TV CHEF Heston Blumenthal has confirmed the closure of his two-Michelin star restaurant after 15 years in business.
Thankfully, diners still have time to enjoy the eatery’s signature dishes, including the Meat Fruit and the Tipsy Cake, as the final service won’t be held until next year.
Heston Blumenthal, who has become a household name with a number of TV appearances and a product range in Waitrose, will close his coveted restaurant Dinner at The Mandarin Oriental next January.
The acclaimed chef has already announced a celebratory eight-course tasting menu to mark the eatery’s 16th birthday throughout the month.
This service will feature dishes that span five centuries of historic British food, before Dinner by Heston officially closes at the end of the January 2027, exactly 16 years on from its opening in 2011.
The establishment, which is famous for its chicken liver parfait disguised as fruit and instant liquid nitrogen ice cream made tableside, is one of four restaurnts owned by Blumenthal.
His other eateries include another Dinner location in Dubai, as well as the Michelin-starred Hind’s Head and his flagship three-starred restaurant The Fat Duck, both located in Berkshire.
Next year’s closure coincides with the end of the restaurant’s tenancy at the luxury Hyde Park hotel, after a six month extension to celebrate Dinner’s anniversary.
Blumenthal spoke to The Times about facing Dinner’s final months of service.
“I’ve got a year to wrap my head around it,” the highly-coveted chef told the outlet.
“There are some huge feelings there; sadness. It’s bittersweet, but it has run its natural course. We are effectively tenants in a building and our tenancy is finished.”
Blumenthal, who is regarded as one of the country’s top culinary innovators, famously installed a glass kitchen at Dinner and studied every aspect of service, including the number of steps from pass to each table.
And his attention to detail paid off, with the eatery picking up its first Michelin star within just a year of opening.
The following year, it secured a second and went on to spend the next decade somewhere within the top ten of the World’s 50 Best restaurant list.
However, a variety of factors including food inflation, Brexit, rising wages, the cost of living crisis, and Blumenthal’s own mental health issues, which he has spoken publicly about, eventually accumulated to next year’s closure.
