Heston's Mission Impossible

22 February 2011

In this brand new series, Heston Blumenthal attempts to help four of Britain's biggest brands dramatically transform their food production - and maybe improve their profit margins too.

In each episode, Heston uses his maverick culinary genius to tackle the unique dilemmas that British Airways, the NHS, the Royal Navy and Cineworld Cinemas face in their kitchens.

Heston conducts outrageous and bizarre experiments in his quest to find solutions where other chefs have failed. As the companies are drawn into his world, staff are flabbergasted by his seemingly impossible ambitions.

But Heston's ultimate test comes in the toughest crucible of all - the real world, where customers will be his harshest critics.

Episode 1

The NHS's largest children's hospital, Alder Hey in Liverpool has a problem: the food. The children won't touch it, and their road to recovery is suffering as a result. Enter Heston Blumenthal, tasked with a real mission impossible....persuade hospital bosses and staff that processed fast food isn't the way forward, and get the kids to eat his new food creations- including protein packed worms on pizza.

It's not long before Heston realises what he's up against - hospital staff who are used to their way of working and reluctant to change, tight NHS budgets, and kids for whom mealtimes have become uninspiring. 

But that's nothing compared to the shock Heston experiences when visiting the hospital kitchen, only to discover that just a handful of the 14 chefs there actually cook food for the sick kids. Shockingly, the majority cook food which is tasty, varied and healthier for the staff restaurant, while the hospital's kids have to make do with processed and unappetising stodge.

Heston's solution is to make the kids' mealtimes fun again, and in doing so persuade them to eat some of the healthy things that kids need to get better. Cue Heston's ‘Bet You Can't Eat That' menu, featuring a ‘snot milkshake', ‘vomit soup', and ‘worms on pizza' - all including healthy ingredients disguised as fun.

But will the kids eat it? And even if they do, can Heston persuade hospital bosses to roll these changes out on a permanent basis?

Episode 2

Heston Blumenthal continues his quest to help four of Britain's biggest brands dramatically transform their food production and find solutions where other chefs have failed.

This week his mission impossible is to try to transform the food at one of the UK's biggest cinema chains, Cineworld.  His challenge: to inject fun and excitement into the movie experience by overhauling the dreary, predictable and expensive snacks on offer.

Heston believes that a visit to the cinema should be a multisensory experience which tickles smell and taste not just sound and vision. And he wants the food on the cinema menu to reflect the action on screen.

But Heston soon realises that with popcorn's enormous mark up, selling cinema snacks is all about profit margins rather than quality. He's determined to change that by using food to put the magic back into movie trips.

His first attempts end in disaster - notably the "edible sperm shake" designed to go with a film's sex scene - and fail to win over Cineworld bosses. So it's back to the drawing board and Heston decides to turn the cinema foyer into a fairground and produce a brand new range of snacks, all with a fairground theme and classic Heston twist. There are "inside out hotdogs", chewy marshmallow ice-cream, apple smoked candyfloss, and curried popcorn.

But will cinema bosses be able to make a profit from the revamped menu? And will Heston be able to get cinema staff to buy into his extraordinary ideas? And most importantly, how will the experiment go down with cinema goers?

Episode 3

Heston Blumenthal continues his quest to help four of Britain's biggest brands dramatically transform their food production and find solutions where other chefs have failed.

This week his mission impossible is to work with British Airways to revolutionize airline food - but with no kitchen, no pans, no sharp knives and no naked flames, Heston soon realizes that cooking gourmet food in a metal tube at 37,000 ft is no mean feat. 

The big problem, Heston discovers, is that meat and fish reheated in aircraft ovens end up overcooked and dried out, and vegetables get soggy.  Even worse, cabin pressure and low humidity mean that passengers' perception of taste at altitude is massively reduced.

With cabin crew Simon and Jackie by his side, Heston starts the experiment by getting rid of the reheating process.  Instead he's going to rip up the BA rule-book and use the existing aircraft ovens to cook salmon and steak from fresh on a flight to Washington.  The resulting fish is moist and the meat juicy - but the meal is nearly two hours late and the experiment causes total chaos in the galley.  

If cooking from fresh isn't the answer, Heston wonders if NOT cooking could be, and he develops a tray of delicious cold food specially designed to tickle all the senses and combat the effects of high altitude - a magical bento box including beetroot and orange jelly, smoked mackerel and pickled lemon salad, coconut tobacco and port wine gums.  But adding the final touches to food in the air again causes chaos in the galley and even though passengers love the food, the BA management insist cold food alone isn't going to work for them.

