(fast brass music)
- So The Meat Show is coming to you
from swank Knightsbridge today
and we are in front of
the Mandarin Oriental,
one of the most exclusive
hotels in all of London.
Within that hotel is one
of my favorite restaurants.
It's Dinner by Heston Blumenthal.
It is a restaurant that
is informed and inspired
by the heritage of British cooking
going back as far as
there are British recipes
so you're gonna get things
from the 12th and the 13th century
but sort of updates them
for the modern palate
and the modern sensibility.
One of the dishes
they're most renowned for
is called Meat Fruit.
I'm gonna go in there and
talk to Ashley Palmer-Watts.
He's gonna tell me all about
what this mysterious dish is.
(jazzy brass band)
So, before we get into it,
what is Meat Fruit, succinctly.
- Okay, so if we start off
with the finished Meat Fruit,
it's a chicken liver parfait
inside a mandarin jelly.
It looks as if it is a mandarin
with a texture that I'll show you.
It looks simple but it
takes three days to make.
There's a huge amount of
complexity behind that simplicity.
The balance of the gel,
which is mandarin flavored,
to the parfait inside is the right ratio.
So when you actually eat this
and spread it on the grilled bread,
you're getting the
condiment with the parfait.
- Tell me about this
dish, how it came about,
and how it slots into
the ethos of dining here.
- I mean, we always start
looking backwards at history.
We take inspiration from that.
It sparks an idea that will tie in
to something that we think may work.
So basically, how we make the
Meat Fruit is chicken livers,
butter, eggs, we make an alcohol reduction
with shallots and garlic,
a little bit of thyme.
Day Two, we put it into semi-sphere molds.
You heat them together with a
blow torch, put them together,
put a spike in, wrap it in cling film,
and then put it back in the freezer.
Then we take a mixture
here of mandarin juice
and then we dip the Meat
Fruit in, let it refreeze.
When it's gone all frosty,
we give it a second dip.
Then we take it off,
let it defrost overnight
and then they're ready the next day.
(upbeat rock music)
- Okay, well, here we go.
I mean, look at that thing.
It is just ...
It's uncanny how much
like an orange it looks.
Oh, look at that.
It just comes off.
Okay, well here goes the first bite.
Right away, such a familiar flavor,
like classic foie terrine, chicken liver.
Just a delicious mouth-filled ...
But it's very gentle, it's not really
sort of dominating anything.
And then you get this lovely,
delicate gelatin wrap-around that ...
But it just does add a sweetness
and a really nice sort of
counterpoint to that richness of the fat.
Then you've got this lovely bread,
perfumed and scented with
thyme and rosemary and garlic.
It's not overpowering the way
like a whole lobe of foie would be.
So this must be on any
carnivore's chore list
because it's pretty complex.
You do have that richness from ...
The foie itself has those
deep, mineral-rich flavors
but right at the end you get this
little crescendo of mandarin tang.
It's not really citrus-y but
there's a sweetness there.
Absolutely delicious.
There's a really pleasing
textural contrast
between the mousse and the
crunchiness of the bread.
It's very aromatic.
Really, very delicious dish.
I appreciated this immensely
the first time I tried it
but after seeing how much
craft and time and manpower
goes into this thing, I'm
really impressed with it.
I like it because it's
whimsical, it's playful.
Yet, it's very serious cooking
and I guess that's what
The Meat Show's all about.
Thank you for watching.
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