Heston's Feasts The man who makes food explode

Date Published:

16/03/2009

Dr Andrea Sella from University College London created the explosive cotton that made Heston's Tudor feast go with a bang

How excited was Heston about creating explosive food?

Heston is a real enthusiast and has an intuitive understanding of how food works - that it is not just about taste, but about texture and presentation; the whole range of sensory experiences. Heston came to the lab armed with some simple, but key, questions. We then tried a few things out. I think enthusiasm is an understatement - he really got into the swing of things, as did the crew. He's fun to work with.

What's the safest way to add that sort of impressive element to home cooking?

The safest way is to cook simply but with enthusiasm and then to present fabulous tasting food with joy. If you start to experiment there are amazing visual effects you can create - think of the sculpture you can do with pulled sugar or with meringue. But with a little imagination you can play with many physical phenomena to enhance the appearance or mouth-feel of food - the formation of bubbles, fluorescence, and of course a simple flambé. Your soirée will be particularly memorable for you and your guests if you actually manage to set fire to your dining room.

Do you create many other explosive ingredients for food?

I don't create them. Many of them are already there. On a basic level, food is a compact store of chemical energy - rather like petrol. The average human burns fuel at a rate of about 150W. If you want to do something more spectacular, what you need to do is to work out how to release that energy faster - increasing the power. Try lighting a digestive biscuit and it's a bit disappointing. But you'd be astonished to see what happens after you soak it in liquid oxygen... NOT something I recommend anyone doing in their sitting room.

Have you ever lost your eyebrows in an explosion?

I've never lost them completely, but I've certainly singed them a couple of times. Many years ago, when I was a student, I put a match into an oven to light it, not realising that one of my room mates had been trying to light it for the previous 10 minutes. There was an incredible 'whoomph' sound and my hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes went all short and curly…

Do you feel like a 'mad scientist'?

No, not at all. But I do think that the unexpected always makes people sit up and notice. So doing something slightly silly, or apparently 'mad' things, is a good way to get people to think about how wonderful the world around us is.

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