And Heston's got another problem. Independent airline caterers Gate Gourmet make all the meals for British Airways long-haul flights from Heathrow and if Heston is going to make a real change he's going to have to win over Gate Gourmet head chef Steve Walpole.  But Steve doesn't believe that the meals he prepares by the thousand on the ground taste any different in the air.  So Heston sets out to conduct several experiments to try and persuade him.

Along the way, Heston trains as a trolley dolly, experiments in an altitude chamber, and gets Steve, the BA bosses and even passengers to use a nasal douche.  But can Heston develop a menu that pleases all palates in these challenging conditions? And will BA bosses buy into his final plans?

Episode 4

Heston Blumenthal continues his quest to help four of Britain's best-known organisations dramatically transform their food production and find solutions where other chefs have failed.

In his last Mission Impossible, Heston is on board a nuclear powered Royal Navy submarine, HMS Turbulent, to shake up the sailors' food. 

It's not long before Heston realises he's got a big job on his hands: the men are out on patrol for 90 days at a time, and they're eating three stodgy meals a day - starting with a full English fry-up for breakfast.  And with so little opportunity for exercise on board, it's not a healthy diet - especially when the submariners' jobs require very high levels of concentration.

But how is Heston going to change it?  It's clear the men need brain food - but they love their stodgy comfort food. In a world devoid of fresh air and light, it's one of the only things they look forward to.  Plus Heston is up against a serious lack of storage space for food (fresh food runs out after just a couple of weeks) and worst of all a daily food budget of a mere £2.32 per man - the same budget prisoners are given.

Back on dry land, Heston researches the effects of food on the brain. He develops recipes with brain enhancing ingredients - blueberries, mackerel and dark chocolate - but also draws on some old naval traditions like burgoo, a porridge-based breakfast, and a portable soup to which he adds fried eel bones for texture and calcium.

Back on the sub, his first food roll-out goes down like a heavy submarine.  The sailors are unhappy and the Captain and the Executive Officer are getting worried about what Heston's up to.

Even worse, staying on budget is proving a real headache.  So for his second attempt Heston visits his fish supplier in Plymouth - but all he can afford is discarded cod's heads which he end up getting for free.  In place of the submariners' traditional Friday fish and chips he uses the cod's tongues and cheeks to create "tongue and cheek" scampi, accompanied by a nutrient rich quinoa salad.

But the Captain's not impressed.  He points out to Heston that the real challenge is not to solve just one meal but the problems they face on their 90 day missions - the limited storage space and lack of fresh and healthy food.  Heston and his development team have a big rethink and come up with a radical new idea - a cooking and storage technique, sous vide, that they use in Heston's restaurants to create the finest meals.

But it would mean a total revolution in the way the navy prepares its food.  Will Heston be able to persuade the Captain of HMS Turbulent that this is the way forward? And even more importantly, can he convince the navy catering bosses to leave their old methods behind?

In this brand new series, Heston Blumenthal attempts to help four of Britain's biggest brands dramatically transform their food production - and maybe improve their profit margins too.

In each episode, Heston uses his maverick culinary genius to tackle the unique dilemmas that British Airways, the NHS, the Royal Navy and Cineworld Cinemas face in their kitchens.

Heston conducts outrageous and bizarre experiments in his quest to find solutions where other chefs have failed. As the companies are drawn into his world, staff are flabbergasted by his seemingly impossible ambitions.

But Heston's ultimate test comes in the toughest crucible of all - the real world, where customers will be his harshest critics.

Episode 1

The NHS's largest children's hospital, Alder Hey in Liverpool has a problem: the food. The children won't touch it, and their road to recovery is suffering as a result. Enter Heston Blumenthal, tasked with a real mission impossible....persuade hospital bosses and staff that processed fast food isn't the way forward, and get the kids to eat his new food creations- including protein packed worms on pizza.

It's not long before Heston realises what he's up against - hospital staff who are used to their way of working and reluctant to change, tight NHS budgets, and kids for whom mealtimes have become uninspiring. 

But that's nothing compared to the shock Heston experiences when visiting the hospital kitchen, only to discover that just a handful of the 14 chefs there actually cook food for the sick kids. Shockingly, the majority cook food which is tasty, varied and healthier for the staff restaurant, while the hospital's kids have to make do with processed and unappetising stodge.

