Bloomsbury signs first Heston Blumenthal book in 10 years

Bloomsbury has scooped a new book from chef Heston Blumenthal, his first with the publisher in 10 years. 

Rowan Yapp, head of Bloomsbury Lifestyle, acquired world rights in all languages to Is This a Cookbook? Adventures in the Kitchen from Michael Foster. It will publish on 13th October. 

Blumenthal is the author of seven cookbooks, including Heston at Home, The Big Fat Duck Cookbook and Historical Heston, all published by Bloomsbury.  

The publisher said the new book is “full of Heston’s typically brilliant, delicious and inventive recipes”. These include green gazpacho, beetroot and pea salad, quinoa with vegetables, Moroccan pasties, hemp panna cotta, banana and parsley smoothie, tomato and coffee muffins, parsnip granola, rice ice cream, sherry vinegar posset, cricket ketchup and thyme and orange kombucha, not forgetting popcorn chicken with real popcorn.  

“Every recipe is simple, straightforward and totally do-able. This is Heston at his most accessible,” the publisher said. Each of the 70 recipes is also accompanied by his thoughts, stories, insights and hacks, “turning each cooking session into a journey that’ll excite and inspire and reveal a whole world of culinary possibilities and fresh perspectives”.  

Yapp said: “This is the most unique and creative cookbook I have been lucky enough to work on. It met my expectations of what a Heston book could involve, and some. I admire Heston for many things and in particular that he is a lifelong learner always pushing at ‘what next’. This book, 10 years in the making, is a thrilling next stop on the journey.” 

Blumenthal added: “Is this a cookbook? Well, this is definitely a version of me you haven’t seen before. Heston 2.0, if you like. Of course, there are still plenty of cooking hints, tips, hacks, insights and stories, as you’d expect. But in this book I’ve put aside my perfectionism to present a set of deliciously simple recipes in a way that’ll hopefully encourage everyone to get in the kitchen and have an adventure.  

“It’s an approach I call Quantum Gastronomy. Quantum physics tells us that many possible perspectives are open to us, and I figured this could equally be applied to cuisine. It’s all too easy, when we cook, to get bogged down in instructions and precision and a fear of getting things wrong – all the (human) doing involved in a recipe. Why not switch perspective? Why not take the pressure off and just enjoy what cooking has to offer? The sights, sounds, smells, memories, emotions it evokes – all the pleasures of (human) being in the kitchen. Who knows, maybe changing perspective will change the way you cook, or even your whole relationship with food. That’s what this book is all about. It’s a whole new way of looking at cooking – which is why this is a cookbook that looks like no other.”