Heston's revolutionary idea transforms Navy life

 It was full speed ahead last night for Heston as he triumphed in coming up with alternative healthy meals for the navy’s sub-mariners aboard HMS Turbulent.

The three star Michelin chef refused to be beaten in his challenge to convince the men to swap their stodgy, obesity fuelled dishes for meals containing brain boosting ingredients such as fish, high in Omega 3, fruit, vegetables and dark chocolate. But with a shoestring budget of £2.34 a day per person, the same as in prison, limited storage space onboard and a duration of 90 days at sea, it was his most challenging task yet.

Heston’s first attempt at a new dish was trialled with the sub-mariners WAGS, but mackerel smoked with hay and blueberries didn’t tantalise their taste buds.

In desperation, the chef looked to the past for inspiration and found a copy of Nelson’s Navy Classics recipe book, from which he took dishes ‘Portable Soup’ and ‘Bugoo’, porridge, and added his own twist, orange juice, green tea and blueberries to the porridge and tuna, eel bones and seaweed to the soup. But even the look of the dishes were enough to put the men off. ‘It’s all about breaking habits of a lifetime’, said Heston. ‘Some guys have been eating this fatty food for 20 years.’ The submarine drops Heston back onto land.

In his next attempt, he tries to create a healthy fish supper for the men, most of whom look forward to fish and chip Friday’s onboard. However the price of fish is way over his budget. No problem as the fishmonger offers him fish heads and guts for free. ‘Tongue in Cheek’ scampi with quinoa and blueberries is born. And yes the men enjoy it, but the sub’s commander tells Heston there’s no way the fish can be kept for 90 days.

Then the chef has a lightbulb moment, and tries the French technique of vacuum packing cooked food that can be frozen and more importantly takes up less than half the space than the fresh ingredients did. He wins around the navy’s catering head of training, but his real test is to win around the men and their commander.

Using the vacuum packed ingredients he creates a chilli with tortillas and salsa. For pudding, a chocolate coated blueberry flavoured torpedo ice lolly, It’s thumbs up from the men and the commander, who is so impressed he contacts HQ about rolling out the method across the whole of the navy and maybe the army. Result.

Heston waves his magic wand once again.