Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the biggest saint of them all?
We were getting quite used to the fact that Jamie Oliver is saving Britain – if not the whole world – one school kid, chicken, pig and Rotherhamite at a time.
It turns out Jamie is not the only one with a big heart to match his giant name. It seems that there are others who are concerned about the diets of their countrymen, and with the backing of Britain’s Channel4, can do something about it.
Three-Michelin starred chef Heston Blumenthal is set to revamp that British institution – Little Chef.
Little Chef is the equivalent of South Africa’s roadside Wimpies. A road trip is not a road trip without at least one stop here.
But molecular gastronomy at the Wimpy?
Channel4 is hosting Big Chef Takes on Little Chef, thereby footing the bill for the “molecular gastronomy” chef to work his magic on the roadside café chain’s menu.
Ian Pegler, boss of the 50-year-old roadside chain, has decided that Blumenthal is the man to give the ailing chain a much-need boost of publicity along with his three-star Michelin speciality: poncy food.
No offence Heston, but would Little Chef customers want to order snail porridge and bacon and egg ice cream?
This would seem to be the question on everybody’s mind, but it seems like Blumenthal is determined to see this venture through. The new menu he has devised for the Little Chef in Popham has been a success story so far and many old favourites like bacon buttie and the Olympic breakfast still feature. The new menu reads more like freshly-squeezed OJ, granola, Scottish smoked salmon omelettes, kippers, coq au vin and braised ox cheeks.
So, if this venture comes to fruition, Britons might be putting the brakes on a super-sized Happy Meal and rather stopping for something halfway decent in one of the new Blumenthal-ised Little Chefs.
Would you want a Michelin-starred chef in charge of your padkos?