Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, London announces ‘The Luncheon’ by Heston Blumenthal, a new lunchtime menu highlighting global food waste through historical storytelling and recipes dating back to the 17th Century. With a focus on conscious dining for the future, the talented team behind Heston Blumenthal has devised a culinary journey that reflects their commitment to sustainability through food.
In true Heston Blumenthal style, the exquisite and experimental menu is a deep dive into history where past societies embraced a more sustainable approach to food by minimizing waste in their daily eating habits. This menu provides the perfect platform to demonstrate how guests and the community can savour the past to sustain the future. Each dish is a conscious
masterpiece reinventing historical sustainability – proving that sustainability is not a modern- day innovation but one that everyone should take lessons from in historical reference, understanding how societies can make the most of food and decrease waste – whilst telling Dinner by Heston Blumenthal’s own sustainable journey.
The exciting initiative will encourage everyone to think about how food is utilised, whilst appreciating some of the unknown cuts that are more than worthy to take their place on a plate. Heston Blumenthal’s renowned approach to cooking, which is led by history, provides the perfect platform to demonstrate how the historical sustainability can be reinvented. The menu will address some of the challenges facing the global food system, highlighting the issues, and illustrating how one can make a difference, whilst surprising and enlightening diners through storytelling, quality ingredients, and impeccable service.
Menu highlights include:
Starters
Ragoo of Pigs Ear on Toast (c.1727) Oxtail, Cippolini, mustard & lemon. A dish inspired by ‘The Complete Housewife by E. Smith’. Pigs ears and oxtails are often undervalued ingredients that are often not used for human consumption. For this delicious dish, the team pressure cook oxtail with beef and vegetables and use the resulting stock for our beef sauce. This is an
exceptionally healthy dish, deep in flavour and texture.
Nettle Porridge (c.1661) Garlic, parsley & fennel – referenced from ‘W Rabisha The Whole Book of Cookery Dissected’. Stinging nettles are a great sustainable green and all too often overlooked. Easily foraged, they provide a distinct flavour, that works perfectly with the fragrant herbs that supplement this dish.
Main Courses
Salt Cod (c.1769) Parsnip, pickled lemon & horseradish. This dish, from ‘The Experienced English Housekeeper By E Raffald’ is a perfect example of how off cuts can be utilised to great effect rather than wasted. The throat, cheek, and collar from a Cod is full of flavour and texture, served with a horseradish vinegar, made from trim to season the sauce.
Forced Artichoke (c.1732) Spelt, mushroom, breadcrumbs. Taken from ‘The Complete City and Country Cook by C Carter’ This dish demonstrates how the benefits and recommendations for eating less meat can still be achieved without loss of taste, through the use of bone marrow and leftover breadcrumbs used in the stuffing.
Desserts
Pineapple and Cardamom Tart (c.1728) Cardamom custard tart with pineapple jam. This dish has a close connection to dinner and Heston’s use of the pineapple; when the recipe was created in 1728, as seen in ‘The Country Housewife and Lady’s Director by R Bradley’ The pineapple was a highly valued commodity, and on occasion rented out for show to households who were
keen to make a show. This dish uses the leftover spit roast pineapple trimmings to make the jam for this tart.
The new menu is priced at GBP 59 with the option of wine pairings at GBP 49.
The Luncheon will be available until summer 2024