Heston's solution is to make the kids' mealtimes fun again, and in doing so persuade them to eat some of the healthy things that kids need to get better. Cue Heston's ‘Bet You Can't Eat That' menu, featuring a ‘snot milkshake', ‘vomit soup', and ‘worms on pizza' - all including healthy ingredients disguised as fun.

But will the kids eat it? And even if they do, can Heston persuade hospital bosses to roll these changes out on a permanent basis?

Episode 2

Heston Blumenthal continues his quest to help four of Britain's biggest brands dramatically transform their food production and find solutions where other chefs have failed.

This week his mission impossible is to try to transform the food at one of the UK's biggest cinema chains, Cineworld.  His challenge: to inject fun and excitement into the movie experience by overhauling the dreary, predictable and expensive snacks on offer.

Heston believes that a visit to the cinema should be a multisensory experience which tickles smell and taste not just sound and vision. And he wants the food on the cinema menu to reflect the action on screen.

But Heston soon realises that with popcorn's enormous mark up, selling cinema snacks is all about profit margins rather than quality. He's determined to change that by using food to put the magic back into movie trips.

His first attempts end in disaster - notably the "edible sperm shake" designed to go with a film's sex scene - and fail to win over Cineworld bosses. So it's back to the drawing board and Heston decides to turn the cinema foyer into a fairground and produce a brand new range of snacks, all with a fairground theme and classic Heston twist. There are "inside out hotdogs", chewy marshmallow ice-cream, apple smoked candyfloss, and curried popcorn.

But will cinema bosses be able to make a profit from the revamped menu? And will Heston be able to get cinema staff to buy into his extraordinary ideas? And most importantly, how will the experiment go down with cinema goers?

Episode 3

Heston Blumenthal continues his quest to help four of Britain's biggest brands dramatically transform their food production and find solutions where other chefs have failed.

This week his mission impossible is to work with British Airways to revolutionize airline food - but with no kitchen, no pans, no sharp knives and no naked flames, Heston soon realizes that cooking gourmet food in a metal tube at 37,000 ft is no mean feat. 

The big problem, Heston discovers, is that meat and fish reheated in aircraft ovens end up overcooked and dried out, and vegetables get soggy.  Even worse, cabin pressure and low humidity mean that passengers' perception of taste at altitude is massively reduced.

With cabin crew Simon and Jackie by his side, Heston starts the experiment by getting rid of the reheating process.  Instead he's going to rip up the BA rule-book and use the existing aircraft ovens to cook salmon and steak from fresh on a flight to Washington.  The resulting fish is moist and the meat juicy - but the meal is nearly two hours late and the experiment causes total chaos in the galley.  

If cooking from fresh isn't the answer, Heston wonders if NOT cooking could be, and he develops a tray of delicious cold food specially designed to tickle all the senses and combat the effects of high altitude - a magical bento box including beetroot and orange jelly, smoked mackerel and pickled lemon salad, coconut tobacco and port wine gums.  But adding the final touches to food in the air again causes chaos in the galley and even though passengers love the food, the BA management insist cold food alone isn't going to work for them.

And Heston's got another problem. Independent airline caterers Gate Gourmet make all the meals for British Airways long-haul flights from Heathrow and if Heston is going to make a real change he's going to have to win over Gate Gourmet head chef Steve Walpole.  But Steve doesn't believe that the meals he prepares by the thousand on the ground taste any different in the air.  So Heston sets out to conduct several experiments to try and persuade him.

Along the way, Heston trains as a trolley dolly, experiments in an altitude chamber, and gets Steve, the BA bosses and even passengers to use a nasal douche.  But can Heston develop a menu that pleases all palates in these challenging conditions? And will BA bosses buy into his final plans?

Episode 4

Heston Blumenthal continues his quest to help four of Britain's best-known organisations dramatically transform their food production and find solutions where other chefs have failed.

In his last Mission Impossible, Heston is on board a nuclear powered Royal Navy submarine, HMS Turbulent, to shake up the sailors' food. 

It's not long before Heston realises he's got a big job on his hands: the men are out on patrol for 90 days at a time, and they're eating three stodgy meals a day - starting with a full English fry-up for breakfast.  And with so little opportunity for exercise on board, it's not a healthy diet - especially when the submariners' jobs require very high levels of concentration.

But how is Heston going to change it?  It's clear the men need brain food - but they love their stodgy comfort food. In a world devoid of fresh air and light, it's one of the only things they look forward to.  Plus Heston is up against a serious lack of storage space for food (fresh food runs out after just a couple of weeks) and worst of all a daily food budget of a mere £2.32 per man - the same budget prisoners are given.

