Heston's Feasts is a television cookery programme starring chef Heston Blumenthal

Heston Blumenthal

Heston Marc Blumenthal OBE is an English chef and owner of The Fat Duck, a three-Michelin-starred restaurant in Bray, Berkshire voted Best Restaurant in the UK by The Good Food Guide 2007 and 2009, and voted best restaurant in the world by Restaurant magazine in 2005...

 and produced by Optomen

Optomen

Optomen is an independent television production company with Optomen Television Ltd. for the United Kingdom and Optomen Productions Inc. launched in 2002 for the United States.-United Kingdom and the United States:...

 for Channel 4

Channel 4

Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

. The programme follows Blumenthal as he conceptualizes and prepares unique feasts for the entertainment of celebrity guests. The first series premiered on March 3, 2009, followed by a second series of seven episodes beginning in April 2010.

Summary

In each episode, Heston Blumenthal invites six celebrity guests to a four-course feast in which the dining room, food, and presentation are themed around a period of history. Blumenthal begins by researching the history, science and myth surrounding dishes of the past. He often experiments with exotic ingredients or tests unusual cooking techniques to remake historical dishes in his own style. Often, he will chase a lead and not serve the dish for various reasons such as impracticality or taste. In the dining room, Blumenthal presents each course with theatrics for the purpose of entertaining or even shocking his guests. The guests are different every episode and have included comedians, British nobility, and journalists.

Series one

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Series two

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Specials

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Reception

In 2010, Heston's Feasts won the Royal Television Society

Royal Television Society

The Royal Television Society is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present and future. It is the oldest television society in the world...

 Award for best features and lifestyle series.

Writing for The Guardian

The Guardian

The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

, TV critic Sam Wollaston praised the episode "Heston's Chocolate Factory Feast" as "an extraordinary cornucopia of joy and wizardry and humour."