20 April 2022 | NEWS
HESTON BLUMENTHAL, WORLD'S BEST CHEF, TELLS US HIS VISION OF SLEEP
Eat or eat well ... Sleep or sleep very well ... You can choose !
World-renowned British chef Heston Blumenthal has just bought himself an Elite bed. The man who we saw this spring on M6's "Top Chef" and who explained that bananas go as well with parsley as strawberries do with black olives - thanks to a basic flavour molecule they have in common - tells us about his vision of sleep. Not commonplace!
Heston Blumenthal is one of the fathers of molecular cuisine and was the first to use liquid nitrogen in the kitchen to invent a caramelised apple in 1998, served cold on the outside and hot on the inside. In his restaurant, to awaken the senses, which he views as triggers of emotions, he makes his guests taste cockles (small common shellfish) and razor clams (other seafood) with an iPod whilst at the same time listening to the sounds of the sea... Having a conversation with Blumenthal forces us to take a step back in order to get closer to ourselves, to our condition as “sensitive” beings. Make yourself comfortable for a journey into the mind of a brilliant creator!
Let me ask you a very intimate question: do you sleep well?
I don't even think about the back pain that prompted me to buy an Elite mattress, that's for sure! But I’ll come back to that... The most intimate relationship we have is with ourselves. It is the most difficult, but also the most rewarding. Our physiological needs, such as food and sleep, must be met. If we do it consciously and in the best possible way, our relationship with ourselves is a quality relationship. We can sleep or sleep very well... Just as we can eat or eat very well and experience incredible emotions as a result. Chemistry shows us that everything is interconnected, including energy. Certainly what we drink or how we sleep causes vibrations that will also affect our daily lives. So my bed is probably the most important object in my house and the one that has the most impact on my daily life!
With better sleep, are your senses more alert?
Today's science explains that our sleep functions like the creation of a file, with different cycles allowing us not only to regenerate, but also to tidy up and clarify our various preoccupations of the day. In this way, we rest our day body and live our night body to be reborn each morning: this is really a most precious thing. I used to have to lie in a certain position and when I turned over during the night, I would be in pain and wake up. Today, when I wake up, I don’t want to get up: my bed is so comfortable! When I wake up, I usually do some meditation and stretching. I have also noticed that the time it takes to be full of energy when I get out of bed is much shorter than before. There is no doubt that my new bed has contributed to my well-being.
You often refer to the senses and emotions; how do they come into play in your cooking?
I have been working for Fat Duck for 25 years. People see it as a restaurant that works very well: techniques, recipes, staging, tables, awards... all this is just the outside. For 25 years, my real obsession has been what people will feel inside. In order for them to experience as many emotions as possible, I aim to activate all the senses in parallel, such as touch, smell and hearing, and I even try to play with the vestibular system, the system of balance. It seems that today our greatest freedom is being able to choose our emotions. It's really nice to know that! But, in my opinion, it is difficult to really feel at ease with making a choice of this kind. To succeed in this kind of "self-knowledge" work, you must, of course, be sleeping well. A good night's sleep has magical effects and really contributes to our well-being. And if you have to choose, I suggest that you opt for a good mattress over a more powerful car or an expensive holiday on the other side of the world...
A SCIENTIFIC APPROACH TO TASTE AND FLAVOURS
The "frostiest of the great chefs" is what food journalist Véronique Zbinden called him in Le Temps when Heston Blumenthal was named "Best Chef in the World" by Restaurant magazine. Chef and owner of The Fat Duck restaurant (three Michelin stars), he is also chef at the Dinner restaurants at the Mandarin Oriental in London (two Michelin stars) and in Melbourne, Australia. Renowned for his scientific approach to cooking, he is considered one of the leading figures in molecular gastronomy and foodpairing. In 2021, he took part in the M6 show Top Chef, which featured a test where candidates had to combine two unlikely foods. He has worked for many years on understanding the mechanisms of taste, both with the University of Nottingham and with researchers at Firmenich. At the same time he is carrying out research into experimental psychology. He is also an honorary member of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
