TV and we were blown away by his interpersonal skills and the time he took to talk to everyone. He was really appreciative of Prashad’s waiting team who were concerned that they wouldn’t be up to scratch but found that they shone under Bobby’s tutelage, which is as strict as Heston’s! Mayur and Marko from Bundobust even enjoyed a few pints with Heston at local pub Fanny’s after the filming.
One of our favourite ideas which we hope to bring back to the restaurant is cooking rice in the ‘old school’ way in its dish, leaving it sealed until the last minute so that diners break it at the table and smell the aroma coming straight off it. Mayur was also blown away by the use of techniques such as liquid nitrogen to make mango lassi explode in your mouth and freeze dried curry sprayed onto popodums to give them all the taste of a complex dish.
Bundobust will be aiming to serve up this level of perfection when it opens in Leeds in April – so make sure you try their street food washed down with a perfectly matched craft beer!
The show aired last night on Channel 4 – if you missed it, watch again on 4oD!