Heston Blumenthal's Little Chef menu to go nationwide

Little Chef has announced a nationwide roll out of the menu created by celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal.

 

Blumenthal's revamped menu, which he created during the Channel 4 documentary Big Chef Little Chef, has been trialled at the Little Chef branch in Popham, Hampshire, for more than six months.

 

The menu, which includes dishes such as braised ox cheeks, coq au vin and Hereford steak and Abbot Ale pie, has been well received by truck drivers and travelling salesman according to Little Chef managing director Ian Pegler.

 

The company has now taken the decision in principle to replace its regular menu with Blumenthal's in all its 175 restaurants across the UK.

 

"We are looking at a roll-out programme. First of all we will trial it in other parts of the country," Pegler told the Daily Telegraph.

 

Separately, Blumenthal said the report into the outbreak of sickness at his three-Michelin-starred Fat Duck restaurant in Berkshire is to be published in the next two weeks.

 

Blumenthal was forced to shut the iconic restaurant in the village of Bray for two weeks earlier this year, after up to 40 diners were afflicted with a mystery illness resulting in vomiting and diarrhoea. Following media coverage of the outbreak, the number of potential cases leapt to 400.

 

Shortly after the reopening of the Fat Duck in March, Blumenthal said the cause of the health scare may have been the highly infectious norovirus.

 

He now said he expects the report into the outbreak to be published within the next fortnight, adding that the swine flu panic had delayed the Health Protection Agency's report.

 

Heston Blumenthal reveals the challenge of revitalising Little Chef >>

 

Norovirus may have closed Fat Duck, says Blumenthal >>

 

The Fat Duck: Business as usual after recent food scare? >>

 

Quaglino's part of investigation after death of diner >>

 

By Kerstin Kühn

 

E-mail your comments to Kerstin Kuhn here.

 

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