Heston's Fantastical Food

Heston's Fantastical Food is a television cookery program starring chef Heston Blumenthal which broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK during late 2012. The programme follows Blumenthal as he supersizes a variety of food for presentation to members of the public.

Heston's Fantastical Food
GenreCooking
Directed byJay Taylor
Presented byHeston Blumenthal
Theme music composerBen Parsons
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes7
Production
Executive producerJenny Byrom
ProducerNatalie Hill
Production companyBetty TV and Snail Porridge
Release
Original networkChannel 4
Original release6 November (2012-11-06) –
19 December 2012 (2012-12-19)
Chronology
Related showsHeston's Feasts
External links
Official website

Description
Chef Heston Blumenthal sought to produce supersized versions of day to day food items

The premise of the show was for Heston Blumenthal, chef-patron of the Michelin starred restaurants The Fat Duck, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal and The Hinds Head, to supersize a variety of food on themed episodes in order to excite the public. These challenges included creating a pub out of pies which included an arch made from pastry, and a cone which would hold one tonne of ice cream.[1] A variety of research was conducted by the research team behind the programme, which included proving that biscuits tasted better after they had been dunked in tea.[1]

The show was produced by production company Betty TV for Channel 4, with the titles and bumpers designed by Pete&Tom, and theme music by Ben Parsons.[2] Channel 4 were sold on the premise of a world record attempt in each episode.[3]

Reception

The first episode of Heston's Fantastical Food had two million viewers on Channel 4, beating Dara Ó Briain's Science Club, the first episode of which was broadcast at the same time on BBC Two.[4]

John Crace of The Guardian thought that Heston's Fantastical Food was too similar to his previous Channel 4 outings, describing him as a "flatscreen one-trick wonder".[5] He felt that the show had been padded out from twenty minutes to an hour and found it conceited that Blumenthal was doing something useful.[5] Tim Dowling reviewed the second episode, also for The Guardian saying that "Heston's mission suffered from a woolliness of intent that made it hard to justify the grandeur of the project".[6] Benji Wilson of The Daily Telegraph gave the show 2/5 stars, and said that the "show is messy and mildly repellent because it asks us to take food, both the cooking and the eating of it, seriously, yet it does so with a series of glib stunts".[7] The Metro was equally critical in its review, saying that it "came across as a self-indulgent game", and that it "was more of a bizarre bid to get in the Guinness World Records book than anything you might call cooking".[8] However it described the Christmas episode as something which "promises to be fun".[9]

Episodes
No. Title Original air date Viewers (million)
1"Heston's Big Breakfast"6 November 2012 (2012-11-06)2.01[10]
Heston creates an enormous Full breakfast, a giant boiled egg filled with mango and a breakfast on a steam train for commuters.
2"The Sky High '99"13 November 2012 (2012-11-13)1.04[11]
To order to revive the ice cream truck, in Gloucester, Heston creates a five meter tall 99 Flake weighing in at over a tonne, and paintballs to fire at it which taste of popular ice cream flavours from the 1980s.
3"Blumenthal's Big Brew"20 November 2012 (2012-11-20)1.44[12]
Heston makes a massive packet of biscuits and tetrahedral tea bag alongside a drink containing Victoria sponge and cucumber sandwiches.
4"Heston and the Giant Sweet Factory"27 November 2012 (2012-11-27)1.3[13]
Inspired by Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Heston creates a giant sweet shop in Chesterfield including massive Rolos, Liquorice Allsorts and jelly babies.
5"The Pub in a Pie"4 December 2012 (2012-12-04)1.7[14]
Blumenthal creates a pub made of pies in the Welsh village of Minera, massive pork scratchings and a pool table made of fish and tartar sauce with pickled eggs for balls.
6"The Massive Lunch Box"11 December 2012 (2012-12-11)2.01[15]
Heston creates enormous Hula Hoops, giant Kit Kats, and a huge carton of Um Bongo in order to inspire the wonder in adults from a packed lunch.
7"Heston's Fantastical Christmas"19 December 2012 (2012-12-19)1.82[16]
Heston makes edible Christmas tree decorations from pig's head, and a Christmas pudding large enough to walk inside.

References
  1. Jefferies, Mark (6 November 2012). "Biscuits taste better dunked in tea - that's official thanks to Heston Blumenthal research". The Daily Mirror. Retrieved 1 January 2013.
  2. "'Heston's Fantastical Food' titles package". Pete&Tom. Archived from the original on 1 January 2013. Retrieved 1 January 2013.
  3. "Heston's Fantastical Food". Broadcast. 1 November 2012. Retrieved 1 January 2013.
  4. Plunkett, John (7 November 2012). "Heston's Fantastical Food hosts 2m". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 January 2013.
  5. Crace, John (6 November 2012). "TV review: Heston's Fantastical Food; Dara Ó Briain's Science Club". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 January 2013.
  6. Dowling, Tim (13 November 2012). "TV review: Chateau Chunder; Heston's Fantastical Food; Dara Ó Briain's Science Club". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 January 2013.
  7. Wilson, Benji (7 November 2012). "Heston's Fantastical Food, Channel 4, review". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 1 January 2013.
  8. "Heston's Fantastical Food came across as a self-indulgent game". Metro. 6 November 2012. Retrieved 1 January 2013.
  9. "SuperScrimpers' Merry Christmas and Heston's Fantastical Food: TV picks". Metro. 3 December 2012. Retrieved 1 January 2013.
  10. Millar, Paul (7 November 2012). "Rolf's 'Animal Clinic' rockets to series high for Channel 5". Digital Spy. Retrieved 1 January 2013.
  11. Millar, Paul (14 November 2012). "'Geordie Shore' still ratings hit for MTV". Digital Spy. Retrieved 1 January 2013.
  12. Millar, Paul (21 November 2012). "Cheryl Cole's ITV2 show attracts more than 800,000 viewers". Digital Spy. Retrieved 1 January 2013.
  13. Khalsa, Balihar (28 November 2012). "Heston extends lead over Dara". Broadcast. Retrieved 1 January 2013.
  14. Millar, Paul (5 December 2012). "'Last Tango in Halifax' towers over competition on Tuesday night". Digital Spy. Retrieved 1 January 2013.
  15. Millar, Paul (12 December 2012). "Special 'Sky at Night' broadcast attracts over 2m fans". Digital Spy. Retrieved 1 January 2013.
  16. Millar, Paul (20 December 2012). "'Last Tango in Halifax' ends on high note for BBC One". Digital Spy. Retrieved 1 January 2013.
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