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.

Heston to the rescue- his creation- a seaweed shepherds pie

The words nice and plane food just don’t go together. I can’t recall enjoying a meal onboard a flight, whereas I could list the number of bad dishes served to me on a nine hour plus flight, as if that wasn’t torture enough.

But if anyone can improve plane food then Heston can, as he proved on last night’s Mission Impossible on CH4, oh if only there was taste-a-vision.

His first hurdle was to get head chef Steve from catering company Gateway on onboard, who cooks the food before it is dispatched onto an aeroplane where they heat the meals up. Perhaps not the best decision then to phase him out and suggest cooking meals from scratch on a plane?

However Heston’s ambitious salt soaked salmon and parsley crusted steak just didn’t cut it. A lack of space in the plane’s galley kitchen, no sharp instruments and primitive ovens with two temperatures, low and high, left business class passengers waiting an hour longer for their food.

Back to the drawing board. Heston then explored how the change in altitude and dry atmosphere affects taste buds. Steve wasn't convinced.

Round two- a bento box, a cold menu of smoked mackerel with lemon, green tea and lime gum, wine gums made from real wine, gazpacho and beetroot and orange jellies- designed to fool the sense with the orange flavoured one coloured purple and vice versa. His task to serve the meal, which comes with a nasal douche and introductory video, on a night flight with only 40 mins before lights out.

The passengers loved the food, despite delays, but the BA tasting panel weren't so sure, the nasal douche definitely wouldn’t work they say.

For his final attempt, Heston continues to try to win Steve round to his way of thinking and takes him to a research unit with an altitude room for a tasting session to prove food really does taste different at thousands of feet above ground level. Steve is given five tastes including salt and sweet. At altitude his taste is reduced by half, but two tastes remain the same savoury and emami.

A breakthrough? So Heston creates a shepherd’s pie using emami rich products, soy sauce, seaweed, Worcestershire sauce and horseradish. ‘It taste good on the ground’, says Steve, ‘but I’m worried it’s too many flavours.’ Passenger’s feedback prove him wrong. ‘It tastes like home-mad’, says one woman. ‘A tasty dish’, agree the BA panel.

At last a solution, but Heston says there is still a long way to go.

Next week the Michelin starred chef tackles the food served to the navy submarine crews.

Must see TV

Next Tuesday Heston continues his Mission Impossible onboard a British Airways flight. His aim to revolutionise airline food, but with no kitchen, no pans, sharp knives or naked flames, Heston soon realises that cooking gourmet food in a metal tube at 37,000 ft might be tricky. Can the Michelin star chef develop a menu that pleases all palates and get BA bosses to buy into his final plan?  CH4 @ 9pm.

What I watched last night- Heston's Mission Impossible

Heston spoke for us all in saying hospital food is bland, uninteresting and lacks nutritional value. Before you even taste a hospital meal you’re put off by the smell.

In the first episode of Heston’s Misson Impossible (CH4 at 9pm) last night, the chef aimed to put the fun back into food for the patients of Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool. Not an easy task with a strict budget of £4 per person, per day, and wards of nutritionally starved, fussy eaters undergoing medical treatment. ‘It’s not like a restaurant where they choose to come here’, acknowledged Heston.

Up against catering manager Geoff, Heston went about swapping ‘homemade’ meals of potato waffles, baked beans and pizza for a ‘Bet You Can’t Eat That’ menu, with worm topped pizzas, eyeballs- stuffed tomatoes, snot shakes- apple and kiwi smoothies, and vomit soup-chicken and vegetable broth. If given the green light by Geoff he would present the new dishes to the hospital board in the hope to roll them out across the wards.

The first hurdle he faced was the hospital’s chefs, a team of six, just two of which cook meals for the children, the rest make dishes for staff and Alder Hey’s canteen- the money maker.

Heston with Michael and the new dishes (CH4)

He won the stone faced chefs over by his use of themed foods and the children’s reaction to them, before letting them loose to create their own lunchtime concoctions. Sceptic Elaine made flying saucer sarnies, which to her surprise went down a treat with the kids. But it took a little more convincing to persuade them to give the gruesome dinner menu a go. Although in the end even Geoff came round to Heston’s way of thinking despite the meals being over budget and against health and safety regulations with the use of dry ice, old dog new tricks?

Next was the hospital board, who agreed to trial the dinners with the children, after the lunch-time menu proved such a hit and many plates came back empty. And as all good stories go, the children loved the new dishes, after initial doubt, with the hospital’s full time resident 17- year-old Michael, who has been in and out of the ward since he was three days old with spina bifida, giving the Michelin starred chef the thumbs up.