Explore popular quotes and sayings by an English chef Heston Blumenthal.
Last updated on April 14, 2025.
Heston Marc Blumenthal is a British celebrity chef, TV personality and food writer. Blumenthal is regarded as a pioneer of multi-sensory cooking, food pairing and flavour encapsulation. He came to public attention with unusual recipes, such as bacon-and-egg ice cream and snail porridge. His recipes for triple-cooked chips and soft-centred Scotch eggs have been widely imitated. He has advocated a scientific approach to cooking, for which he has been awarded honorary degrees from Reading, Bristol and London universities and made an honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
You need to do the work to bring the money in, but not compromise standards.
I'm not scared of anything in particular, but I am motivated by a fear of failure as opposed to a need to succeed.
I was determined that if I failed it wouldn't be due to lack of effort.
What gets me excited is the original principle.
I tend to take negative comments to heart.
I still love doing what I do, and I'm really lucky to get up in the morning and want to go to work.
I have this desire to keep improving, so I find fault.
Television forces people to be larger than life. I would be too shy.
I would try doing a dish 30 different ways.
Being branded number one restaurant in the world is actually very humbling.
We sunk everything into it. It came close to going under several times.
You think about some of the most memorable meals you've ever had; the food will be good but it will often be about locating a mental memory and taste is inexorably linked to all the other senses and memory, so ultimately it is all about taste.
Now my complaint is there are only 18 hours to work in a day.
A lot of country pubs will receive Michelin stars.
If it doesn't taste good it doesn't go on the menu.
There are so many issues in our oceans - like the near extinction of blue fin tuna - that should be taken more seriously worldwide.
And I like asking questions, to keep learning; people with big egos might not want to look unsure.
It was quite a challenge to make people eat crab ice cream.
It was not easy with a newborn, asking your wife to give up the family home and your security.
I've got around 400 cookbooks.
To me, food is as much about the moment, the occasion, the location and the company as it is about the taste.
At home I've got 1,500 cook books and the spines have all gone, the pages are all torn - it's chaos.
I haven't raised my voice for eight to 10 years in the kitchen. And I won't have anybody shouting. If I hear of anybody having a go at anyone else, they'll get disciplined.
You know how sad your life is when you know the release date of DVDs.
As we get older, we tend to become more risk averse because we tend to find reasons why things won't work. When you are a kid, you think everything is possible, and I think with creativity it is so important to keep that naivety.
I write and chop with my left hand and do everything else, including eating with a knife, with my right.
I worked 120 hours a week for eight years. That's 20 to 22 hours a day every day and one week I only got 15 hours sleep.
No, when I worked as an accountant I was falling asleep waiting for 5 o'clock.
Development is where my heart is focused because eating is the only thing that we do that involves all the senses. We eat with our eyes and our ears and our noses.
This kitchen is completely calm. Some of the old-fashioned chefs - they become kings in their kitchen, they've got to be called chef. But I don't care if someone calls me chef or Heston, it really doesn't bother me.
I was born in the '60s and grew up in the '70s - not exactly the best decade for food in British history. It was horrendous. It was a time when, as a nation, we excelled in art and music and acting and photography and fashion - all creative skills... all apart from cooking.
But most is all to do with work. There are aspects of work that are enjoyable, that you could call a hobby.
We were saving, saving, saving then going to France and blowing the money eating. She was a nurse and had never experienced fine dining but she loved it, too. Our mates thought it absurd.
Take note of what's around you and maximise sensory pleasure.
If it doesn't taste good it doesn't go on the menu