Blumenthal goes Oriental with new restaurant

World-renowned chef Heston Blumenthal, owner of three Michelin-starred restaurant The Fat Duck in Berkshire, England, has joined forces with Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group to launch his first London restaurant.

Blumenthal’s first restaurant outside the small village of Bray in Berkshire is set to launch at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, London, in late 2010.

A spokesperson for the hotel group confirmed the new restaurant would feature the chef’s trademark “inimitable style of culinary alchemy, with a menu heavily influenced by his ongoing research and discovery of historic British gastronomy”.

The spokesperson also confirmed that established designer Adam Tihany would create the restaurant interior, with an emphasis on traditional materials such as wood, leather and iron, used in a contemporary style to “reinforce Heston's revival and modernisation of traditional British recipes”.

Seating 140 guests, the new restaurant will serve lunch, dinner and afternoon tea, with the kitchen headed up by Ashley Palmer Watts, who has worked with Blumenthal at The Fat Duck for nine years as group executive chef.

Blumenthal commented: "I am thrilled at the prospect of opening a restaurant in such a central London location.

“I have great respect for the Mandarin Oriental brand — working in partnership with the hotel group is a natural step and one which offers an exciting opportunity."

Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group’s corporate director of food and beverage, David Nicholls, added: "We are delighted to partner with The Fat Duck Group on this very exciting new venture.

“A longtime friend of Heston's, I have always shared his enthusiasm for English recipes and have enjoyed working with him to help develop talented British chefs through the Roux Scholarship programme.”