A Perfect Birthday with Dinner by Heston Blumenthal

I’m a huge believer that birthdays should be spent doing all of your favourites things. Seeing your favourite people, revisiting your favourite places and of course eating all the best food and drink!

Morning was spent working on my blog, as that’s also one of my favourite things to do, before I headed out to meet my favourite person the world (Mr S) at one of our favourite restaurants; Nobu Berkeley St.

I’ve blogged about Nobu before so I won’t go into huge amounts of detail but needless to say we ordered all our favourite things from the menu of Nikkei cuisine.
Yellow tail sashimi, both delicious and beautifully presented.
Salmon tacos with a spicy relish.

Lobster salad with lemon dressing.

The signature black cod is one of the iconic dishes at Nobu, and it’s the most perfect piece of fish I’ve ever tasted, slightly sweet with miso and perfectly flaky.
Beautifully grilled asparagus spears.

Sizzling chicken tobanyaki.

And our favourite sushi selection, spicy tuna rolls and soft shell crab!
As we had dinner planned later we went light with the desserts and opted for a the sub-zero yogurt and these tasty white chocolate lollipops filled with raspberry sorbet. With Mr S having to go back to work, I was meeting one of the my favourite bloggers to indulge in one of my favourite activities; shoe shopping!! Aftab and I had a good look around the Christian Louboutin shop on Mount Street but I couldn’t find anything that I liked…
So it was time for a glass of my favourite champagne, Laurent-Perrier, at my favourite bar. The Connaught Bar at The Connaught hotel is utterly gorgeous, inspired by 1920s art, it’s so stylish and glamorous. I loved the glass ware so much that my sister gave me set as a Christmas present a few years ago. We didn’t try it ourselves but there’s also the option of a bespoke cocktail from the hotel’s famous Martini trolley, apparently it’s one of London’s best.
Despite not purchasing any shoes earlier, there was a little surprise waiting for me when I got back…
Mr S also announced the glamorous location of tonight’s celebration. Two-Michelin starred Dinner by Heston Blumenthal. We’d actually experienced the molecular gastronomy at the restaurant before as it was where we celebrated our one year anniversary of being a couple, nearly five years ago now.
Located in the luxurious Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Knightsbridge, with a busy open kitchen and a view of Hyde Park, it was the perfect place to spend a birthday. Dinner by Heston Blumenthal has several times been named one of the best restaurants in the world by different publications including The S. Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants Award, AA Restaurant Guide and Elite Traveler World’s Top 100 Restaurants. It has retained its two star Michelin status for three years.
And of course the birthday bubbles kept flowing as we were presented with fresh bread with a the most perfectly chewy crust.
Ever since the opening of his first restaurant, The Fat Duck, Heston Blumenthal has been one of the most trailblazing chefs in the realms of molecular gastronomy. With Dinner, Heston combines his love of historic British gastronomy with his magical techniques; in fact, every dish on the menu also comes with a date denoting it’s origin in the history of British cuisine. Along with head chef Ashley Palmer Watts, Heston created a menu born from vast research into 14th Century recipe books, careful consultations with food historians as well as the team at Hampton Court.

Mr Silver opted for the famous ‘Meat Fruit’, the most famous dish on the menu and now a London icon. With his signature clever trickery Heston transforms chicken liver parfait and foie gras into the appearance of a mandarin and serves it along with some grilled bread. It really does look like the real thing and the texture was perfectly thick, rich and creamy.
My dish of roast scallops apparently originated in 1830 and the scallops themselves were plump and juicy with a delicious caramelisation on the outside. I found the texture of the accompanying roast cucumber is little odd but I did enjoy the zesty cucumber ketchup that dressed the dish.
Regular readers will know that I usually choose fish for my course but for some reason the dish of pigeon really spoke to me. It was cooked beautifully rare and perfectly paired with artichokes and a luscious ale sauce.

Mr Silver’s Iberico pork chop was beautifully roasted and of course with top-level ingredients, yet it lacked the excitement that we expected from a Heston dish. The accompanying spelt and ham hock also lacked the wow factor but it was all tied together nicely with a sauce Robert.
Heston’s famous triple cooked chips were another highlight; an ‘obsession’ with creating the perfect chip was what led him to develop this recipe. By using his three stage method Heston achieves the ultimate crunch on the outside and soft fluffy centre within.
Obviously it’s not a special birthday without a chocolate cake and this gorgeously light and fluffy mousse cake appeared from the kitchen. We decided to get this one boxed up and taken home as Mr S had already pre-ordered the famous tipsy cake.
Served with spit roast pineapple, the signature dessert is a baked brioche filled with cream and soaked in brandy. The perfectly caramelised pineapple is the ideal pairing with the sweetness of the cake – it’s a must order so make sure you let the waiter know at the beginning as it takes forty minutes to make.
On my day of favourites I had to order my favourite dessert of all time; caramelised apple tart with a delicious scoop of Tahitian vanilla ice cream.
But the magic wasn’t over yet over as our waiter proceeded to mix custard with liquid nitrogen…
Conjuring up ice cream before our very eyes! Now if there’s one thing that I loved as a child, it’s ice cream covered in sprinkles and we had a choice of four toppings for our cones! Freeze-dried raspberries are a must!

Shoes, champagne, sushi, ice cream cones, chocolate…I literally can’t think of a more perfect way to spend a birthday!