HTLS 2019: Chef Heston Blumenthal on personalisation of food, mindfulness and more

Chef Heston Blumenthal spoke to celebrity chef Sarah Todd about experimenting with food, mindfulness and the personalisation of food at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit’s 17th edition on Friday. The theme for this year’s summit is “Conversations for a better tomorrow” and shall see political leaders, corporate heads and torchbearers from various fields debate the topic.

“Questioning everything has led me to a lot of discoveries. And I think we all should do that. Picasso said we are all born artists; the problem is whether we can remain artists once we grow up,” said Blumenthal, who is a pioneer of multi-sensory cooking.

“What has happened is that we are becoming more fearful of being part of the groups we have formed. We are all connected on social media, but not so much in real life,” Blumenthal added.

Blumenthal, who admitted that he is a big fan of the spiritual leader Sadhguru, also spoke at length about why and how we should be more mindful and our relationship with food. “We eat too much food, if were more mindful, we will eat less. Next time you have red wine, picture someone who fills you with happiness and have a sip. Then picture someone who fills you with hate and gave another sip. It tastes completely different,” he said.

Blumenthal also spoke about technology and how we are increasingly getting more distracted in today’s world.

“The advertising industry has found subtle ways of benefitting from us, when you’re reading your kindle, your kindle is reading you. We’re too distracted, you might be talking about an open heart surgery with someone, and they would turn around and ask you if you saw a certain TV show last night,” Blumenthal explained.

He also mentioned how his restaurants personalise the meals, just like the emotion felt at the end of the Ratatouille (2007).