English celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal will give Melbourne a taste of The Fat Duck for six months but leave the city with Dinner by Heston Blumenthal.
The three Michelin star restaurant The Fat Duck will temporarily be moved to Crown in Melbourne and open in February.
"The plan is to build Dinner first and then build The (Fat) Duck inside Dinner," he says.
"You will be sitting inside the Dinner restaurant but eating Fat Duck food."
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal will seat around 120 people and be based on the restaurant with same name in London's Mandarin Oriental at Hyde Park.
It will be the celebrity chef's first international restaurant and diners can look forward to dishes like spit roasted pineapples, short ribs and desserts from a liquid nitrogen icecream trolley.
"They are very technically top end dishes served in a relaxed way," Blumenthal says.
"I want the restaurant to have an energy and a buzz to it ... I am hoping it will really suit the culture here."
He says he is also hoping to add some dishes with a uniquely Australian connection to the Dinner by Heston Blumenthal Melbourne menu.
Blumenthal says he would be very interested in opening restaurants in other Australian cities with the Crown Resorts group in coming years should the opportunity arise.
Blumenthal has been visiting Australia for several years and has plenty of Australian diners at The Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire.
"I know that of all the fantastic nationalities we have if you took the one that's the most, you know, (rubbing his hands together) like this, and open minded, it's Australians.
"I have never seen such a big food explosion like has happened in Australia in the last five years.
"People are really interested and excited to try new stuff."
Blumenthal told his staff on Monday morning they would be relocating to Australia for six months.
First there was silence and then cheers, he says.
"That's the best result I've ever had, we've got a very excited team." Dinner by Heston Blumenthal in London was temporarily closed in February after an outbreak of the same vomiting virus that forced the closure of The Fat Duck five years ago.
Blumenthal shut The Fat Duck restaurant in 2009 after it was hit by an outbreak of novovirus that infected over 500 people.
THE FAT DUCK
- Bookings for The Fat Duck in Melbourne are expected to open from September:
- The Melbourne menu to be similar to The Fat Duck in the UK
- Fat Duck 14-course tasting menu takes 3.5 hours
- Dishes include Mad Hatter's Tea Party, Mock Turtle Soup, Snail Porridge and Salmon Poached In A Liquorice Gel
- Degustation costs STG195 ($A353.29)