Back on dry land, Heston researches the effects of food on the brain. He develops recipes with brain enhancing ingredients - blueberries, mackerel and dark chocolate - but also draws on some old naval traditions like burgoo, a porridge-based breakfast, and a portable soup to which he adds fried eel bones for texture and calcium.

Back on the sub, his first food roll-out goes down like a heavy submarine.  The sailors are unhappy and the Captain and the Executive Officer are getting worried about what Heston's up to.

Even worse, staying on budget is proving a real headache.  So for his second attempt Heston visits his fish supplier in Plymouth - but all he can afford is discarded cod's heads which he end up getting for free.  In place of the submariners' traditional Friday fish and chips he uses the cod's tongues and cheeks to create "tongue and cheek" scampi, accompanied by a nutrient rich quinoa salad.

But the Captain's not impressed.  He points out to Heston that the real challenge is not to solve just one meal but the problems they face on their 90 day missions - the limited storage space and lack of fresh and healthy food.  Heston and his development team have a big rethink and come up with a radical new idea - a cooking and storage technique, sous vide, that they use in Heston's restaurants to create the finest meals.

But it would mean a total revolution in the way the navy prepares its food.  Will Heston be able to persuade the Captain of HMS Turbulent that this is the way forward? And even more importantly, can he convince the navy catering bosses to leave their old methods behind?

In this brand new series, Heston Blumenthal attempts to help four of Britain's biggest brands dramatically transform their food production - and maybe improve their profit margins too.

In each episode, Heston uses his maverick culinary genius to tackle the unique dilemmas that British Airways, the NHS, the Royal Navy and Cineworld Cinemas face in their kitchens.

Heston conducts outrageous and bizarre experiments in his quest to find solutions where other chefs have failed. As the companies are drawn into his world, staff are flabbergasted by his seemingly impossible ambitions.

But Heston's ultimate test comes in the toughest crucible of all - the real world, where customers will be his harshest critics.

Episode 1

The NHS's largest children's hospital, Alder Hey in Liverpool has a problem: the food. The children won't touch it, and their road to recovery is suffering as a result. Enter Heston Blumenthal, tasked with a real mission impossible....persuade hospital bosses and staff that processed fast food isn't the way forward, and get the kids to eat his new food creations- including protein packed worms on pizza.

It's not long before Heston realises what he's up against - hospital staff who are used to their way of working and reluctant to change, tight NHS budgets, and kids for whom mealtimes have become uninspiring. 

But that's nothing compared to the shock Heston experiences when visiting the hospital kitchen, only to discover that just a handful of the 14 chefs there actually cook food for the sick kids. Shockingly, the majority cook food which is tasty, varied and healthier for the staff restaurant, while the hospital's kids have to make do with processed and unappetising stodge.

Heston's solution is to make the kids' mealtimes fun again, and in doing so persuade them to eat some of the healthy things that kids need to get better. Cue Heston's ‘Bet You Can't Eat That' menu, featuring a ‘snot milkshake', ‘vomit soup', and ‘worms on pizza' - all including healthy ingredients disguised as fun.

But will the kids eat it? And even if they do, can Heston persuade hospital bosses to roll these changes out on a permanent basis?

Episode 2

Heston Blumenthal continues his quest to help four of Britain's biggest brands dramatically transform their food production and find solutions where other chefs have failed.

This week his mission impossible is to try to transform the food at one of the UK's biggest cinema chains, Cineworld.  His challenge: to inject fun and excitement into the movie experience by overhauling the dreary, predictable and expensive snacks on offer.

Heston believes that a visit to the cinema should be a multisensory experience which tickles smell and taste not just sound and vision. And he wants the food on the cinema menu to reflect the action on screen.

But Heston soon realises that with popcorn's enormous mark up, selling cinema snacks is all about profit margins rather than quality. He's determined to change that by using food to put the magic back into movie trips.

His first attempts end in disaster - notably the "edible sperm shake" designed to go with a film's sex scene - and fail to win over Cineworld bosses. So it's back to the drawing board and Heston decides to turn the cinema foyer into a fairground and produce a brand new range of snacks, all with a fairground theme and classic Heston twist. There are "inside out hotdogs", chewy marshmallow ice-cream, apple smoked candyfloss, and curried popcorn.

