The Fat Duck is a fine dining restaurant in Bray, Berkshire, England, owned by the chef Heston Blumenthal.

The Fat Duck is known for its tasting menu featuring dishes such as nitro-scrambled egg and bacon ice cream, an Alice in Wonderland-inspired mock turtle soup involving a bouillon packet made up to look like a fob watch dissolved in tea, and a dish called Sound of the Sea which includes an audio element.

Blumenthal said that science had already begun to influence the cooking at this stage, as already on the menu were his triple-cooked chips, which were developed to stop the potato from going soft.

[4] Blumenthal worked with the physics professor Peter Barham of the University of Bristol, and developed a menu of dishes through experimentation such as slow-cooked lamb which avoids shocking the fibres in the meat and causing them to seize.

[6] In 2002, Blumenthal opened a second restaurant in Bray, the Riverside Brasserie, selling many of the Fat Duck's earlier dishes at reduced prices.

[11] That year, food and safety officers found "borderline" levels of listeria in the foie gras and expressed concern that "no core temperatures of the meat are taken".

[14] It seated 46 people for lunch and dinner six days a week, with an average spend of around £175 per head and an annual turnover of more than £4 million.

[15] On 27 February 2009, Blumenthal closed the Fat Duck temporarily after a number of customers reported feeling unwell at different times.

[19] The cause of the illness was later given by the Health Protection Agency as norovirus, which was thought to originate from oysters which had been harvested from beds contaminated with sewage.

[22] On 19 November 2012, Jorge Ivan Arango Herrera and Carl Magnus Lindgren, two senior members of staff, were killed on Chai Wan Road, Hong Kong, in a traffic accident when their taxi was hit by two buses.

On 31 March 2014, Blumenthal announced he would be closing the Fat Duck for renovations for six months and temporarily relocating it with its entire team to Crown Towers, Melbourne, Australia.

This temporary closure of the Bray location made the Fat Duck ineligible for assessment for the 2016 Michelin Guide, thus losing its three-starred status.

[29] Much of the menu is developed by experimentation: for example, the egg and bacon ice cream came about following Blumenthal investigating the principles of "flavour encapsulation".

[30] A research laboratory where Blumenthal and his team develop dishes is two doors away opposite the Hind's Head pub, which he also owns.

McGee's work in particular led him to question traditional cooking techniques and approaches which resulted in combinations which may at first appear unusual.

[3] Blumenthal incorporates psychology and the perception of diners into his dishes, explaining, "For example, eat sardine on toast sorbet for the first time, confusion will reign as the brain will be trying to tell the palate to expect a dessert and you will therefore be tasting more sweetness than actually exists.

[33] Dishes served include palate cleansers made of vodka and green tea, frozen in liquid nitrogen,[34] a snail porridge described by one food critic as "infamous",[29] and ice creams of both crab, and egg and bacon, each of which drew media attention.

[41] After the Fat Duck received its first Michelin star, David Fingleton visited it for The Spectator in 1999, and wrote that the experience was "beyond reproach; unsullied pleasure from start to finish".

He was initially hesitant, expecting tricks straight away, but was surprised to find a bowl of normal green olives on the table as he arrived.

He did not enjoy a mustard ice cream in a red cabbage gazpacho soup, but described the restaurant as "great" and gave it a score of 17 out of 20.

[43] In 2004, following the third Michelin star, Jan Moir of The Daily Telegraph gave it a negative review, saying that "while many of the flavours are politely interesting, the relentless pappy textures of mousses and foams and creams and poached meats really begins to grate".

"[56] Reviewing the Fat Duck for the Times in 2023, Tony Turnbull wrote that the menu had become more conventional, with better results: "By messing less with our brains, Blumenthal allows us to focus more on the complexities and multi-tiered flavour of the dishes, faultlessly executed by the head chef Edward Cooke.