Heathrow gets top chef's newest

Rob Higgs. The Knife for Heston Blumenthal. from rob higgs on Vimeo.

Rock star Brit chef Heston Blumenthal’s new restaurant, The Perfectionists’ Café, is slated to open this week at London's Heathrow airport, in a new "multi-million-pound" terminal called The Queen's Terminal. Travelers can expect food inspired by Blumenthal's TV shows and book series called "In Search of Perfection," though the chef hastens to explain in a press release that ""You cannot achieve perfection as it’s entirely subjective.”

So there's that. But he does go on to explain they used cement mixers and paint sprayers and unexplained things that led to "explosions along the way!" in the course of developing dishes. The menu will include some of "the UK's most popular dishes" and "favourites of the busy traveller, dishes that by their very nature are best cooked at speed."

To wit: pizzas from a wood-burning oven (presumably in Category 2), fish and chips (with a beer batter aided by a Leeds University scientist's study of "the science of crunch"), a burger of a physiologist-determined width, and an ice cream bar employing liquid nitrogen.

Above is the kinetic sculpture that will be used at the place's sign -- it's the basis for its logo, too -- called the Clockwork Knife.