Heston Blumenthal worked hard to find recipe for parents’ pride
The innovative chef’s toughest critics were his family.
Celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal has said praise from his parents was hard won despite his glittering career.
The Fat Duck proprietor said that the first time his father told him he loved him was just before he died in 2011, and that his mother was reluctant to congratulate him on his successes in cooking.
According to the Daily Mail, experimental chef Blumenthal said: “My dad only told me he loved me on his deathbed.
“It was only when I heard him say it that I thought, ‘That’s the first time you’ve ever said it.'”
Talking about his fourth published recipe book, 2008’s The Fat Duck Cookbook, Blumenthal said his mother did not share his excitement at its release.
“It [the hurt] got right in there so I had to fight.
“That was the drive — ‘I’m going to do better than anyone else.'”
“She turned around and looked at me and said, ‘I’m really proud of you.’
“At first I laughed because I was so shocked. I went, ‘You’ve never said that out loud,’ and we hugged.”
