Fat Duck placement chef adopts techniques

Aaron Craig, the North Yorkshire chef who almost missed the once-in-a-lifetime chance to work with Heston Blumenthal after a sponsorship offer fell through, has successfully completed his stage at The Fat Duck.

Craig, head chef at Seasons​ restaurant in Richmond, North Yorkshire, spent a month working in Blumenthal`s Bray restaurant after Alliance Insurance Management answered a last minute appeal to fund his accommodation.

The 30-year-old has now returned to his full time job and is looking at transferring some of the skills he`s learned to his own kitchen.

“I’ve realised that I tend to over complicate dishes," he said. "Heston’s recipes are complicated but the actual dish, the flavours on the plate, are actually very logical and straight forward.

"I’m going to look at my own menu and the mixture of flavours. I’ll certainly adopt some of his more straight forward techniques. Sous-vide, especially, is something that I’ve never tried before, if you’ve got the time there’s not much that can go wrong. I’m also going to try aerated chocolate using a syphon. Both are simple techniques but give fantastic results.”

One aspect of his stage that Craig won`t be forgetting in a hurry is the preparation of the snails for one of the dishes on the tasting menu.

"There were 3,000 of them, for the famous porridge dish. You have to remove a tiny little hood - it took me a whole afternoon."

Hundreds of chefs apply for an unpaid placement at the Fat Duck each year, but only a handful are offered one.

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