Heston Blumenthal, the Michelin-starred chef and kitchen chemist who gave the
world egg and bacon ice-cream, has won another award for his latest
Frankenstein food — warm chocolate wine.
The velvety, frothy drink is made by whisking a £48 red dessert wine with
sugar and chocolate.
A spokeswoman at the Condé Nast Traveller Innovation and Design
Awards said that judges had been seduced by the unusual combination.
“Splicing grapes with cocoa beans and coming up with a surprising chocolate
wine has proved a winning formula for Blumenthal,” she said.
A judging panel including Loyd Grossman, the chef and television presenter,
Sir Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate Gallery, and Simon Calder, the
travel writer, drew up a shortlist of candidates whom readers then voted for
online. Nicky Eaton, of Condé Nast Traveller, said: “Heston was
a clear winner among readers.”
Chocolate wine, which dates back to 1710 and used to be made by whisking
claret or port with sugar and chocolate, has been a favourite dessert at The
Fat Duck, Blumenthal's restaurant, where it shares a place on the menu
alongside other palate-puzzlers such as salmon poached in liquorice gel,
snail porridge and mango and Douglas fir purée.
While other dishes are developed with the help of petri dishes and a dash of
liquid nitrogen, Blumenthal uses a centrifuge to separate the solids in
preparation for the chocolate wine.
Aspiring molecular gastronomists can attempt the dish at home by bringing the
wine to the boil until it is a syrupy reduction. Adding grated chocolate and
milk should produce a dessert with a difference.
Blumenthal is self-taught and has been appointed OBE for services to food. He
is also almost certainly the only chef to have a scientific paper published
on monoglutamate ribo-nucleotides in tomatoes.
The Fat Duck opened in 1995 and was awarded its third Michelin star in January
2004. Two years later Blumenthal was awarded an honorary degree of doctor of
science by the University of Reading for his research, and was also admitted
to the Royal Society of Chemistry.
The awards, which were held on Monday evening at the Marriott Hotel in
Grosvenor Square, Central London, also featured categories including
technology, sustainability, style, culture and aviation.
Chanel was honoured in the retail category for its revamped Rodeo Drive store
in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles. The facade features a milky Microglass edged
in black steel, making it an architectural copy of the Chanel No 5 box.
David Marks and Julia Barfield, the architects responsible for the London
Eye, also won an innovation award for designing the Treetop Walkway, which
opens at Kew Gardens next month.
How to make chocolate wine
— Bring wine to boil. Set it alight and allow flame to burn off. Boil until
liquid becomes syrupy and reduces to 150ml
— Grate or finely chop chocolate and put to one side. In a separate pan, bring
milk slowly to the boil, pour it over the chocolate and stir
— Add reduced wine to the chocolate milk, heat and froth using a whisk or hand
blender. Serve immediately
Its a bottle of wine that's used - 75cl. The original 1710 chocolate wine was claret or port, sugar and chocolate. Sugaring wine was common then, but Heston is using milk here along with the chocolate not sugar. It's a different recipe although the headline of the article is definitely misleading
Deedee, Lahti, Finland
How can you invent something that's been around since 1710 (per your article)? And doesn't boiling the wine remove the alcohol content? And I'm supposed to set it on fire, too? I'll go back to EATING chocolate with a glass of wine, thanks.
Kelley, mount olive, USA
Ruining a £48 bottle of wine by mixing in chocolate and milk makes me feel quite ill. And I like chocolate, really I do! I didn't know before that Heston was self-taught, but it certainly explains a lot. Could we club together to get him some lessons from Delia or Gordon Ramsay, please?
Sarah Billings, Alford, England
"... Boil until liquid becomes syrupy and reduces to 150ml "
er, how much liquid did we start with?
Jules, London, UK
Back to your Burger and Fries Bob.
Richard, Oxford,
I'm sorry -- but that "recipe" is useless. Why are no measures given for anything?
Joseph W. Blow, Knotty Ash, U.K.
I can easily imagine how nice this will taste, but does it need to be made with a 48£ bottle? I'd rather drink it!
Bob, Glion, Switzerland
The Mayans used to make a chilli pepper chocolate mix. Quite easy to recreate. Ideal for serving at dinner parties to unexpecting guests.
Peter, Bangkok, Thailand
I like to make chocolate rain. Step 1: Reduce the rain to 150 ml. Step 2: Add chocolate and milk Step 3: Move away from the mic so you can breathe
Jonny Bollocks, CumStainVille, UK
I made it yesterday and found it a bit too sweet. Delicious though!
I used Jacobs Creek Shiraz wine (1/2 a small bottle) and plain chocolate (Sainsbury;s Taste the Difference). I guessed the quantities.
Deborah Hayward, London, UK
So readers voted on something that they had not tasted? I have to stop reading these articles.
Simon, Nottingham,
They sell chocolate wine in Marks and Spencer.
Clair, Tidworth, uk
I think you need to sort out that recipe at the end, it seems terribly confused. You might want to address...
How to set the wine alight (can you even set wine on fire?)
How much wine you need to use in the first place if you're waiting for it to reduce to 150ml?
How much chocolate & what type?
Alex Baldwin, Rugby,
"Heston Blumenthal invents chocolate wine"
"Chocolate wine, which dates back to 1710.."
So either Lucy Bannerman is a little confused here, or Heston Blumenthal is actually over 300 years old. Surely that would be the biggest story?
GM, Brisbane,
Only in England - where anything you can do to the food is an improvement.
Bob Hall, New York, United States