«With gold edged pages, gold ribbon and gold illustrated cloth slipcase, each signed and numbered special edition is sumptuous and ultra-desirable. Once upon a time there was a Chef called Heston who opened a small restaurant called the Fat Duck. At first, he served only simple French classics but gradually, as is the way of things, the Chef's curiosity got the better of him and he began thinking up more unusual dishes, such as Snail Porridge and Chocolate Wine. Word spread and reached the ears of the Executives who ran a television channel, and they summoned the Chef to their glass fortress. «We command you to create six Fantastical Feasts, « they said. «These must be based on history, but you may draw on fairytales and legends. We should warn you that the Quest will involve journeys to Transylvania in search of the legendary Leech Recipe of Sibiu, and to the Black Forest to eat the eyes of the Wild Boar of Munstertal. You must resist the temptations of the Burlesque Girls, and you must turn chocolate cake into a raging fireball and chicken's testicles into jelly beans. There will be hunting for hallucinogenic mushrooms and cooking with Play-Doh. Out of this, you must create the most magical dishes imaginable. « «Well, how about lickable wallpaper, a savoury Zoom lolly, a chocolate-covered iceberg, a golden egg and an edible graveyard? « offered the Chef. «It's a start, « said the Executives. «Oh, and once you have achieved the Quest, you must bring us proof, in the form of a Book. But not just any Book. We want tales of extravagant ingredients, of revolutionary techniques, of familiar kitchen appliances put to unfamiliar uses. We want to see what you see. Taste what you taste. In short, we want complete and unparalleled access to your fantastical world. «»

Until now, home cooking has remained stubbornly out of touch with technological development but Heston Blumenthal, the champion of the scientific kitchen, is set to change all that with his radical new book. With meticulous precision, he explains what the most effective techniques are and why they work. The first part of the book maps out the new techniques in 15 sections: 1) Taste and flavour 2) Seasoning and the five tastes 3) Stocks and infusing 4) Soups and purees 5) Brining, curing, marinating, macerating 6) Meat 7) Fish 8) Vegetables 9) Pasta, grains, pulses 10) Sauces, emulsions, thickening 11) Tarts and other doughs and pastries 12) Chocolate 13) Ice cream, sorbets, custards 14) Sous-vide cookery 15) Taking control of the kitchen In the second part, there are 150 specially chosen recipes. Here at last is the secret to irrefutably perfect fish and chips, as well as a few more unconventional dishes like salmon with liquorice, or lardy cake with whisky ice cream. Heston at Home will change the way you think about cooking forever — prepare for a culinary revolution!