Having been at the pinnacle of modern European cuisine for over a decade, The Fat Duck restaurant in England, is still a pioneering force in the culinary world thanks to its owner and head chef, Heston Blumenthal. So what puts this restaurant at the top of the pile?

Science and Cooking
After failing to gain employment in the kitchens of London, Blumenthal set himself the task of learning to cook and he began accumulating his knowledge and expertise on his travels to France. In 1995 he opened The Fat Duck in Bray, situated near Maidenhead, UK, which was to become the laboratory where "Molecular Gastronomy" really took off. Within a decade, the self-taught chef had earned 3 Michelin stars and worldwide recognition for his contributions to both science and cooking.

Eccentric Menu
The menu of the Fat Duck is notoriously eccentric, where snails meet porridge, caviar is served on a sliver of white chocolate and a green-tea flavoured meringue is frozen in liquid nitrogen before your very eyes. By pairing unusual tastes, Blumenthal pushes the boundaries of the senses by allowing the different qualities of a particular dish to reveal themselves one-by-one, rather than all at once.

However, the enthusiastic chef states that it's the dining public who have become more inquisitive and have allowed him to push the envelope where modern food is concerned, "It's the diners who have become most open. Six or seven years ago when I put a crab ice cream on my menu, it was regarded as the devil. Now if something like that was done for the first time I don't think anybody would bat an eyelid."

Kitchen Experiments
The experiments that go on in the kitchens of the Fat Duck have attracted the attention of scientists, who are interested in the research conducted into taste sensations, and what gives humans sensory pleasure from food. Blumenthal may be correct in believing that there are many more than five senses as scientists have discovered 21 different taste receptors for bitterness receptors on the tongue. There is also growing argument that fat is a taste of its own.

Shunning Tradition
After being criticised for shunning tradition and having a greater interest in science than true cooking ability, Blumenthal argues, "We may use modern thickeners, sugar substitutes, enzymes, liquid nitrogen, dehydration and other non-traditional means but these do not define our cooking. They are a few of the many tools that we are fortunate to have available as we strive to make delicious and stimulating dishes."

Delicious and stimulating they must be, as the restaurant was crowned the Best Restaurant in the World in January 2004, by a panel of 600 chefs, critics and journalists from around the world.