''Heston's Feasts'' is a television cookery programme starring chef

Heston Blumenthal Heston Marc Blumenthal (; born 27 May 1966) is an English celebrity chef, TV personality and food writer. His restaurants include the Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire, a three- Michelin-star restaurant that was named the world's best by the Worl ...

and produced by

Optomen Optomen is an Independence, independent television production company part of All3Media, with Optomen Television Ltd. for the United Kingdom and Optomen Productions Inc. (launched in 2002) for the United States. It specializes in unscripted prog ...

for

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

. The programme follows Blumenthal as he conceptualizes and prepares unique feasts for the entertainment of celebrity guests. The first series premiered on 7 March 2009, followed by a second series of seven episodes beginning on 6 April 2010.

Summary

In each episode, Heston Blumenthal invites six celebrity guests to a four-course feast in which the dining room, food, and presentation are themed around a period of history. Blumenthal begins by researching the history, science and myth surrounding dishes of the past. He often experiments with exotic ingredients or tests unusual cooking techniques to remake historical dishes in his own style. Often, he will chase a lead and not serve the dish for various reasons such as impracticality or taste. In the dining room, Blumenthal presents each course with theatrics for the purpose of entertaining or even shocking his guests. The guests are different every episode and have included comedians, British nobility, and journalists.

Reception

In 2010, ''Heston's Feasts'' won the

Royal Television Society The Royal Television Society (RTS) is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present, and future. It is the oldest television society in the world. It currently has fourteen r ...

Award for best features and lifestyle series. Writing for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', TV critic Sam Wollaston praised the episode "Heston's Chocolate Factory Feast" as "an extraordinary cornucopia of joy and wizardry and humour."

List of episodes

Series one

Series two

Specials

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, 1551950 Channel 4 original programming 2009 British television series debuts 2011 British television series endings 2000s British cooking television series 2010s British cooking television series British cooking television shows British English-language television shows Television series by Optomen Television series by All3Media