But will cinema bosses be able to make a profit from the revamped menu? And will Heston be able to get cinema staff to buy into his extraordinary ideas? And most importantly, how will the experiment go down with cinema goers?

Episode 3

Heston Blumenthal continues his quest to help four of Britain's biggest brands dramatically transform their food production and find solutions where other chefs have failed.

This week his mission impossible is to work with British Airways to revolutionize airline food - but with no kitchen, no pans, no sharp knives and no naked flames, Heston soon realizes that cooking gourmet food in a metal tube at 37,000 ft is no mean feat. 

The big problem, Heston discovers, is that meat and fish reheated in aircraft ovens end up overcooked and dried out, and vegetables get soggy.  Even worse, cabin pressure and low humidity mean that passengers' perception of taste at altitude is massively reduced.

With cabin crew Simon and Jackie by his side, Heston starts the experiment by getting rid of the reheating process.  Instead he's going to rip up the BA rule-book and use the existing aircraft ovens to cook salmon and steak from fresh on a flight to Washington.  The resulting fish is moist and the meat juicy - but the meal is nearly two hours late and the experiment causes total chaos in the galley.  

If cooking from fresh isn't the answer, Heston wonders if NOT cooking could be, and he develops a tray of delicious cold food specially designed to tickle all the senses and combat the effects of high altitude - a magical bento box including beetroot and orange jelly, smoked mackerel and pickled lemon salad, coconut tobacco and port wine gums.  But adding the final touches to food in the air again causes chaos in the galley and even though passengers love the food, the BA management insist cold food alone isn't going to work for them.

And Heston's got another problem. Independent airline caterers Gate Gourmet make all the meals for British Airways long-haul flights from Heathrow and if Heston is going to make a real change he's going to have to win over Gate Gourmet head chef Steve Walpole.  But Steve doesn't believe that the meals he prepares by the thousand on the ground taste any different in the air.  So Heston sets out to conduct several experiments to try and persuade him.

Along the way, Heston trains as a trolley dolly, experiments in an altitude chamber, and gets Steve, the BA bosses and even passengers to use a nasal douche.  But can Heston develop a menu that pleases all palates in these challenging conditions? And will BA bosses buy into his final plans?

Episode 4

Heston Blumenthal continues his quest to help four of Britain's best-known organisations dramatically transform their food production and find solutions where other chefs have failed.

In his last Mission Impossible, Heston is on board a nuclear powered Royal Navy submarine, HMS Turbulent, to shake up the sailors' food. 

It's not long before Heston realises he's got a big job on his hands: the men are out on patrol for 90 days at a time, and they're eating three stodgy meals a day - starting with a full English fry-up for breakfast.  And with so little opportunity for exercise on board, it's not a healthy diet - especially when the submariners' jobs require very high levels of concentration.

But how is Heston going to change it?  It's clear the men need brain food - but they love their stodgy comfort food. In a world devoid of fresh air and light, it's one of the only things they look forward to.  Plus Heston is up against a serious lack of storage space for food (fresh food runs out after just a couple of weeks) and worst of all a daily food budget of a mere £2.32 per man - the same budget prisoners are given.

Back on dry land, Heston researches the effects of food on the brain. He develops recipes with brain enhancing ingredients - blueberries, mackerel and dark chocolate - but also draws on some old naval traditions like burgoo, a porridge-based breakfast, and a portable soup to which he adds fried eel bones for texture and calcium.

Back on the sub, his first food roll-out goes down like a heavy submarine.  The sailors are unhappy and the Captain and the Executive Officer are getting worried about what Heston's up to.

Even worse, staying on budget is proving a real headache.  So for his second attempt Heston visits his fish supplier in Plymouth - but all he can afford is discarded cod's heads which he end up getting for free.  In place of the submariners' traditional Friday fish and chips he uses the cod's tongues and cheeks to create "tongue and cheek" scampi, accompanied by a nutrient rich quinoa salad.

But the Captain's not impressed.  He points out to Heston that the real challenge is not to solve just one meal but the problems they face on their 90 day missions - the limited storage space and lack of fresh and healthy food.  Heston and his development team have a big rethink and come up with a radical new idea - a cooking and storage technique, sous vide, that they use in Heston's restaurants to create the finest meals.

But it would mean a total revolution in the way the navy prepares its food.  Will Heston be able to persuade the Captain of HMS Turbulent that this is the way forward? And even more importantly, can he convince the navy catering bosses to leave their old methods behind?