UK trip, Dec 2008 - The Fat Duck, Bray (Part 3)

Now the sweet courses begins.

Hot and Iced Tea (2005)

There are actually quite a number of sweet things on the menu and we started with this palate cleanser. The tea arrived in a modern thermal glass: one side of the tea (served in a very cute thermal glass) was cold, the other was hot. It is quite a strange sensation

Mrs Marshall's Margaret Cornet

The course comes in very tiny portion. It comes with a little booklet on Agnes Bertha Marshall, who wrote some of the best books on ice cream in the 19th Century. Her recipe for the ice cream cone predates the supposed first at the St. Louis World Fair of 1904 by a number of years. Mrs Marshall died at the age of 49 and her recipe books were soon forgotten by public. In homage to her, the Fat Duck ice cream cones are made according to her recipes.

Aren't the cones adorable?

Pine Sherbet Fountain (Pre-Hit)

The pine sherbet fountain brings the nostalgia of childhood

We used the dried vanilla bean to dip out the pine sherbet powder and then licked the stick. We felt like a kid again.

At this point, there are a number of wine glasses on the table

Mango and Douglas Fir Puree - Bavarois of Lychee and Mango, Blackcurrant Sorbet
2005 Breganze Torcolato, Maculan, Veneto (Italy)

This next dish looks more like a regular dessert

The bavarois of lychee and mango is the rectangular block, the blackcurrant sorbet is set on the side. The yellow dollop is the mango and Douglas fir puree

Parsnip Cereal

The waiter then came with two bowls and boxes of cereal. He then announced it is time for breakfast.

There were just a few tiny flakes and personally, I think it is a redundant dish

Nitro-scambled Egg and Bacon Ice Cream (2006) - Pain Perdu and Tea Jelly
2006 Jurancon, Uroulat, Charles Hours, South West (France)

I really looked forward to this dish. It sounds weird so I definitely want to try it.

Once we had our continental breakfast, we then started our English breakfast.

The waiter cracked two eggs into the pan, which was then cooked in liquid nitrogen. We don't know whether they were real eggs. What comes out look like a sort of custard.

The custard was then added to the pre-arranged pain perdu, which was topped with a dollop of ice cream and what looked like bacon. The ice cream itself was both sweet and savory. The bacon was sweet and crisp

A ceramic egg-shaped bowl held the tea jelly. It tasted like a mixture of green and lemon tea, which is very refreshing

Petits Fours - Carrot and Orange Lolly, Mandarin Aerated Chocolate, Violet Tartlet, Apple Pie Caramel "Edible Wrapper"

I ordered chamomile tea to go with my petits fours. The tea is of very good quality and I have really enjoyed it

We don't have a photo of the petits fours but you can roughly see them in the background of this photo. Mandarin Aerated Chocolate on the right, violet tartlet and apple pie caramel in the middle and the carrot and orange lolly on the right

Overall

This meal is great fun and the staff have made us felt comfortable. Most of the food is good. There are definitely plenty of innovation and originality. It is certainly very different.

However, if I ever come back to The Fat Duck (first, I need a much thicker wallet!), I would probably go for the À la carte menu, because we have lost the elements of surprise :-)